How much is too much?

[SunsetRunner]

Hi all,

Is training 3 times a day too much?

I'm looking to kick start myself, so for the next 2-3 weeks for 5 days a week i plan on doing a 5K run in the morning, HIIT at lunch time and low weights in the evening for fat burning, then i'll reduce it to twice a day.

Is this too much or unsustainable?

I know food is an important part too, however i'm currently working away so all 3 meals are provided for me, there is a wide and varied range so i'm eating the best i can and during the weekend i'm going to enjoy myself......!

Anyhow, be nice to hear your opinions...

Cheers,

Keith   

[shipo]

@SunsetRunner I'm thinking the answer to your question is, "It depends".

The thing is, if you have decades of history of heavy workout schedules, then yes, there are pretty good odds you'll weather the Thrice-a-Day workouts.  That said, if you are a rank beginner, what you're contemplating is a recipe for injury.  The thing is, parts of the human body develop relatively quickly, while others do not, and the parts which do can overstress the others.  To be more specific, muscular, cardio, and pulmonary functions come up to speed rapidly, your skeletal system, connective tissue, and joint systems take a lot longer to develop.

Remember, when we got out of shape, we didn't do it over night, getting back into shape can happen faster, but once again, not over night.

[Heybales]

If you can eat enough calories and good enough food, and have enough recovery - sure.

If you are just trying to cause an extreme diet by creating bigger deficit - it'll backfire sooner or later, in likely a couple different ways (workouts will suck, body will burn less in general to adapt).

Usually people that treat exercise as a means to an end, reach the goal or discover how hard it is to reach, and the exercise stops.

I'd suggest find something you enjoy, or realize it's benefit for a good goal besides just burning calories, and do those workouts.

Like what does low weights in the evening for fat burning mean - that yells out misunderstanding of how things work.

Ditto to Shipo's comments.

[DavideFitbit]

Welcome to the Community forums! 

I think it depends on what your Fitness goals are. I've seen other users who are training 3 times a day as well, but it's mostly people who train extensively for competitions, but that is also relative because it depends on what exactly is it that you do during those 3 training sessions (the intensity of workouts for example). 

If you're healthy and don't feel any discomfort, I'd say it's ok. In my case it would be too much, because I have some pain in my lower back, so every case is different. 😀

[t.parker]

Agree with what @shipo  and @Heybales said. Do you have any plan and reason for structuring your workout that way? What's the goal? It's not a matter of whether it is too much or not but where it takes you and such structure takes you.. well.. nowhere (maybe except A&E with injury). You are mixing up different kinds of activities without really saying what you want to address. You say that you want to burn fat with weights training - not efficient because weights training is anaerobic activity (muscle breakdown, you're not gonna burn a lot). Then, the same HIIT (if done correctly and it is really HIIT because most of the people only think they do HIIT - they either don't rest enough between intervals or don't go hard enough). HIIT will also bring muscle breakdown as it is closer to anaerobic than aerobic exercise. If you count on EPOC due to HIIT then the effect is very insignificant and will occur also after 5K run as well as any other activity (HITT isn't something that magically enables EPOC). Running 5K is aerobic exercise and probably it's going to be the only one that makes sense if your goal is burning some energy (steady-state cardio, easy pace). It really depends on what you want to achieve but I see here trying to squeeze in as much exercise as possible without given reason/goal which will be rather counterproductive. How much you can take depends on your current fitness but remember that even pro-athletes follow structured training crafted for them which isn't a simple "3x a day workout" and they do rest, a lot 🙂

[Corney]

Friedrich Nietzsche first stated "That which does not kill us makes us stronger" aptly applies to exercise.  Exercise strengthens our immune system, but over training weakens the immune system.  One of the first signs of over training is a fever.  As an avid runner for over 25 years, I would sometimes run when suffering from a cold but I would never run when I had a fever.  The old adage if some is good more is better does not always apply to exercise.  Always listen to your body.  A fever is a telling sign that you may be over training.

[Heybales]

So true.

Nothing like your body trying to tell you it needs more recovery by getting sick or injured - and then you can do nothing for a while.

How much better to purposely cut back than the body just do it automatically.

Same idea applies to extreme diets - body will find a way to adapt.