Topic: Discussion on rest in an olympic lifting program

[Andy Dick]

I have wondered this question and was hoping to get some thoughts and insight on days of rest in a lifting program. 

Many weightlifting programs that I observe have the athletes lifting 5 days a week (give or take a day).  One thing I wonder is the lifter is lifting legs legs almost everyday.  This seems to contradict giving the legs adequate time to recover between each workout.  This is especially true as the program begins to ramp towards a competition where there are many heavy lift days during the week.  Why is it done this way and why does it differ from current thought on periodization?

Next, add in any supplemental lifts and the body is placed in even more stress and more is required of it in the form of rest and nutrition to recover.  What are your thoughts?

[Justin Ott]

you get used to it. At first I could only squat once a week and work out 3x a week due to fatigue and soreness, now training 6 days a week with 4-5 squat days is normal. In fact I could do heavy front squats every day no problem.

[Erik Blekeberg]

I schedule rest time. Its when I am eating or sleeping :P. You can acclimate to lifting 7 days a week without anabolic aids, it is possible. It just involves a lot of hard work and training when you don't want to. When you train like that soreness is no longer an issue.

[Albert B. Gonzalez]

do you think stretching before and after every session would aid in developing a more exstensive training schedule?

[Justin Ott]

do you think stretching before and after every session would aid in developing a more exstensive training schedule?

yes

[Albert B. Gonzalez]

cool

[MarkH]

do you think stretching before and after every session would aid in developing a more exstensive training schedule?

There is a fair bit of evidence that stretching before a session should only be dynamic, static stretches can induce injury, I personally only stretch after.

[Albert B. Gonzalez]

thanks for the input . i often neglect stretching maybe i shouldnt!