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In this video I go over three main areas that I feel have the most to do with "How Our Muscles Build & Recover & How to Get the Most Out of Your Training":
- Muscle Repair
- Over Training
- Workout Frequency
Muscle Repair
The general consensus is that it takes around 24 hours to recover from a strenuous weight training activity. And this time is dependent on how hard you worked out, how use to the training your muscles are, how much rest and sleep you are getting, stress levels, sickness, are the right nutrition?
Many people think that if they are sore then their muscles are still repairing and after a hard workout or a workout you have not done in a while you can be sore for sometimes even 4-5 days afterward. All this means is you have a large amount of lactose build up in the muscle that is causing the pain since lactose is like little crystals in the muscle fibers grating against them. But it really has nothing to do with if the muscles have repaired or not and are ready to be trained again.
One point I really want to stress here is that if your muscles are not in a Recovery/Build state then they are in a state of Atrophy which means they are getting smaller and weaker. So if you train Legs on Monday once per week, they should be repaired by sometime Wednesday which means Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday are days that your legs are not getting any weight training stimulation and if you are a fairly sedentary person then your legs will be in a state of Atrophy for 4 days that week!
Over Training
Let's get this sorted out right here and right now. Unless you are some sort of top level athlete that trains 100%, 3-4 hours per day like a marathon runner, or a body builder or a Crossfit athlete (of course there are many others), then I guarantee you are not over training! Don't confuse an injury from an underlying imbalance or improper workout form as over training. If you have an injury or a muscle issue with your body like arthritis, muscle strain, ligament strain then you need to train smarter or in a way that does not aggravate these ongoing issues and we all have them. It does not mean you are working out too much, you are just working out the wrong way so change it.
Often times people will have mindset issues where they simply think that training 5-6 days per week is too much. Nope, not a problem your body can take it again if you workout smart. Of course you need to get proper nutrition, sleep and keep your life as stress free as you can.
Workout Frequency
OK so here is how all of the above info relates to what I am trying to teach you...
One of the most common workout types that many people have been training with is what is referred to as the "Bro-Split". This workout is based on training for the most part one body part each day and hitting the gym about 5 days per week to get everything done once per week. So when you go into the gym to train a body part like chest that day, you hit it from every angle and usually end up completing 3-4 exercises for chest and probably getting around 20 sets. Yes you will be sore the next day and the next day and maybe even the next day but then guess what? Nothing for the next 4 days so what did I say was going to happen if your muscles are not building/recovering? That's right, they are Atrophying for more days then they are building that week.
Another problem with the "Bro-Split" is that it is impossible to do 3-4 exercises with 100% intensity and hitting the same workout numbers and volume for each set that you would have if you only did that one exercise for a given muscle so in other words a very inefficient way of training muscles.
I prefer two other workout models that allow a person to train a body part more times per week than just once making sure you are not in a state of atrophy at all or at least minimizing it a lot. I don't want to go into a lot of details but basically one good workout option is the "Upper Lower Split" where you focus on upper body one day and then lower body the next, if you train 6 days per week you will hit each body part 3 times per week with virtually no days of Muscle Atrophy, if you train 4 days per week you will hit each muscle part twice per week with minimal muscle atrophy days. Of course you will not do as much volume or as many exercises per muscle group each day as the "Bro-Split" but that's OK because over the course of the week, it will all add up and each exercise will have more intensity with better efficiency since the muscles are fresh.
Another option is training every body part or your full body every workout. And yes you can do this 5-6 days per week without overtraining since you are not hitting each muscle as hard as you are only doing 2-3 sets per body part per day. Recovery time if you are healthy will be around 24 hours. What I like about this type of workout is that you can do it 3 days per week, 4 days per week, 5 days per week and even 6 days per week. I suggest you take at least one day off per week to rest the mind and body from weight training as you will get more out of your training and enjoy training more by taking a day off every week.
When you do full body workouts 5-6 days per week you will literally never be in a sate of Atrophy and each time you train a body part it is fresh and ready to go 100%.