Are You Overtraining In The Gym? By Karen Sessions
Are you in the gym hitting the weights with desire and passion? Do you want muscle growth so bad that you can literally taste it? The more you want it the more you train and the longer you spend in the gym?
Yep, I remember it all to well. Those days, literally everyday, in the gym slinging iron, posing, and pumping the weights some more, all in hopes to harvest muscles that would blast right through my clothes. If any hardcore bodybuilder tells you they have never done it, they are lying!
Overtraining
Overtraining is one of the biggest mistakes made by beginners or those who have hit a plateau. You get into the mind set that more is better. Many times those who know better get into an over training trap.
Overtraining is a dirty word in the bodybuilding community. It ranks right up there with the word "toning." Over taxing the muscles is disastrous to gains and fat loss. It will stop muscle growth dead in its tracks!
Signs and Symptoms of Overtraining:
If you think you are over training, then you probably are. Signs and symptoms are:
Improper and unbalanced diet
Failure to get adequate rest
Not making any progress
Feeling tired after working out
Continual muscle soreness
Depression
Recurrent illness
Loss of motivation
If the normal poundage you lift increasingly becomes heavier without you adding weight, you are not losing muscle pre se, you are just over trained. It would be best to take a week off to fully recover than to put your muscles through any more jeopardy, which could cause a loss of muscle.
When you are training you are in a catabolic stage, simply meaning you are tearing down your muscle tissue. This may sound like a negative thing, but it's actually positive, as long as you keep the catabolism in the gym!
The trick here is to keep resistance training under sixty minutes. Training for more than an hour is useless and can cause you to kill muscle gains and make for a slow recovery.
Muscle Growth
Your muscles are growing when you are resting. Nutrition and rest are anabolic. This, however, is one important factor that is neglected by many bodybuilders. Many individuals spend too much time in the gym pumping iron and too little time resting.
If a muscle never has a chance to repair and recover, how is it ever going to grow? You should take 7 to 10 days rest between trained body parts and you should never train a muscle group that is still sore. These are critical errors that are costly to muscle gains. You will notice some of the best physiques in the gym are there 3 to 4 days a week for less than an hour. Of course, their training is quality and intense.
If you feel you fall into the over training category, take a week off to allow your body to regain its ground. The time off will do you and your body good. You will return with a new zest and determination to train.
Remember, it's not who trains the hardest, but who trains the most effectively.
About The Author
Karen Sessions has been in the fitness industry since 1988 and is a certified personal fitness instructor and specialist in performance nutrition. She is a nationally qualified natural female bodybuilder, holding numerous titles in the southern states including two overalls.
Karen has written six e-books on fitness. She also writes articles for several fitness websites, and distributes two monthly newsletters regarding weight loss and female bodybuilding.
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