Exercise Question

[El Pirata]

Currently I am working at an office polishing a seat with my butt with very little physical activity. As a result I will normally hit the gym for for 2 sessions of an hour, once in the morning. I was thinking about bringing some lighter weight dumbells to so I can work my arms several times through the course of a shift.

Now I know a fair amount about exercising. I know you should target different muscle groups every day rather than working the same muscle groups each day. What I was wondering is if you were using a light weight doing a ton of reps if you could get by working the same muscle groups day in and day out. I mean it's not much different than someone who does the same manual labor each and every day such as climbing stairs or swinging a sledgehammer for 8 hours a day.

Working the arms mostly each and every day with little weight but doing several hundred reps throughout the course of the day. Would this be harmful to your muscles to do this? I mean think about people who do a similar type of work each and every day. I am mainly just thinking about adding to the overall endurance of my muscles and keeping my heartrate higher because of an ongoing light workout throughout the day. An extra hour from not having to hit the gym means an extra hour each day I can do things around the house that I really need to do.

Comments anyone?

[Klassy Guy]

No It will have no health risks, you can get huge by doing that, 2 or 5 pound weights are supposed to be great for that, just when your muscles get tired, let them rest.

[El Pirata]

I have this posted in many different forums and this is the only responce that understands my thoughts.

[angel_fly_guy]

I do this all the time. But remember the higher you go up in weight the less you should do. You should also draw a line and don't cross it. What I mean is assign an amount to do for a certain weight and don't go over it. About 150 using 10 pounds is where I stop, but i just estimate.

If you don't you get very sore.

[matthepepe]

I'll post some thoughts when i get back ..

[warpedx]

Simlating routine exercise. Kinda off from what you're saying, but I always had a thought on why would you have stairmasters on a ship the size I was stationed on?

On to your question, makes sense to me. But I'd say to definitely not overdo it on this one. If you start to feel anything besides standar soreness, cut back immediately, since you plan on doing a large amount of reps.
Should make time on watch go by faster too.

[matthepepe]

Pirata i would say if you're really serious about getting results to just either stick to what your doing and dont worry about that extra hour you lose in the day while your at the gym, or change your workout.

There are 3 problems i see could possibly come about by doing what you are saying.

1. You may overwork the muscle which is worse than not working out at all.
2. You most likely wont gain any size, all your going to accomplish is toning the muscle up. Which may not be a bad thing if your not worried about having monster arms.
3. This may or may not be a concern for you but you might but your body could be come out of porportion, if you are doing you arms everyday over and over they are obviously going to shape up / grow faster than the rest of your body, which looks funny.

If i was in your situation I would look at altering my routine. Hitting the gym once a day for an hour is more than enough to get a great workout in and get the results you want.

If you can hit the gym 5-6 times a week is ideal. Hitting one muscle group per day. But you have to pound it and leave the gym w/ that muscle completely broken down because its going to be a week until you do it again and if you really hit it hard you'll need that week to recover.

If you can only get to the gym 3-4 times a week do 2 muscles groups per day. You may have to set aside a little more time than an hour but 1 1/2 hours max.

I personally hit the gym 4-6 times a week. I'm on the one muscle group per day , 6 day split.

Chest
Back
Shoulders
Legs
Bi's
Tri's

Not in that particular order, just those are the groups i work on each individual day... pick one and pound it.
if you cant get in that many days do the 2 group 3-4 day split.

ONce you get your schedule straight you'll be fine. Just determine what you want to do and go from there. You gotta remember everyones bodies react differently, so what works for me may not work for you.

[lefty21]

There are 3 problems i see could possibly come about by doing what you are saying.

1. You may overwork the muscle which is worse than not working out at all.
2. You most likely wont gain any size, all your going to accomplish is toning the muscle up. Which may not be a bad thing if your not worried about having monster arms.
3. This may or may not be a concern for you but you might but your body could be come out of porportion, if you are doing you arms everyday over and over they are obviously going to shape up / grow faster than the rest of your body, which looks funny.

I can't agree more...recovery time is a lot more important than people think...Essentially what you're doing is ripping muscle fibers, which is why we feel the pain of working out....Recovery time + large amounts of protein intake heal the muscle and promote strength and growth. You do have the right idea, in terms of endurance, more reps + light wieght....One of the best work outs by far to promote muslce endurance and lung capacity is swimming laps....But this might be a little inconvenient for you.