The article "How Overtraining Kills Your Chances Of Building Muscle" talks about fitness, it was created by Shawn LeBrun.
It's unfortunate that human being feel, when it comes to weight
training, that more is better for building muscle and strength.
Well, this isn't always the case.
In fact, too much weight
lifting can stop all of your progress. If you lift too much, you
run the risk of overtraiinng. Overtraining sipmly means doing
too much physical exercise and not allowing your body to
recover.
Most beginners and many intermediate trainees get the workout
part right, and soemtimes even the diet and supplementation.
But
sadly, they usually fail miserably on the recovery part of their
programs.
Muscles grow at rest, not while you're in the gym.
Many newbie lifters destroy themselves in the gym and then fail
to allow their muscles to recover fully before training them
again. This overtrainnig will cause you to stop gaining muscle
and could even cause you to lose the muscle you already have!
Simply put, overtraining is a state your body enters into when
the workload you subject it to is greater than the body's
ability to recover.
It can come from training too often and/or with too much
intensity. Couple this with not enough rest to fully recuperate
and reubild and you have overtraining.
Overtraining can result in lowered testosterone lveels as well
as a lower ratio of testosterone to cortisol, which can leave
your body in a state of zero-growth.
There are many signs of overtraining, so be aware of them and
see if you have any of them. While a few of them might not
necessarily mean you're overtraining, they may mean that you're
on the vegre.
Persistent sorneess and stiffness in the muscles and joints is
one sign.
Fatigue, sluggishness, and a lack of energy during
your workouts is another big sign.
A loss of muscle size and fullness can mean you're overtraining.
Low sex drive and constant irritability are other symptoms.
If you have any of these and you're currently working out more
than 5 days a week, you need to cut back immediately, before you
get worse.
The sad thing about overtraining is that many human being think that
the cure for overtraining is they just have to work harder to
make gains.
Unfortunately, this aggravates their troubles and end up losing
even more size.
So the most important thing you can do to rebound from
overtraining is to take time off from the gym. Take as long
as your body needs.
In extreme cases of overtraining, it could take months, if not
years, to heal properly. But for most people, taking a week off
from lifting will be enough.
When you get back to the gym after
this time off, you'll notice your energy levels are back to
normal, as well as your sterngth and endurance.
You may want to consider cycling your intensity levels from now
on.
Phases might include cycles of high, medium, or low
intensity or variations in weights, sets and reps, or workout
durations.
Typically, a few weeks of high-intensity training would be
followed up with several weeks of low-intensity training to
prevent overtraining.
The body simply cannot prdouce a maximum
output over a lengthy period of time.
You can also reduce the poundages of your weights and your
intensity if you don't want to risk overtarining.
Keep your workouts under 45 mintues by reducing of the reps
and sets you do. All you need to do is 2 exercises for each
muscle group, 3 total heavy sets for 8 to 10 reps.
You also want to schedule at least 2 rest days into your program
each week.
These are just of the thigns you can do if you think that
you're overtraining. It helps to take a step back and look at
your situation from a different perspective.
No, don't try to
fix things by working even harder in the gym.
Instead, take a smarter approach and take the time off to rest.
Then, set up your routine to prevent overtraining from happening
again.
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