Dont Overtrain. But don’t Undertrain either……

Confusing eh?

Overtraining is fairly commonplace within the fitness industry nowadays. But UNDERTRAINING? How is that an issue? Surely doing something is better than nothing?

That is where you are wrong my friend.

Lets start with OVERTRAINING.

Overtraining can dramatically affect your progression in the gym. We live in a society where more is promoted as being a good thing. This isn’t always necessarily the case, especially when it comes to your body.

So how does overtraining effect your results. Well firstly if you are spending hours upon hours in the gym, you are not allowing your body enough time to recover before your next training session. Also, if you train every single day without rest, (or at least a cardio day), then you are not allowing the muscle fibres within your muscles to repair, and then grow stronger.

So the key to not overtraining…..DON’T spend hours in the gym. A 45 minute to 1 hour session is more than enough if you train effectively. Secondly, give your muscles a chance to repair and therefore grow and become stronger by resting them in some form, whether this is a cardio day or just a complete rest day.

Now onto UNDERTRAINING.

If you are spending hours and hours in the gym (like stated above), this is due to 2 things.

1, you are maybe taking something you shouldn’t to help the muscles perform to their maximum potential for such a long duration.

2, you’re waaaay undertraining and basically doing pretty much nothing while in the gym.

Just because you made it to the gym, grabbed your protein shake, and did 3 sets of bicep curls, this DOES NOT mean you will build muscle. If you go into the gym and count to a set of 12 and reach that amount comfortably, then you’re not working hard enough. If the last rep feels like you are lifting a house, then you know that was a good working set, and that is how progression is made. So if you don’t leave the gym after 45 mins to 1 hour MAX feeling like you have put yourself through it, you WONT get any results. Walking into the gym just isn’t enough. Make the most of your time in there, and push yourself to you body physical limits.

So you have to be wary of both over and undertraining. Find the balance, and watch your results come to fruition much sooner.