Muscle Building & Over Training

One of the main reasons why most bodybuilders and lifters fail to achieve the rapid muscle gains they deserve is because they’re simply not giving their muscles enough time to recover and grow. Muscles need rest and the right nutrients to grow and if you neglect either you’re heading for some serious overtraining.

A few tell tale signs of overtraining are listed below, if you suffer from any of these it’s worth re-thinking the way you workout:

• You constantly feel tired
• You don’t feel like training
• You’re losing your appetite
• You’re losing strength and muscle

As well as the above symptoms there are also some clear steps and guidelines you can follow to prevent overtraining, check out some of our recommendations below:

• You’re doing more than 10 sets per muscle group. Don’t be confused by the huge guys in the gym doing 10 sets of 150 kg’s on the bench press. These guys have either been working out for a very long time or they’re not using natural bodybuilding techniques to achieve their extraordinary results.
• You’re doing more than 2 to 3 exercises for any muscle group. Let’s say for example you’re training your chest. To not over train your muscles and to work your entire chest you only need to do the bench press and incline bench press. You don’t need to do the pec deck and decline bench press in the same workout. These extra exercises will lead to overtraining, so keep things simple.

• Training sessions greater than an hour. The ideal training program should consist of 5-6 exercises, 3-5 sets, and 6-8 and/or 10-12 reps. This should not take longer than an hour. Push yourself any harder and you’re likely to over train your muscles.
• Continually increasing the amount of sets performed. If in week one you do 3 sets, week 2, 4 sets, week 3, 5 sets, week 4, 6 sets and continually increase the sets performed, your muscles will eventually break down. The trick is to perform 3 sets in week 1, 4 sets in week 2, 5 sets in week 3 and then revert back to 3 sets in week one.
• Poor Nutritional intake. Your muscles need both a positive balance of protein and calories to grow. You should be eating eggs, milk, meats, fish, chicken, etc. along with fresh fruits and vegetables. If you fail to intake the right nutrition you’ll fail to grow, it’s as simple as that.
• Less than 8 hours sleep. Your body does most of its muscle building while you’re sleeping, so make sure you get the right amount of sleep.

If you follow the above guidelines not only will you avoid over training but you’ll start seeing the muscle gains you ought to be seeing. Training smart will get you better results and you’ll probably look forward to your training sessions much more.