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Overtraining

By Mark H. Saunders

As the Tucson personal trainer, I will explain how you can avoid the common pitfalls of overtraining. Whether you are trying to gain 5lbs. of muscle or 50lbs., you must remember that muscle growth does not occur until the body has recovered from the previous workout. There are five major factors of recovery. They are as follows:

  1. Avoid overtraining
  2. Sleep and rest
  3. Plugging physical energy leaks
  4. Peace of mind
  5. Constantly monitoring your diet

The harder you work, the more time you need to recover and recuperate. Rest and recuperation are very important. As the Tucson personal trainer, I believe, you stimulate growth during the workout, it is during the rest period, and that the actual muscle growth takes place. Many athletes frequently overcome sticking points when the rest. The rest gives them time to fully recuperate.

The most common mistake aspiring fitness enthusiast make is overtraining. They are so enthusiastic; they keep adding total sets to their routine until their bodies can no longer recover between workouts. They will make no additional gains and in many cases will regress in strength and development.

Dynamic Bodies is the leader in Tucson personal training. We monitor your workload as this is crucial to avoid overtraining. The goal is to strive for a maximum workload without overtraining. It is a physiological fact that a muscle cannot hypertrophy (grow) until it is fully recovered.

If you have less than 2-3 years of experience, you will probably do best with a 4 day a week routine. An example of this is to train Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. There are a variety of ways to split it up, for an example see the chart below:

Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
workout
workout
workout
workout
workout
workout
workout
workout
workout
workout
workout
workout
workout
workout
workout
workout

BELOW IS MARK SAUNDERS’ SUGGESTED PARAMETERS FOR TOTAL SETS:

 
BEGINNER
INTERMEDIATE
ADVANCED
LEGS
7-10
10-12
13-15
BACK
7-10
10-12
13-15
CHEST
6-9
9-11
12-14
SHOULDERS
6-9
9-11
12-14
TRICEPS
4-6
6-8
9-10
BICEPS
4-6
6-8
9-10
FOREARMS
4-6
6-8
9-10
CALVES
4-6
6-8
9-10
ABDOMINALS
3-5
5-6
7-8

If you are wired at night and find it difficult to fall asleep you are probably overtraining. It should be relatively easy to fall asleep. Rest is almost as important as sleep. Just by kicking back for 10-15 quite minutes is almost as good as a short nap, as long as you can completely clear your mind of all thoughts as well as rest your muscles.

We at Dynamic Bodies, the Tucson Personal trainer, believe that food supplements can also protect you from not getting your full recovery. At a minimum you should be taking a multi-vitamin and getting regular balanced meals every 2-3 hours.

As the Tucson personal trainer, we will help you pay proper attention to your recovery cycle. This will help you achieve your physique enhancement goals. You will most certainly come closer and closer to reaching your genetic potential.

About the Author:

Mark H. Saunders is a certified trainer and owner of Dynamic Bodies personal training in Tucson Arizona. His website is http://www.thetucsonpersonaltrainer.com.