RECOVERY METHODS FOR TRAINING 5 DAYS A WEEK
The concept of recovery is simple and straightforward, but for many people, it is difficult to follow.
The three pillars of recovery are nutrition, hydration and sleep.
Remember, muscle growth happens outside of the gym!
1. NUTRITION:
If you want to build muscle, you need an abundant amount of protein and high quality carbs. You should eat about .75 grams of protein for every lb of body weight. So, if you weigh 180 lbs, you need at least 135 g of protein every day (yes, even on the days you’re not working out). Carbohydrates should be around 2-3.5 grams per lb of body weight. Avoid cards before bed and always consume carbohydrates after your workout.
If you are trying to lose weight while maintaining muscle, then you should increase protein and decrease carbohydrates. For a fat loss diet, your protein should be around 1 gram per lb of body weight. Your carbs should be cut in half, consuming only in the morning, an hour or so before your workout, and right after a workout.
2. HYDRATION:
Water is essential for building muscle. It helps energize your muscles and keeps them performing at the highest level. It also helps to keep fat.
You should drink about half of your body in ounces of water. So, if you weigh 200 lbs, you need 100 ounces of water per day (or 3 liters).
3. SLEEP:
Make sure you get more than 8 hours a night. If you are training hard, your body needs more sleep than those who are not. If not, your immune system will suffer, as will your workouts.
When we say 8+ hours of sleep, we mean good sleep. If you wake up constantly at night, you will affect your deep sleep, which is the sleep that helps recovery and increases good hormones. So, if you have any problems with your sleep, work to solve them. Good quality sleep is vital.
WHAT SUPPLEMENTS SHOULD I TAKE?
There are many supplements, but there are really only a few supplements you need to consider for your 5-day gym routine:
1. Protein Powder: Protein powder is nothing but real protein that has been turned into a powder. You will need to consume more protein than people who are not trained, so protein powder is a very effective and economical way to consume the protein you need to recover. The best time to use protein powder it’s post-workout, but it can also be used for a healthy snack. Note: Don’t let all of your protein come from protein powder, it’s to help supplement your daily protein intake, not make up everything.
2. Creatine: It is one of the most sought after supplements out there. Studies show that it is one of the few supplements that indeed support sports performance. It can help improve strength, intra-workout recovery, and lean muscle mass.
3. Caffeine: Caffeine is similar to creatine in that it has an overwhelming amount of studies to support its use. That is why it is usually the primary ingredient in many pre-workouts, as it gives you increased energy and can help you train hard in a session. So if you need a boost before your workout, caffeine in the form of coffee or energy drinks will definitely help.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT THE 5 DAY WORKOUT PLANS:
1. WASHING 5 DAYS A WEEK IS TOO MUCH?
Working out 5 days a week is perfectly fine as long as you are not training every muscle group every day or too close together. If you want to train 5 days a week, then you should follow one of the 5-day training split options because they are structured in a way that allows you to train at this weekly frequency without burning out or overtraining. A systematic approach is important to ensure a good recovery. By separating your body parts on different days, you can train more often.
Most people do perfectly well with a 5-day workout, because the workouts are so focused on one area of your body and there’s a lot of recovery, so it’s hard to overtrain.
WORD OF CAUTION FOR BEGINNERS:
If you are a beginner, 5 days a week may not be necessary. Your body in general may need more time to recover. It’s not even about your muscles, because you train specific muscle groups every day with a split. It’s about your nervous system. As a complete beginner, a workout with 16-20+ sets per muscle group can be too taxing, especially if you haven’t yet dialed in good nutritional practices or you haven’t had enough sleep. This could be a recipe for failure or some serious DOMS. Therefore, we recommend most beginners to go for a 3 days split o 4 split days which trains 2-3 different muscle groups per workout with 6-10 sets each muscle group. As you become more experienced and in better shape, you can gradually increase your training volume and eventually do a 5-day split.
If you decide to go for a 5-day split and feel tired after a couple of weeks, take a rest day between every 2 training sessions. It’s great if you complete your split routine in 8 or 9 days instead of 7. Recovery is vital.
2. IS 5 DAYS A WEEK ENOUGH TO BUILD MUSCLE?
Working out 5 days a week is more than enough to build muscle. You can spread the volume of your training throughout the week, which many people find easier to manage than 3-4 days of volume training.
If you are a beginner, you will build muscle with only 3 days a week, at low volume for training. It’s the phenomenon of beginner gains – people new to training will see them gain quickly and easily, usually in their first three months, then things start to slow down when they reach an intermediate level. From 6 months in, you will have to start ramping things up.
3. HOW LONG SHOULD I FOLLOW A 5 DAY SPLIT TO SEE RESULTS?
Follow the training plan for at least 8 weeks and more than 12 weeks. If you are a beginner, you will start to see physical results around 4 weeks in. If you are an experienced lifter, you will see some good results when the training cycle is over (especially if you do some before and after pics). What you will notice throughout the training cycle are improvements in your strength and overall fitness. Also, if you eat right, you should be able to build muscle while staying lean.
4. HOW LONG SHOULD MY WORKOUTS LAST IN 5 DAY SPLIT WORKOUT?
We cannot give you an exact length of time for each workout for a 5-day split, as it depends on your training goals, your schedule, the muscle groups you are targeting, and your fitness level. However, in general, your workouts should not last more than 60 minutes (including warm up, but without cardio). The average time for training sessions for a 5-day split is usually about 45-60 minutes. Remember, you are training 5 days a week, so the volume is spread out more over the week, which means you can do a little less of the total volume each workout than you would with a 3 or 4 day split.
Now, to give you some ideas why your workout may be longer or shorter:
Let’s say your training goal is strength, then you would do heavy sets of approx. 5 reps. In this case, you need at least 2 minutes of rest between each set, so your workout can last longer.
On the side, maybe do a standard split for muscle hypertrophy, using only 30-60 seconds. rest set and aim to do a total of 20 sets per workout. This workout should not take more than 45 minutes – 30 seconds of work time + 45 seconds of rest = 75 seconds per set x 20 sets = 1,500 seconds, which is 25 minutes, but it would be very difficult to maintain 45 seconds each set. especially with setting up for new exercises. So it would really be like 40 minutes or so. This is the perfect training time for metabolic training, which focuses on burning a lot of calories while building muscle.
Another example of why training times will vary is your schedule. If you only have 30 minutes, you can do this job! It’s that simple. In any case, 30 minutes 5 times a week is perfectly adequate.
In terms of fitness level, obviously the more experienced you are and the better shape you are in, the more your muscles can handle. Therefore, a beginner can only take 10 sets to reach fatigue for a specific muscle group, while an advanced lifter takes 20 sets, so beginners are generally better off with splits than training 2 muscle groups per workout.
So, as you can see, it all depends. But the general rule is 45-60 minutes for a split of 5 days. Just make those minutes count don’t waste them – a 30 minute workout that’s intense is much better than a half ass workout that lasts 90 minutes. Plus, cortisol (the fat-producing hormone) starts to rise after 60 minutes or so, especially for people over 40, which is obviously something you want to avoid.
5. WHEN SHOULD I DO CARDIO WITH 5 DAY WORKOUT SPLIT?
If you want to lose fat or simply keep thin, cardio is a must. Calories burned during weightlifting, especially with a bodybuilding or powerlifting split, simply cannot compare to traditional cardio. So, if cardio is important to you, I recommend doing 20-40 minutes of cardio 3-4 days a week, even 2 days is fine.
You can do cardio after your workout, on your rest days, or in the morning or evening separate from your weight sessions. If it were up to us, we’d say do cardio in the morning and weights in the evening. Your muscles are stronger in the evening because your body is warmer. For most people, they will get the best strength workouts later in the day.