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Is it reasonable to work-out 7 days a week doing strength-training, provided the muscle groups are cycled each day with sufficient rest between each training, or will this be detrimental long-term?

Additionally, would working a sedentary desk-job affect this (e.g. can this be considered 'adequate rest' through the week)?

If it makes any difference, my motivation is for both weight-loss and for muscle-gain.


Background:

I typically go to the gym for an hour, with a routine of 30 minutes strength-training, and 30 minutes cardio. The strength-training always targets different muscle groups each day (e.g. chest, back, core, legs, arms, etc) -- and I normally try to cycle it such that the same muscles won't be reused back-to-back to allow as much rest in between as possible. The workouts are normally mid-to-high level intensity.

Most recently, I've been making an effort to do this daily as opposed to my old routine of going 5 days a week -- but I want to ensure that this won't have negative consequences to myself in the long-term.

So far, I have not experienced anything negative yet. In particular:

  • I am still seeing improvements in my overall weight-lifting
  • I am still losing weight consistently (to be expected, since I will continually be burning calories)
  • I am not in any pain when I do this (since I target alternate groups)

However, there have not been noticeable differences in muscle-mass according to my Fitbit Aria 2 scale (whose accuracy I don't entirely trust). Additionally, I have found many articles saying to rest at least one day a week -- however these articles never seem to address the cycling-muscle-group approach.

One additional motivator for this question is that I work a desk-job which keeps me pretty stationary for ~8 hours a day during the week, and so I'm unsure if this could reasonably be considered a form of rest throughout the day (contrast this to someone who might be doing a high-intensity job that involves carrying heavy objects).

Any insight into this would be appreciated

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I don't think you'll be able to get one definitive answer here. As long as all muscle groups get about 2 days of rest, I don't see a problem with working out every day.

How much you're able to workout varies per person. For instance, I am a very motivated individual who loves working out, but when I start working out too much, I start to notice that it's actually detrimental to my overall progress (the big picture).

Sometimes I work out for 9 or 10 days in a row and I can really tell the difference. I can work out for about 3 or 4 days in a row and then I really do need a rest day, or my energy levels during my workouts will start to drop. My workouts are almost always 2 hours long, so there might be a difference in the fact that you mostly work out for 1 hour, but you'll honestly need to test this for yourself.

I hope this helps!

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