Overtraining – The Bodybuilders Nemesis During Intense Training And Workouts

It?s a given that you have to train hard in order to keep gaining size and strength. Yet it is this intense training that actually breaks you down and makes you weaker. So what leads to the size and strength gain? Rest. Physiological improvement occurs only during the rest period following hard training. Rest allows the body to acquire the benefits of exercise: Improved efficiency of the heart; increased capillaries in the muscles; increased glycogen stores; and increased strength and size of muscle fibers. Your muscles will also be able to operate at a higher level of performance. If sufficient rest is not allowed between workouts, regeneration cannot occur and your performance will plateau. In short you are in a state of overtraining.

Overtraining is a physiological and psychological condition where rest periods are no longer adequate enough to produce sufficient recovery from previous workouts. The term “overtraining syndrome” describes the emotional, behavioral, and physical symptoms that characterize this problem. These symptoms can persist for weeks – even months – following intense training without adequate recovery time. Bodybuilders and other athletes also refer to it as “burnout” and it is much more severe than the more familiar variations in performance that occur almost daily.

Common Symptoms:
? The most common overtraining symptom is constant fatigue. This may limit workouts and even be present at rest.
? Moodiness and irritation
? Trouble sleeping
? Mild depression
? Loss of motivation and enthusiasm for training
? Reduced appetite and weight loss
? Constant muscular aches and soreness, increased susceptibility to viral illnesses, and nagging injuries

Early detection is very important. If it occurred over a short period of time (e.g., 3 – 4 weeks) then ceasing training for 3 – 5 days usually provides sufficient rest. A good rule of thumb is one day of rest for each week of overtraining. After this, training can be resumed, but on a reduced basis. Those four to six day splits will need to be cut back to two to three days of alternating low-intensity full-body sessions. It is vital that the factors leading to overtraining be identified and corrected. Otherwise, the condition will recur. In some severe cases, the training program may have to be interrupted for weeks, and it may take months to recover.

In conclusion, it is better to be undertrained than overtrained. Rest is a vital part of any bodybuilders training program. Early warning signs over doing it should be noticed and then schedule adjustments accordingly. Smart training, with adequate rest periods after regular stretches of intense training, is the true path to acquiring and maintaining maximum strength and muscle gains after your workouts.

Bob Howard expert on bodybuilding and steroids. Are you looking for more of his bodybuilding overtraining articles? www.bodybuildinginformation.com Article ? Bob Howard

How and Why to Quit Smoking

Why and how you should quit smoking

53 years ago I had a friend and she was a girl.(not an official Girlfriend).

Her mom smoked and worked during the day so daughter used to pinch her smokes and shared them with me. Both my parents smoked as well.

So off and on I got used to smoking; my smoking got a real boost when I became a sailor at the age of 17, because you could buy cigarettes tax-free when you were outside territorial waters.

Over time I started smoking more and more cigarettes and had to get up a couple of times a night to have another nicotine fix.

Life without cigarettes was just not imaginable.

Going on an airline trip was sheer torture because I could not smoke for a couple of hours.

We flew to Singapore once and I had a couple of smokes in the washroom in spite of the fact that airplanes were already putting people in jail for smoking.

Over the years half of my mom’s family died of lung cancer.

My dad’s only sibling died of lung cancer.

My mom died of a brain tumor-she used to be a heavy smoker.

My dad got lung cancer.

After he got lung cancer he visited me; he was a pathetic skin over bones man now, wearing a corduroy suit, BUT STILL SMOKING IN MY GARAGE.

My brother’s wife has breast cancer; my brother still smokes cigars.

I started having coughing spells at night and the vision in my left eye was deteriorating.

Me quitting smoking? Impossible- I have no willpower.

Because I knew I could not quit I never even bothered to buy Nicorette or any other stuff.

So after a whole lifetime of smoking I was going to die of lung cancer too.

BUT WAIT: the story is not finished yet.

On September 4, 2002 I was in Calgary browsing in a bookstore called Brown and Noble and a book jumped out at me.

The book was called “How to stop smoking” and had 385 pages in it.

I glanced at the first couple of pages where the author boasted that this book was the only way to quit smoking without any withdrawal symptoms or without the Patch.

I bought the book because I was curious as to what you could write 385 pages about how to quit smoking.

It took me 9 days to read the book.

On September 13, 2002 at 3 PM I took my last drag and exhaled it through a Kleenex.

That was my last cigarette. I have never even thought about smoking.
People can smoke around me and I don’t give it a thought.

The book changes your Mindset.

The book is called “How to stop smoking” by Allan Carr, a British Accountant and is not available in the United States.

I no longer cough at night and the vision in my left eye is fine now.

Frank Vanderlugt
http://www.youwillquit.com