I had lost some weight a while ago mostly by counting calories, and over the holidays kind of let everything go downhill. I have been maintaining for a while now, and have just been trying to incorporate exercise into my life along with regaining my healthy eating habits. Lately I have been trying a Winsor pilates ab video I have. It is a big challenge for me, and I feel the strain both in my abs and in my legs(guess I need a lot of work in both areas) when I try to make the positions. I haven't quite been able to make it all the way through without stopping occasionally for little breaks, and even their basic positions are a strain to hold.
I was wondering if doing this 20 minute workout several days in a row would be a bad thing. I know you are supposed to let your muscles rest, but if I am not yet even getting the full benefit out of it, would it be okay to do it several days in a row so long as I gave myself a rest day every few days? Input appreciated on both these kind of strength exercises, or advice for the pilates, thanks.
It doesn't matter that you're not doing the entire routine. What matters is that you are working the muscles to failure. It's not the amount of exercise you do that determines the need for a day of rest, but the fact that you work the muscle to the max, however long that takes.
When you do strength training (and Pilates can certainly count), you create microscopic tears in the muscle fibers. Your body repairs the tears, and the muscle winds up growing and being stronger as a result. It takes about 48 hours for those repairs to be made. So, if you try to work out again before your body has a chance to fully repair, then you are adding insult to injury, so to speak. If you never give the muscles a chance to rebuild, then you will not get stronger, but actually weaker.
So, the short answer is ... you still need a day of rest between sessions!
I agree, but I hear all the time that abs are OK to do everyday. Not sure why they would be any different. Even Kathy Smith says it's OK to do the abs portion of her videos every day. ???
Abs are like any other muscle. Don't work them everyday, they need time to recover. Your breaking down the muscle, so you have to give it time to be repaired or you will have a hard time getting stronger.
I don't do pilates often, but man I love how great my posture is after I do. I feel like I'm several inches taller and about 10 lbs thinner.
In Kathy's workouts where she says it's OK to do abs every day, they are not worked to failure. I believe in her newer videos, with more intense techniques, they are not supposed to be done every day. I have certainly seen her discuss this on her iVillage bulletin board, advocating working to failure and doing it no more than every other day.
It's a myth that you can work abs every day, though you really do hear it all the time. It's another one of those gym 'urban legends'. Abs are just like any other muscle group and need recovery time. Funniegrrl's right about the microtearing -- but get this -- I just went to a personal training seminar where we were told absolutely not to work abs every day. Studies show that working abs every day will cause micro-SCARRING in those microtears and the abs will lose their tone and functionality.
Interesting thread. I'd always heard that you could do abs everyday as well. So I've been doing abs almost every day. One day pilates, next day Tamilee's "I Want That Body" abs section. I'll cut back to every other day.
I agree that abs are like any other muscle and need recovery. The only exercises I do almost every day are the isometric ones- ab vaccuum and pelvic tilt, and that certainly isn't to failure.
Crunches, other exercises, especially those with weights, are done in rotation like all the other muscle groups. You have to watch your erector spinae exercises so as not to overwork it, because ab exercises use the lower back muscles also.
Ab exercises...can there be too much?
