Rest days

So, just wondering how many days people rest between workouts. if you work a different muscle group every time then how many days do you leave between working that group?

I only have time/energy to work out twice per week, i run around all day at a gokart track. so i have 3 or 4 days between workouts and i work every muscle when i go. when i start school again it'll be different because i'll have more energy after school (if i don't make it on the rowing team but if i do i wont have to go to the gym after school anyways).

After experimentation, I need to rest a muscle group for at least 2 days before working it again. It all depends on your body type. If I work a group every other day, I end up getting smaller and lose weight.

I find i'm still sore on the second day of rest, do you guys still get sore, i stopped working out for a while (because i started rowing so i couldn't so bodybuilding type stuff and row because of the frequency and intensity of the practices) so i can't remember if i used to get sore for this long.

This is an old thread but I didn't want to start a new one on the topic so here goes...

My workouts don't get me sore anymore and I've been trying to up the weights and do more reps but somehow, I don't feel it the next day. Is that normal? I've been skipping rest days because of this as I don't think I'm working myself hard enough but I think I do a relatively exhausting workout. Any advice?

cap

it's normal to not feel sore afterwards, and whatever you do DON'T skip your rest days. the only time i feel sore is if i train a muscle that i haven't hit in a while, other than that i don't get sore and i still make improvements. as long as you're increasing weight every workout, or nearly every workout, you should be good.

Here's an informative article:

http://www.chetday.com/soreness.htm

"DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) will be greatest in a beginner who has never worked out before. The more your body adapts to the workload you impose on it, the less soreness you will feel. If you continue to repeat the same workout over and over again, it will eventually cease to make you sore. Unfortunately, you will also cease to make any progress. Progressive overload is the cornerstone of getting stronger and building muscle."

your body also learns to process lactic acid better and any lactic acid buildup will go away faster after a few times in the gym. so although you'll still be making progress (it won't be as much as when you started obviously) you might not be getting sore. this is different with cardio however, you can still do a painful workout that'll hurt afterwards no matter how much cardio you've done in the past.

That's a good article. I guess I've been doing this all wrong then. Time to get some more weights! Thanks!

cap

sorry, i hadn't read the whole article before posting, just your excerpt from it. It's probably true that it's from the microtrauma (although he took it from a 1994 textbook and theories change quite quickly, but i won't argue it, i agree as well) but there's no questioning the fact that there is some soreness from lactic acid. i've done some intense erg (rowing machine) workouts and been almost unable to walk up stairs within 30 minutes because of lactic acid, and the soreness didn't go away until two days later. so you will feel sore from the tears in your muscles, but there will be some lactic acid buildup and the soreness won't be as intense the more you work out because your body will learn to process lactic acid better.