Am I overdoing it?

I am 18 years old and this is my current workout plan for the week:
Monday: Upper Body, (Optional: run a mile)
Tuesday: Lower Body
Wednesday: Running (5K)
Thursday: Upper Body, (Optional: run a mile)
Friday: Lower Body
Saturday: Running (5K)
Sunday: Rest Day (or 5K if I was unable to do it on Saturday)

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

Welcome to RMF! Thanks for setting out your week clearly.

The schedule alone doesn’t tell us whether you’re overdoing it. Four lifting sessions and two runs could involve very different workloads depending on the exercises, number of sets and how hard you push each session.

What’s your main goal: building muscle, getting stronger, improving your running, or a mixture? How long have you been following this routine?

Could you also post one upper-body and one lower-body session, including sets and reps? Are your 5Ks comfortable runs or hard efforts, and how are you feeling by the end of the week?

I’ve kept the discussion together in this thread so everyone’s advice is in one place. Looking forward to hearing more.

 

Thanks for your reply!

My main goals are to build muscle and improve my cardio health via running. I have been lifting for approximately 3 months and only started running about 1 month ago.

In both my upper and lower body workouts for every exercise I do 3 sets, 10 reps each, training close to, but not to failure (this is how I choose what weight to do). One of my follow up questions was going to be if it's fine keeping a simple 3 x 10 for each exercise or if there is any benefit to changing how my sets are structured for each exercise.

Currently all the exercises I do on the machines at my gym. Are free weights and other things better for muscle growth?
Another question I have: for every exercise I rest about 30 seconds between sets. Is this too little? Does it really matter?

UPPER BODY:
*Warmup: 5 mins on treadmill - 3 mph*
Chest Press - 45 lbs
Preacher Curl - 45 lbs
Tricep Extension - 55 lbs
Chest Fly - 60 lbs
Rear Deltoid Fly - 40 lbs
Shoulder Press - 30 lbs
Lat Pulldown - 65 lbs
Seated Row - 60 lbs
Crunch - 100 lbs
Back Extension - 140 lbs
*Cooldown: 5 mins on treadmill - 3 mph*

LOWER BODY:
*Warmup: 5 mins on treadmill - 3 mph*
Crunch - 100 lbs
Back Extension - 140 lbs
Seated Leg Curl - 75 lbs
Leg Extension - 60 lbs
Standing Calf Raise - 95 lbs
Hip Abduction - 100 lbs
Hip Adduction - 105 lbs
Horizontal Leg Press - 110 lbs
*Cooldown: 5 mins on treadmill - 3 mph*

Follow up questions:
1. How much does the order that I do things in matter? Is it bad if I do 2 exercises back to back that overlap which muscles they work on?
2. Are certain types of exercises better for building muscle?
3. Are there any muscles that I am leaving out in my workouts? I'm trying to get a full body workout each week.

All the running I do (5Ks and the occasional mile) is done with the intention of having my best time. I am constantly trying to improve my time. However, I have not been running for very long, so those times are not anything crazy. My best 5K time is 24:27 and my best mile time is 6:44.

At the end of the week I usually feel fine and any fatigue I feel is likely due to not enough sleep, something I have recently been trying to work on.

Again thank you so much for your advice! (And sorry for how long this is ).

 

No need to apologise for the length, Aaron. This is exactly the information needed to give you a useful answer.

First, a 24:27 5K and 6:44 mile are very respectable times after only a month of running. Your weekly schedule doesn't look excessive, especially since you feel reasonably good by the end of it. I would make a few adjustments, though.

1. Is 3×10 a good way to train?

Yes. Three sets of ten is perfectly suitable for a beginner, and you don't need to keep changing the structure just for variety.

What matters is having a way to progress. You could use an 8–12 repetition range:

• Start with a weight you can manage for three controlled sets of at least eight repetitions.
• Finish each set with roughly one or two good repetitions left.
• Gradually add repetitions over the following workouts.
• Once you reach 3×12 with good form, increase the weight by the smallest available amount.
• Your repetitions may initially fall back towards eight, and you then build them up again.

That allows you to progress without forcing exactly ten repetitions regardless of how the set feels.

2. Are free weights better than machines?

Not automatically. Machines can build muscle very effectively when you use good technique, a suitable range of motion and progressive overload.

Free weights require more balance and coordination, but that does not make them inherently better for muscle growth. After only three months of training, there is nothing wrong with continuing to build your foundation on machines.

You could gradually learn one or two free-weight exercises if they interest you, preferably with someone checking your technique, but you do not need to replace your current routine.

3. Is 30 seconds of rest too short?

For your muscle-building goal, this is the main change I would make.

Thirty seconds can turn the workout into more of a conditioning session. You may start the next set before your muscles, breathing, and concentration have recovered enough, causing your weight or reps to drop.

Try approximately:

• 90 seconds to two minutes after chest presses, shoulder presses, pulldowns, rows and leg presses
• 60–90 seconds after curls, triceps extensions, flies and similar smaller exercises
• A little longer whenever you still feel too breathless to perform another good set

You do not have to follow the clock perfectly. The aim is to start the next set when you can perform it properly.

4. Does exercise order matter?

Usually, you will perform best on exercises placed near the beginning, so start with the movements you consider most important.

For your upper-body workout, I would place the larger presses and pulls before the arm exercises:

1. Chest press
2. Lat pulldown
3. Shoulder press
4. Seated row
5. Chest fly and rear-delt fly
6. Preacher curl
7. Triceps extension
8. Core work

For the lower-body workout, I would put the leg press first, followed by the leg curl, leg extension, calves, hip exercises and then core work.

There is nothing inherently wrong with performing overlapping exercises consecutively. The only drawback is that fatigue from the first may reduce your performance on the second. For example, doing triceps extensions before chest pressing could make your chest press weaker.

5. Are any muscles missing?

You are covering most of the major muscle groups. You have pressing, vertical and horizontal pulling, direct arm work, quadriceps, hamstrings, calves, hips and core.

The main pattern not clearly represented is a glute-dominant or hip-hinge movement. A glute bridge machine would be a simple addition. You could eventually learn a Romanian deadlift, but there is no need to rush into it.

I would swap something rather than continually adding exercises. Your upper workout already contains 30 working sets, so a slightly shorter session with longer rests may be more productive than making it even longer. You probably don't need crunches and back extensions in every upper and lower session either.

6. Running and muscle growth

Running and lifting can work together, but I would not attempt a personal best every time you run.

A hard 5K is a proper training session. If every 5K and optional mile becomes an all-out effort, the accumulated leg fatigue may eventually affect your lower-body workouts.

A simple approach would be:

• Wednesday: an easier 5K at a pace where you can still speak in short sentences
• Saturday: your faster 5K, intervals or an occasional attempt to improve your time
• Optional miles after upper-body sessions: easy rather than all-out

The easier running still improves your cardiovascular base and may ultimately help your faster performances.

Overall, I would not overhaul your routine. Keep the upper/lower structure and the machines, increase your rest periods, use the 8–12 progression system and make at least one weekly run genuinely easy.

Try those changes for three or four weeks and let us know whether your weights, repetitions and running recovery improve. It would be good to follow your progress.

 

Thanks so much! I will start implementing these tips and monitor my progress.

Just a few follow-up questions:
1. Is it particularly bad if I stay at 3x10 for each exercise and then increase the weight when I feel I have significantly more than 2 reps left in the tank? Or is it a much better way to progress by doing the 3 x 8-12 method? I'm asking this because I feel that it would be difficult for me to evaluate when I have reached a point where I have 1-2 good reps left.

2. Do you think it would be fine to make the back extension exercise only for lower body days, but still keep ab crunch for every workout?

3. Would it be bad if I added in an extra ab focused workout like 1-2 times during the week, maybe on lower body days or Sunday?

Thanks so much for your help!

 

You’re very welcome, Aaron. Those are all good questions.

1. Staying with 3 sets of 10

There is nothing particularly wrong with keeping every exercise at 3 × 10 and increasing the weight when ten repetitions become noticeably easier. You can make good progress that way.

The 8–12 range is simply a convenient way to make progression easier to measure. For example, you might start a new weight and manage 10, 9 and 8 good repetitions. Over the following workouts, you gradually work towards 12 repetitions on all three sets. Once you reach that point with good technique, you increase the weight slightly and begin again.

However, you do not need to estimate whether you have exactly one or two repetitions left. That is difficult even for experienced lifters. A practical rule would be:

• Complete all three sets of ten with controlled technique.
• If the final repetitions still feel challenging, keep the same weight.
• If all three sets feel comfortable for two workouts in a row, increase the weight by the smallest available amount.
• If the increase causes your repetitions to drop slightly below ten, that is fine - build them back up gradually.

The last few repetitions should feel demanding, but you should not need to twist, bounce or shorten the movement to finish them.

2. Moving back extensions to lower-body days

Yes, that would be completely reasonable. Your lower back also contributes to other exercises and daily movement, so it does not necessarily need direct work during every session.

Performing back extensions on your two lower-body days should provide plenty of direct work, particularly while you are still establishing your routine. Keep the movement controlled and avoid turning it into a competition to use the heaviest setting on the machine.

You can keep the ab crunches in every workout if you enjoy them and recover comfortably, but four sessions per week is more than you need to make progress. Two or three sessions would also be sufficient.

3. Adding another abdominal workout

It would not automatically be bad, but I don’t think you need an additional abdominal workout at the moment. If you already perform three sets of crunches during all four lifting sessions, that is 12 direct sets each week before adding anything else.

Rather than doing more of the same exercise, you could perform crunches on two days and use a different movement on another day. A plank, dead bug or Pallof press would train your core in a different way without requiring a long separate workout.

For example:

• Upper-body day: machine crunch
• Lower-body day: plank or dead bug
• Other sessions: no direct abdominal work

That would still train your core regularly while allowing it to recover. I would keep Sunday as a genuine rest day, especially because you are combining four lifting sessions with running.

Your current priority should be progressing the main exercises, improving your sleep and seeing how your body responds to the longer rest periods. Try the changes for a few weeks and let us know which exercises begin progressing and whether your workouts feel different.

We all respond a little differently to training, so use this as a starting point and adjust it according to how well you recover. If a movement feels painful rather than simply challenging, ease off and check your technique before continuing.