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Don't Overtrain
By Doberman Dan
Weight training puts a huge strain not only on your
body but also your endocrine system. Adequate rest
and recuperation after your workouts is essential. If
you consistently overtrain (too much volume and
training too frequently), a couple things happen:
* You don't give your muscles enough time to
recuperate, repair, and grow between workouts. If
your muscles have not repaired themselves, you will
not be at maximum strength for your next workout.
Rest is absolutely essential for muscle mass growth
and increased strength.
* You run a pretty good risk of an injury.
Building your ideal physique is not an overnight deal.
You need to pace yourself. You want to be able to
keep working at this consistently, not burnout before
you reach your goals.
I usually only train with weights 3 times per week.
Any more than that and it's not enough time for my
body to repair and build new muscle.
You don't grow while working out, you only grow
when you're resting.
Below is a good example of a workout specifically for
increased muscle mass. I recommend doing 4 heavy
sets for 8-12 reps each.
Monday (legs, abs)
* Leg extension/Squats superset
* Seated Calve Raises
* Crunches (4 sets of 20)
Wednesday (chest, shoulder, triceps, abs)
* Incline dumbbell flyes/Flat bench press superset
* Side dumbbell raises/Shoulder press superset
* Tricep pushdowns
* Reverse incline leg raises (3 sets of 20)
Friday (back, biceps, abs)
* Dumbbell pullover/Wide grip pull-ups superset
* Barbell curls
* Crunches (4 sets of 20)
For some hard gainers 4 sets of each exercise may
be too much volume. If so, cut back to 2 sets of
8-12 reps. The superset exercise combinations
are pretty intense. It may be best to start with only
2 sets of each exercise for the superset combos
and build up to 4 sets over a period of a
few weeks.
That's it. It's not complicated or fancy...just
effective.
Editors note: Dan is the author of the "Bodybuilding
for the Genetically Average" Series of books.
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