Musclebuilding Overtraining, Don’t Let It Affect Your Gains

November 19, 2008

by Ricardo d Argence

You obviously are trying to get yourself in shape. If you aren’t spending hours in the gym doing intense weight training, you are probably not going to achieve your desired results, and may think about enhancing your program. However, keep in mind that you must not overtrain.

If you work too hard without giving your body time to rest and recuperate between weightlifting sessions, you will get what is called overtraining.

To understand overtraining, you first have to understand that when you are building muscle, you’re actually breaking muscle down. You’re not building the muscle in the gym, really. Instead, what you’re doing is breaking down muscle in the gym and producing tiny injuries in the muscle that then must heal and repair. When these injuries heal and repair, they heal and repair stronger than they were previously. Therefore, when you’re building muscle, you’re actually breaking down muscle first, and then letting your body rest and repair in between; this process is what actually builds muscle.

Overtraining deprives your body of needed rest and does not allow it to adequately build and repair itself between workouts. In fact, as opposed to destroying muscle, you’re actually building muscle when you notice this. Worse than that, though, you’re actually hurting yourself in a number of other ways, too. Find out about these symptoms to see do you really training to much.

First of all, when you are overtraining, you will be working really hard, but you won’t be building much if any muscle. That’s the first thing you’ll probably notice. If you keep going with overtraining, though, you’re probably going to notice other symptoms, too.

Your testosterone levels will go down if you don’t let yourself recover between your workout sessions.

As unbelievable as it sounds, you could get chubbyer and bigger. You might gain weight you don’t want to, in the form of fat. In continuing to overtrain, you will in effect be breaking down fat burning muscle without building it back up, as well as increasing your cortisol levels. There is a stress hormone called Cortisol that makes the body want to hold onto and retain the fat that is present, especially in the stomach area.

Overtraining is a good way to make your immune system break down and become weaker. The reason is that it is trying to cope with your body’s constant state of inflammation due to sore and damaged muscles. So if you find yourself getting colds and flu more easily, slow down. When you incorporate a good bodybuilding regimen, it should make you less likely to come down with the flu or a cold, not more likely.

Finally, keep in mind that when you overtrain, you’re losing more muscle than you are gaining. This is the opposite of what you actually want to accomplish, and a good bodybuilding routine will assist you in achieving the muscle you want as well as avoiding the symptoms that you do not.

When you’re bodybuilding, your pattern should be one day of intense weightlifting followed by one day of rest. Do heavy duty lifting three to four days a week and give yourself a day off in between intense workouts. It’s a good idea to do some light cardio on your rest days, but the big point here is that you should be resting your muscles from heavy duty lifting. They need time to recover and to repair. This is what’s going to help you bulk up in a good way, with muscle.

Even if your body is resting, it cannot repair and replenish itself until it’s got the tools to do so. That means that nutrition is just as important as rest is. You should choose lean potatoes fruits and vegetables, and whole grains over junk food like potato chips. Quality nutritious calories that will charge you and supply your body with strength after training. If you follow this workout, you will begin to see results quite quickly and start to feel much better as well.

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