Fitness

[Conagher Barrows]

Hi jocko, you've probably covered this on your podcast already. I just had a question about overworking. Being in the gym, hitting the weights hard, and grinding everyday. Is there ever a time where you should force yourself to take a day off? Or go through the motions? Lighter weight for a day? Or something else instead of a normal workout? Just curios what your thoughts were on this. Thank you very much for your time.

[mynewunit]

Check out podcast 21 with Tim Kennedy.
1:34:51 – Importance of recovery from training.
The long answer is in the discipline equals freedom field manual. Let life choose your rest days. Active rest. Mobility wod and Kelley Starett.
There are a few strings to start pulling. Do some homework. Come back if you have more questions.

[engelsdad422]

I'm a big believer in active rest days. If I take a rest day and just sit on my ass and watch Netflix all day I end of feeling like crap. I do better if I at least go for a long walk, or even just do a bunch of kb swings first thing in the morning. It gets my blood pumping and gets me motivated to be productive.

[mynewunit]

So if we want to have a high brow, gym snob, bro science debate on rest, it depends on what your goals are. If you are trying to get your one rep max up, or build some muscle in the true hypertrophy, you will need to rest muscles for 48 hours for progressive results on top of significant rest in between sets.
Can you go to the gym 7 days a week and do the same workout that the average person is doing, sure.
Jocko's point is that it takes a fight camp to approach the amount of working out that requires a legit rest day. 40 minutes on the treadmill and a few sets on the pec deck doesn't necessitate a rest day.

[thomashofer]

My goal is to gain weight and build muscle and I work out every day and I go all-out with my workouts. I start light and move my weights up until I reach my maximum. Is that the best way to approach it or should I rest. I would prefer not to take days off but if it the better route to take I would do it. Thanks

[mynewunit]

For gaining mass, you want hypertrophy. For more strength, you want stress. They aren't opposite but they are different. A great way to start is to try the starting strength novice progression. It focuses on a few specific lifts. Dead lifts (pulls), Over head press (Press), Back squats, Barbell cleans, Bench press, pull-ups. The rest between sets is more important than the days between. Try to give the muscle groups a day off, so squat no more than every other day. Go do the traditional bro-science work outs in between starting strength days. Like one day, Squat, Press, Pull-ups. Next day, curls, peck deck, abs, shrug. SS day 2. Cleans, Bench, Pull. Next day, Push downs, Rows, yoga, cardio, box jumps KB swings. All these exercises are good but they might rob you strength gains. If you did the starting strength workouts 2 -3 times a week, you should add about 50 lbs to all the lifts in 100 days, (or 3 months). In addition all you pants will no longer fit.  Let me know the first time you dead lift or squat and the legs of your boxer briefs start snapping strands. Once you have added the 50 lbs to your lifts, you can start increasing the reps to sets of 10 to 20. This is hypertrophy. It HURTS. You want exercises with eccentric contraction (loaded lengthening) of muscles. ie: squats, not cleans. And since I didn't say reduce your weights with the more reps, dont, just keep adding reps to your new heavy lifts. 

Art of Manliness Barbell

[thomashofer]

Awesome. Ill get after is immediately.