Avoid overtraining
This is one of the most common and most deadly mistakes that almost all beginners run into. They naturally assume that the more overall work they perform in the gym, the greater their results will be.
Heck, when I was a beginner myself I thought the same thing.
Who can blame us for thinking that?
In almost all aspects of life this basic logic holds true. If you want to perform well on a school test, you need to maximize your studying time. If you want to improve your skills in a specific sport, you need to practice as much as possible.
When it comes to training for muscular size and strength, you can take this basic logic and toss it right out the window, down the street and around the corner!
The key thing to realize is that your muscles will NOT grow larger and stronger if they are stressed beyond the point of recovery. Remember, training with weights is merely an activity that sets the wheels in motion; it “sparks” the muscle growth process and “tells” your body to start building new muscle tissue… But the actual growth process takes place away from the gym while you’re eating and resting.
If you disturb the recovery process, your muscles cannot rebuild themselves.
Overtraining is your number one enemy! Your goal in the gym is to perform the minimum amount of work necessary in order to yield an adaptive response from the body, and not a THING more.
You can avoid overtraining in the following ways…
1) Limit the number of sets that you perform during each workout – You should perform a total of 5-7 sets for large muscle groups (chest, back and thighs) and 2-4 total sets for small muscle groups (shoulders, biceps, triceps, calves and abs). And remember, this is total sets per WORKOUT, not per exercise.
2) Limit the amount of time spent in the gym – Each workout should not last for any more than 1 hour. This time frame comes into play beginning with your first muscle-building set and ends with your final muscle-building set.
3) Limit your training frequency for each muscle group – Each specific muscle group should only be directly stimulated once per week in order to allow for full recovery time. If you’ve been following the “more is better” mentality then you may find it hard to let go of, but believe me, as long as you train hard, you do NOT need to train often or with very many sets and exercises.
In fact, performing too much work in the gym may actually cause your muscles to become smaller and weaker.
Sharing is sexyHeck, when I was a beginner myself I thought the same thing.
Who can blame us for thinking that?
In almost all aspects of life this basic logic holds true. If you want to perform well on a school test, you need to maximize your studying time. If you want to improve your skills in a specific sport, you need to practice as much as possible.
When it comes to training for muscular size and strength, you can take this basic logic and toss it right out the window, down the street and around the corner!
The key thing to realize is that your muscles will NOT grow larger and stronger if they are stressed beyond the point of recovery. Remember, training with weights is merely an activity that sets the wheels in motion; it “sparks” the muscle growth process and “tells” your body to start building new muscle tissue… But the actual growth process takes place away from the gym while you’re eating and resting.
If you disturb the recovery process, your muscles cannot rebuild themselves.
Overtraining is your number one enemy! Your goal in the gym is to perform the minimum amount of work necessary in order to yield an adaptive response from the body, and not a THING more.
You can avoid overtraining in the following ways…
1) Limit the number of sets that you perform during each workout – You should perform a total of 5-7 sets for large muscle groups (chest, back and thighs) and 2-4 total sets for small muscle groups (shoulders, biceps, triceps, calves and abs). And remember, this is total sets per WORKOUT, not per exercise.
2) Limit the amount of time spent in the gym – Each workout should not last for any more than 1 hour. This time frame comes into play beginning with your first muscle-building set and ends with your final muscle-building set.
3) Limit your training frequency for each muscle group – Each specific muscle group should only be directly stimulated once per week in order to allow for full recovery time. If you’ve been following the “more is better” mentality then you may find it hard to let go of, but believe me, as long as you train hard, you do NOT need to train often or with very many sets and exercises.
In fact, performing too much work in the gym may actually cause your muscles to become smaller and weaker.
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