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Sunday, March 15, 2009

How a little planning can avoid a lot of muscle pain

By Jon Cardozo

Many people begin a new project with much excitement but inevitably lose some steam as time goes on. This certainly happens in the world of muscle building, and when the going gets tough it can be difficult to maintain your motivation. In order to avoid this, it helps to have a little knowledge beforehand.

Even though a person might be eager to get started, rushing ahead with misinformation can lead to major problems down the road. Not only can this impede your progress in a strength training program, but it can also lead to injury and illness if care is not taken in the beginning. Here are a few tips to help you avoid pain in the future.

The first thing you should do is address any preexisting injuries before taking on an intense muscle building program. Getting a checkup with your family doctor is a good start, but you may need to consider some other therapies such as myofascial release to clear up any trigger points or scar tissue. Even some forms of massage therapy can be quite helpful, and many are surprised by the relief that these therapies can provide.

This so called alternative therapy is becoming more common and can offer recovery options that simply are not available in a doctor's office. The important point to keep in mind is that these injuries should be should be dealt with before they become a more severe problem. Remember that an injury like tendonitis can hamper your ability to train and delay your progress significantly.

After beginning a muscle building program, many unfortunately don't follow a good recovery program. You have to remember that the actual growth of your muscles does not occur in the gym, so you need to give your muscles enough rest in between workouts. Following this warning can help you progress more quickly as well as avoid injury. So many make the mistake of increasing their workouts when they don't see immediate results.

Their logic is simple: more is better. While this may be a simple concept, it is inherently flawed because it ignores the basic principles of muscle-growth. The goal of a strength training workout in the gym to is to challenge the muscle beyond its previous limits and create small tears in the muscle. The body will adapt to this new stress by rebuilding the muscle in a larger size (hypertrophy). However, the growth of the muscle itself will occur during the recovery phase, not during the actual workout in the gym. Allowing the body to heal before the next workout is critical to long-term success, and many experts only recommend as few as 3 hours of training per week!

If resting is important, then sleep is absolutely crucial. You should understand your muscles are not the only parts of your body that need to recover. Your entire body, including your nervous system and immune system, need to recover from your workouts. Moreover, deep sleep is necessary to build your muscles as effectively as possible. Do not underestimate the importance of sleep. Simply lying around and taking it easy isn't good enough either. You have to devote enough time to sleep each day.

Finally, a word should be said about listening to bodybuilding advice at your local gym. If you hear some information that contradicts anything in this article, you may want to think twice before succumbing to peer pressure. If you want to be one of the guys that gains huge amounts of muscle in the shortest time possible, you would be wise to take these tips to heart and ignore the bodybuilding masses. Your goal should not be to copy everyone else; rather, you should aim to be extraordinary and achieve the most spectacular results possible. This doesn't just mean gaining the most amount of muscle and becoming incredibly huge. What it really means in this case is that you should accomplish whatever muscle building goal you've set for yourself as safely and efficiently as possible. - 17273

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