how long is to long.

[hawkeye]

hi guys,i was going to ask your advice on how long between workouts 4 a muscle group is 2 long,but reading your replies 2 badcar just now has pretty much answered that 4 me.i am still abit low on energy after getting over the virus & my cold,so i am training each muscle group once every 9 days ,i do 1 day on 1 day off.

i feel like i should be doing more,but i am enjoying working out this way.

because i do one body part per workout i can hit it really hard.

[jono]

if you're making progress keep doing what you're doing. if you're NOT making progress, then look to make changes

[Pseudonym]

So what does your workout split look like right now?

You are probably hitting some muscles twice (eg, biceps get a secondary hit on back day), so if you structure your split carefully, you could get the benefit of gving the muscle two workouts per split, while not actually doing any more work...

Let me know if that doesn't make sense - it's getting late, and I've been sitting in front of this machine too long!

[Marcus]

I think while you are still recovering from your virus you just need to do what your body tells you. At least you are still working the muscle.

Like the others, if you are making progress then I would stick with what you are doing.

[Growth]

Personally i reckon you should increase the frequency that you train each muscle. If you have gotten over your illness then you should start picking it back up. Even the largest muscle groups only need at the most 72 hours to recover enough for the muscle to be stimulated again. However to completely heal from a workout i belive takes around 5 days. But like others have said, if its working then why change.

[hawkeye]

at the moment i'm doing:

1 chest

2 off

3 back

4 off

5 shoulders

6 off

7 legs

8 arms

9 off.

3-4 ex per bodypart ,3 sets per ex & 6-10 reps.

so i would be hitting some bodyparts more than once over 9 days.

[Pseudonym]

I'd wouldn't suggest staying on this as a permanent split, but it certainly while give you heaps of rest time, which is good while you're under the weather.

As far as the split itself goes... it looks fine. My only comment is maybe consider swapping days 7 and 8, so do arms before legs. The reason for that is just to move your arm day back a bit so there's a bit more space before you start the split again with chest (which also hits triceps). You've got a rest day in between anyway, so it's not critical, but we may as well get the split as good as possible. ;-)

Actually, I've just thought of another point: Try to include some arm exercises that hit chest and back as well (that way you get the secondary hit I mentioned in my previous post). An example might be close grip bench - mostly a triceps exercise, but also recruits chest a bit. (I wouldn't do this unless you do swap arm and leg day, however.)

Hope this helps...

8)

[hawkeye]

funny u should mention swapping days,just done second chest workout since being back,triceps let me down abit during d bell bench & d bell inclines.

it's amazing how much strenght i have lost after 4 weeks off (or should that be depressing how much).

only got 1 week left before gym membership runs out & about 2 months before moving to aussie.

gym can't do monthly memberships ,so not to sure what to do there.ANOTHER LAYOFF. things just aren't going right for me at the moment.