Train Regularly II

This is part two of my post about training regularly. Now that I have convinced you that taking more than a week off from training will begin to impact your strength and muscular development levels, I would like to also tell you that training everyday is NOT a good idea either.

Overtraining is somewhat of an epidemic in health clubs across the world. Working out becomes an addiction to "meat-heads" and "fit-freaks" alike. They put in hours upon hours, day after day at the gym trying to get that Spartan body, but after 6 months of hard training they see no more results. Well this "plateau" phenomenon is part of the overtraining effect. Basically, one or more of several things happens to your body.

1. Your body gets used to your training intensity and type, therefore adapting to the demands and ceasing any further improvement.
2. Your body cannot catch up to the demands of your workout due to the lack of recovery. If you have an intense workout on Monday and Tuesday, then you don’t allow your body to recover before trying to hit it hard again on Wednesday, then you won’t have the energy or muscle repair necessary to get a good workout. Your workouts diminishing intensity leads to a plateau.
3. As your body falls into a trench of excessive workout stress, your immune system and central nervous system become suppressed, and you feel symptoms of illness, loss of appetite, muscle soreness, fatigue, overall body weakness or lack of/ decrease of training progress.
   
   So it is not in your best interest to pound it out in the gym every day, month after month as hard as you can. My professional recommendation is 3-4 days/week total, of moderate to high intensity strength training. No more than 1-2 additional days of any high intensity interval fat-loss training (depending on your training level, age, stress levels, etc.) Always have at least 2 days of active rest (walking the dog, yoga, stretching, foam roller!!!), and AT THE VERY LEAST 1 DAY OF FULL OUT REST. If one day isn’t enough do not be afraid to take off another day, trust me it won’t make your hard earned six-pack turn to a keg.
   
   

Until next time, I'm going to get a six pack ; )