Common sense says that the results you get depend on how hard you
work, right? This is true in many cases. If you work hard at chopping
wood, you'll get more firewood faster. If you work hard researching and
writing an essay, you'll end up with a paper that's more thorough and
well written. The more time you spend juggling, the better juggler
you'll become.10 Minute Trainer
Because of this, we tend to think that the same applies to building muscle. It would make sense that if we go to the gym and do intense workouts every day, we'll see more muscle growth. Working out is what builds muscle, and by making our muscles work more often, they'll become stronger and larger faster, right? Well, it may seem very counterintuitive, but in the case of bodybuilding, that is completely opposite from the truth. To build muscle correctly, you need to work smarter, not harder.
If you've been spending hours at the gym training, you may be wondering how going less often will make you bigger and stronger. When you begin to understand just why your muscles grow, you it will all start to make sense.
First, let's look at another process that happens in the human body: Sun tanning.
If you want to get a nice tan, how do you go about it? Do you fly straight to some tropical beach and lay your wintery-white body out for hours to be pummeled directly with UV rays? Of course not! The only thing you'll end up with is a serious case of sunburn and lots of pain.
To get a good tan, you need to expose your body to small doses of sunlight, consistently over time. UV damages the skin, and in small doses, the body can easily repair it. It also reacts by creating more pigment as a way of protecting it against future damage from the sun. This is an amazing technique that the human body has developed to let it adapt to its environment. When it encounters certain harmful conditions, it builds up defenses as it repairs itself, just so long as the damage is not severe and it has ample time to recover. If we are in a cold environment, our blood becomes thicker and our metabolism slows. We grow calluses on certain parts of our skin that need extra protection. The list goes on.
In the case of our muscles, they become damaged when we exercise them to where they are working past their capacity. When your body goes to repair them, it knows to build them up larger to get them ready for the next time that they encounter that much resistance. That's why you need to keep increasing the amount of resistance and the number of reps you do week after week, to keep your body constantly adapting and growing.10 Minute Trainer
So that part seems to make sense, right? But the main point that you need to remember is that your body needs time to rest and recover. For your muscles to grow bigger and stronger, they need to have a chance to rebuild themselves. By working out every day, you're not giving them the opportunity they need to recover and grow, and it ends up being counterproductive.
So like we said earlier, it's important to work smarter, not harder. Your goals should be geared toward making your routines more efficient. In other words, you want to get the best results from doing the least amount of work. Once you've worked your muscles to the point of muscle failure, you've primed them for the body's recovery process. Pushing on from there will only create more damage, and your body will have to work harder and longer to repair it.
A huge number of people don't understand the body's recovery process when it comes to weight training. They end up exercising far too often and planning their workouts in a way that stifles their progress. Intensive weight training with the purpose of growing muscle is actually quite stressful to the body, a lot more than people realize, and so it's extra important to do it the right way. These three points of advice will be good to follow:
• You should keep your workouts intense, but don't let them go over 1 hour.
• Schedule your workouts for 3 days of the week, 4 tops.
• For each day you work out, focus your exercises on specific muscle groups, and then switch them out the next time, so that you're never stressing the same muscles with back-to-back workouts.
Always work your muscles to their limits to get the full effect, and add more weight or more reps each week to always keep them growing and adapting. By continuing to train hard, and by working smarter, you'll find that doing fewer workouts will be more productive for you and your weight training goals.10 Minute Trainer
Because of this, we tend to think that the same applies to building muscle. It would make sense that if we go to the gym and do intense workouts every day, we'll see more muscle growth. Working out is what builds muscle, and by making our muscles work more often, they'll become stronger and larger faster, right? Well, it may seem very counterintuitive, but in the case of bodybuilding, that is completely opposite from the truth. To build muscle correctly, you need to work smarter, not harder.
If you've been spending hours at the gym training, you may be wondering how going less often will make you bigger and stronger. When you begin to understand just why your muscles grow, you it will all start to make sense.
First, let's look at another process that happens in the human body: Sun tanning.
If you want to get a nice tan, how do you go about it? Do you fly straight to some tropical beach and lay your wintery-white body out for hours to be pummeled directly with UV rays? Of course not! The only thing you'll end up with is a serious case of sunburn and lots of pain.
To get a good tan, you need to expose your body to small doses of sunlight, consistently over time. UV damages the skin, and in small doses, the body can easily repair it. It also reacts by creating more pigment as a way of protecting it against future damage from the sun. This is an amazing technique that the human body has developed to let it adapt to its environment. When it encounters certain harmful conditions, it builds up defenses as it repairs itself, just so long as the damage is not severe and it has ample time to recover. If we are in a cold environment, our blood becomes thicker and our metabolism slows. We grow calluses on certain parts of our skin that need extra protection. The list goes on.
In the case of our muscles, they become damaged when we exercise them to where they are working past their capacity. When your body goes to repair them, it knows to build them up larger to get them ready for the next time that they encounter that much resistance. That's why you need to keep increasing the amount of resistance and the number of reps you do week after week, to keep your body constantly adapting and growing.10 Minute Trainer
So that part seems to make sense, right? But the main point that you need to remember is that your body needs time to rest and recover. For your muscles to grow bigger and stronger, they need to have a chance to rebuild themselves. By working out every day, you're not giving them the opportunity they need to recover and grow, and it ends up being counterproductive.
So like we said earlier, it's important to work smarter, not harder. Your goals should be geared toward making your routines more efficient. In other words, you want to get the best results from doing the least amount of work. Once you've worked your muscles to the point of muscle failure, you've primed them for the body's recovery process. Pushing on from there will only create more damage, and your body will have to work harder and longer to repair it.
A huge number of people don't understand the body's recovery process when it comes to weight training. They end up exercising far too often and planning their workouts in a way that stifles their progress. Intensive weight training with the purpose of growing muscle is actually quite stressful to the body, a lot more than people realize, and so it's extra important to do it the right way. These three points of advice will be good to follow:
• You should keep your workouts intense, but don't let them go over 1 hour.
• Schedule your workouts for 3 days of the week, 4 tops.
• For each day you work out, focus your exercises on specific muscle groups, and then switch them out the next time, so that you're never stressing the same muscles with back-to-back workouts.
Always work your muscles to their limits to get the full effect, and add more weight or more reps each week to always keep them growing and adapting. By continuing to train hard, and by working smarter, you'll find that doing fewer workouts will be more productive for you and your weight training goals.10 Minute Trainer
