How many days a week weight training is too much
 

I go to the gym 5 days a week and weight train all five days alternating upper and lower body. Is that too many? Everything I seem to be reading says to weight train 3 days a week. I also do cardio all 5 days.
:strong:

If you are just alternating upper and lower, training 5 days a week probably is too much. I lift 5 days a week, but a different body part each day so that no body part gets directly worked more than once a week. If you want to lift 5 days a week, I'd suggest changing your "split" so that you don't overtrain. You can work major muscle groups with 4 days rest between workouts. Here are a few sample splits just to give you some ideas:

The "work legs twice" split":
Monday: legs
Tuesday: shoulders and abs
Wednesday: back and biceps
Thursday: legs
Friday:chest and triceps

The once a week routine:
Monday: chest
Tuesday: shoulders and abs
Wednesday: legs
Thursday: biceps, triceps, abs
Friday: back

IMO, you should be too tired on leg day to do much cardio :devil:
How long have you been lifting and how much time do you spend during each session? Do you lift heavy to near failure? If so, you are overtraining.

Mel

I use the weight machines for about a 1/2hr. It is hard to do cardio after hitting the machines. I use enough weight so that I really feel it but not to failure. Do you think I am doing too much?

I lift 5 days/week like Mel using the second split she mentions... If you have been doing the split you mention for a while now, 4-6 weeks or so, try the splits Mel mentions... It'll give your body a bit of a shock and you may see some nice differences in your body composition...You should also try to get away from the machines and use some freeweights... here is a great site for routines and suggestions... http://www.stumptuous.com/weights_index_revision.html ...
I do my cardio after my workouts but never on leg day because the legs are like jell-0!

Hope this helps, ask any questions you may have... Don't be shy and join us on the main weekly thread...

TTFN :wave: