Weight training and rest times

Hi

I've recently started back at the gym and I have a fairly intense 4-day weights program that I follow. It's basically working one muscle group each day (shoulders, back, arms, chest) plus a day of high intensity cardio.

On each weights day I do a set of squats at the start of the session as well (apparently it releases testosterone into the system).

My concern is that I might be overworking my arms and legs. If I'm doing squats 4 days in a row then they're not getting any rest time until my day off, so is that going to be detrimental to them? Should I perhaps do them on alternate days? Should I be doing light squats or heavier squats?

Also, I'm using my arms during every session so should I be trying to rest those on alternate days as well, or will they condition to my routine? Should I maybe do my intense arms session on day 4 of my program so that they have a proper rest after that?

Apologies if these ae amateur questions, but I don't want to be taking two steps forwards and one step back all the time.
Thanks

Steve

I believe that the theory is that due to the intensity of training squats etc, more growth hormone is released.  How true this is I do not know.

However,  this only means that training legs etc may do more to help overall muscle growth when included as part of a well structured training  program.

IMO you should not be training squats each day.  Once a week would be fine (Especially if you are just starting out.)   By training squats every day you will not be allowing your legs time to recover, and will also be taking energy needed away from your other lifts.

Depending on where your arms day is scheduled will dictate on whether you need to change the schedule or not. 

Ie.  Chest uses triceps a lot,  back uses Biceps a lot.  So there is no problem training chest and back on consecutive days.   Shoulders are used to some extent when training chest, they also require use of the triceps.  Therefore you should seperate your chest and shoulder days if you have to train them on seperate days. 

You could also do a few sets for Biceps after Back, and Triceps after Chest and allow a rest day or two before training shoulders.  That could eliminate the need for a seperate arms day, you could always add this back in at a later date if needed but I wouldn't worry too much about isolation to begin with.

So an example could be :
Monday - Back & Biceps
Tuesday - Chest & Triceps
Weds - Rest
Thurs - Legs
Friday - Shoulders

Hope this helps.

Just to add to the above,

You need to focus your workouts on training hard and then getting sufficient rest to get stronger and grow. 

You grow whilst resting not in the gym.

That's really useful, thanks Brummylad!

No probs mate,  glad I could help.