How bad is it working out full body 3 days in a row?

[andujartyler]

Hi guys, so my question is the title itself. The thing is, i only have 3 days in a row to train, (wed, thu, fri), and A B C was not it for me, because if i for some reason miss my training on one day it would ruin a lot of my gains.

So full body training is the best type of training for me right now. If i work out the same muscles group 3 days in a row and rest the other 4 days, my gains will still be good? I am training biceps, triceps, chest, back, shoulder, and two inferior muscles (quads, glute, calf or posterior). So 7 exercises per day, 3 days in a row.

 

[qoorban85]

@andujartyler Missing a muscle group once won't ruin your gains. It wasn't built in a day so you won't lose it in a day.

ABC training would be better in the long run than DDD, even if days are missed (you'll also miss days doing DDD). You'll be better recovered for the next session and be able to train more intensely. If you miss a week, you'll be that much more recovered the next. If you're consistently missing a specific day, you could cycle the days, like ABC, then BCA, then CAB, and then back to ABC. OR if you're consistently missing the same day there's two things for you to look at and it depends on your priorities

1) if lifting is your priority, stop missing days. Wake up earlier (which might mean going to bed earlier). Skip the outing (or make sure to lift before your go. Etc.
2) if lifting is not your priority (which is fine), maybe drop to two days a week (which would be much more viable for full body).

Another option to improve recovery is to lift 3 days but make the first and last the full body and the middle day something you don't normally do on full body days, like arms or go for a walk/run/bike ride (aka cardio).

 

[tdsamuel]

@andujartyler Why don’t you do an A/B split where one week you do A-B-A and the next week B-A-B?

I also think if you have a tight schedule in life, sometimes you’ll just miss workouts. That’s life.

 

[andujartyler]

@tdsamuel I haven't tought about A/B actually. If full body 3 days in a row was fine, i would prefer [each muscle would train 12 total sets (3 days 4 set each)]. But if is not optmal, maybe i will change to A/B

 

[tdsamuel]

@andujartyler Starting Strength is an A/B split. One week you have heavy chest volume and the next week you have lighter chest volume. It works out.

 

[skytheoden83]

@andujartyler train to failure, and train with intensity. If youre able to train 3 days in a row the same muscles, youre not training intensely. One day is more than enough. 2 days is even better, you can do an upper body one day, and lower body next day. If you know you wont miss one of the 3 days, do PPL or split your muscles according to many effective 3 day splits online.

 

[seele]

@skytheoden83 I’m in a similar situation as OP, what would you do on third day if you do upper body first day and lower body second ?

 

[skytheoden83]

@seele with upper lower, the split is usually for 4 days of the week. 2 days upper, 2 days lower. Maybe you can do upper again, or just cardio and core.

Or do Upper/lower/upper one week, and next week do Lower/Upper/Lower

 

[seele]

@skytheoden83 Cool that’s what I was thinking. Thanks!

 

[dawn16]

@andujartyler It depends, an issue you could face is overtraining.

Think of your strength of one muscle group as a graph. That graph has a baseline. When you train that muscle, the line goes down temporarily, you cause micro tears and get weaker. You body then adapts to that by recovery, your line goes back up and actually a little above baseline, you just got stronger.

Now if you train the same muscles every day intensely, you keep pushing down the line, but it is not guaranteed that you give your body enough time to bring the line back up. This means that over time you would actually get weaker.

So essentially what I would watch for is if your performance decreases over the long run. If e.g. your gains are lost on the 3rd day of training and you just go up and down to the same level every week, you might be overtraining and need to change your approach.

 

[dawn16]

What you’re describing is non functional overreaching

Not overtraining. But still a valid point

 

[andujartyler]

@dawn16 Thank you, i am gonna see how my body react and if necessary, change my workout routine

 

[marcypan]

@andujartyler Not bad as long as you take some time to rest and not over train. Doing so without rest will have deminishing returns. You must let muscle tissue heal before you can tear the fibers again for more growth.

 

[andujartyler]

@marcypan So in your opinion if i train the same muscles for 3 days in a row, but resto 4 days, it is ok, right?

 

[marcypan]

@andujartyler Yup, for me the soreness doesnt come until 2 days after the workout so 3 in a row feels fine. I wouldnt even say 4 days of rest is necessary. After a day or two you should be fine to start again. Id be sure to listen to your body though. If you are extremely sore and cant functionally do the workouts anymore id take more time.