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Sunday, June 28, 2009

Overtraining, A Great Way to Kill Your Muscle Gain

By Ricardo d Argence

It seems that you are trying to get yourself in shape. It's likely that you're spending hours in the gym doing intense weight lifting. If you're not, then it's probably true that you're not going to get the results you want and you'll need to step up.

Remember that overtraining can hurt you just like not training enough. When you work too hard, you are not giving your body the time that it needs to stop and rest. When your body doesn't have the time and the resources that it needs to recover from the weightlifting that you want to do, you are going to see some serious problems.

To really understand the risks that go with overtraining, you should first understand how your body builds muscle. Remember that when you are going to the gym, you are not exactly creating muscle; you are creating tiny wounds and tears in your muscle that your body needs to repair and bulk up.

When the rips in your muscles heal, remember that they are going to get more tissue coming and filling in the tears, and this tissue will be tougher and stronger than the tissue used to be. This is the process that actually lets you build muscle.

Remember that if you are overtraining your muscle is just going to begin breaking down. There is no time for it to try to repair itself and the muscles that you want are actually being prevented from building.

Look for these symptoms to see whether or not you're overtraining. If you are, you can take steps to improve this and get back on the muscle-building track.

First of all, when you are overtraining, you will be working really hard, but you won't be building much if any muscle. That's the first thing you'll probably notice. If you keep going with overtraining, though, you're probably going to notice other symptoms, too.

Your testosterone levels will go down. If you don't let yourself recover between your workout sessions, your testosterone level is going to drop.

You might also notice that you are going to put on more fat. This might seem somehow unfair, but it is true. As you work out, you will be breaking down muscle, not letting it heal and increasing the levels of cortisol in your body. Cortisol is a stress hormone that makes your body hang on to its fat.

You might find yourself getting sick more often and much more easily than usual. When you overtrain, your immune system reacts by becoming weaker. So if you find yourself getting colds and flu more easily, slow down. A good bodybuilding regimen should make you less susceptible to colds and flu, not more so.

Loss of muscle mass. Finally, it bears repeating that when you overtrain, you lose muscle; you don't gain it. Since this is the absolute opposite of what you actually want to accomplish, a good bodybuilding regimen is in order to help you both avoid the symptoms and get the muscle you want.

How are you going to avoid overtraining? The truth is that that is easy. Nutrition is a key factor and when you want to build your body, you'll find that you should intersperse days of intense weightlifting with days of good rest.

It's a good idea to do some light cardio on your "rest" days, but the big point here is that you should be resting your muscles from heavy-duty lifting. They need time to recover and to repair.

Finally, remember that when you want to build up bigger muscles that your body needs the tools to do it. Go for lean proteins, fruits and vegetables. This will help you get the results that you need and it will keep you healthy while you do so! - 17273

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