How much is considered over training when weight lifting?

Question

im about 5'8 120 pounds, pretty fit but whenever im at the gym, i can workout for 2-3 hours of weight lifting without getting tired.. i am doing alot of exercises; doing 3-4 sets /w maxing my weight to only 10-12 reps for every exercise. The thing is i can be working on my chest, then delts, then biceps, then i can go back to chests w/o being tired.. i am wondering is this over training? should i only do 3 sets of bench press, then move on, and not do more sets 30 mins later? i dont feel tired, but i cant lift as much as the 1st time but i still have alot of energy to lift.. is this over training? i am only taking 2 min breaks max, but feel as though i can stay at the gym for 2-3 hours of consistent lifting .. is this bad?

btw also should i be doing ALL chest exercises then moving on to another muscle part? ie bench press, decline, incline, dumbell bench press, etc then move onto biceps & triceps? or mix them inbetween ie Benchpress, then triceps, then incline benchpress, then deltoids, then barbell benchpress, etc.

Answer 1

I hit that point too. What I did was a 4 day split. Monday and Thursday I do chest, triceps, abs, traps and forearms. Tuesday and Friday I do Biceps, upper back / delts, lower back, and legs. Splits like that helped me overcome the oh wow I can still do more sets feeling. I'd also suggest lowering your reps and increasing weight. I LOVE the work down pyramid. Do what you can do 10 reps of, then 8 then 6 then 4 then 2. Do everything to failure that is safe. Obviously failing on the bench is dangerous, but if you are curling lets say, do what you can, then raise the weight to the half way point and hold it there as long as you can. I promise after 3 sets of 4 or 5 reps you'll be ready to leave at the begenning.

Answer 2

Okay first off.
When I was young I felt that invincible. Lucky you for having that much energy.
As far as over training? What your doing is fine. People will train differently when trying to reach different goals. What you are doing seems okay.
I was always and still am a firm believer in mixing your routine.
Your muscles have good memory. So once they get set into a certain workout routine you start to notice that your progress isn't as quick as before. That is due to muscle memory.
So every few weeks you want to change the order, repetitions and types of exercises to keep your body always progressing.
And most of all don't forget to drink a lot of water when working out.

Answer 3

Focusing on one or two muscle groups for one workout is what you should do to get stronger.

Your body gains strength by actually breaking down your muscles and then rebuilding them. It's ok if you want to push yourself hard on a workout, it might even be more effective.

The thing you have to remember is to allow your muscles to heal after working out. This is where the problem of overworking comes in; when you keep working out muscles that are already sore from previous work and trying to recover. If you don't give your muscles sufficient time to heal, then your workouts will be very inefficient.

Give yourself usually about an extra 2 days to recover after a good workout; you'll feel be able to feel when your muscles are no longer sore. So say you work your chest out one day, then the next day you'll probably want to focus on another muscle group like your biceps or something. And then the next day you can work your legs or whatever you please. As long as you switch it up a bit and aren't constantly straining your muscles that are sore and trying to heal, you should be fine.

Answer 4

Hi.
Overtraining is very hard to notice and probably plagues many athletes without them knowing it. You can do a yahoo searh for "overtaining symptoms" or somethink like that.
Even though you do not feel tired after training for 2-3 hours you are still taxing your body. The body can adjust to this, I was overtrained for a long time without really noticing it :-( Workouts should not exceed 40-50 min in length.
When you are training correctly you should be experiencing improvements from workout to workout. This is what I have experienced. Don´t train many times per week as more is not better, smart is better.
Hope this helped.

Answer 5

Do your few max's, too build the muscle, but then from there on out, do light weights, too tone the body, too much weight and too much lifting can be bad, but light weight and lots of lifting is good for you

Luke