Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Overtraining and Another Ways to Kill Your Muscle Gains

By Ricardo Daryans

Some guy in the gym finishes a hard set of barbell squats and re-racks the weight. He feels realy tired and he takes a big swig from his water bottle. He looks down at his watch and presses the start button to begin counting down backwards from 2 minutes.

He saw on TV that 2 minutes is the perfect rest time between sets, and what he wants is to do it exactly in that way. So, the watch beeps and he's be back in the squat rack ready for his next set of exercises with the weights.

Time is up. His still feel weak and his heart is still beating a lot, he doesn't feel completely ok, but the watch beeped and that means his has to go back and perform another set, it does'nt matter how he feels.

He performs the next set. He is not really ready to exercise right now, so he puts forth a mediocre effort, finish the set, and waits for another 2 seconds. He is making a huge mistake, just as hundreds of lifters in another gyms.

By having a set rest interval between sets, he is forcing his body to train at an effort level that is far less than his maximum potential and is severely sacrificing the amount of muscle growth he can ultimately stimulate because of this.

Muscles respond to stress, and the only truly stressful reps that actually trigger your body's muscle building mechanisms are those at the end of each set when the body is on the brink of muscular failure.

What you have to do then is to lift as much weight as you can again, and again, and again.

So, every time you are going to start a new set you have to do it when you are at your maximum. If you don't do it so, you sacrifice the amount of muscle you can build. In other words, give your body enough rest between sets in order to achieve the best results.

So, return to your exercise set when you feel you are again at 100% of your strenght capacity. When will it be? When your body tell you so, listen to it an you will know when it is time to the next set.

The set rest period theory is also highly flawed because it does not take into account the fact that certain exercises tax the body much more heavily than others and therefore require more rest between them. - 15432

About the Author: