The art and psychology of avoiding high-intensity overtraining
It goes more or less like this…
Hello Bill, I hope you can help me! I’m not sure why the weights used in my exercises don’t increase! I feel exhausted, I’m coming down with a cold, and I’m not sure what to do.
Well, John, are you applying the theory of high intensity training… that is, are your workouts intense, short and infrequent?
Oh yeah… I’m only training three times a week, going to failure with a couple of forced reps and doing three sets for every two sets of my 5 exercises.
Do you mean that you’re not only going to fail each set, then do two more sets with reduced weight, but also do two sets this way for a total of 5 exercises?
Yeah, isn’t that intense?
NO! It is High Intensity Overtraining. It’s ridiculous and self-defeating and drains your body’s limited resources of recovery ability faster than you can say, “Even though I’m cross-training and lowering my training intensity, I’m overtrained and need to take 3 weeks off.”
Muscle building is not aerobics and a properly designed bodybuilding program is really a strength building program.
If you look at the above scenario, it’s not uncommon for most in the gym these days, whether they’re aware of it or not. Most avid, well-intentioned people who hit the gym to “get in shape”… fall into the same rut and then wonder why their body changes for the worse or changes very little. They are under the erroneous, misapplied and/or crossed social economic principle that “more is better”! This can be great for wealth or material possessions, but, as Mike Mentzer said, not when it comes to the body.
Remember, the gym is nothing more than a means to an end… getting in shape.
What is really getting fit? It’s losing body fat and gaining muscle. Every human being on the face of this earth has a body that responds to the same stimuli and is physiologically the same, based on genetics… of course you would have a hard time trying to articulate this to the faithful followers of the cardio clan who also apply this incorrectly to anaerobic training. Therefore, this can only be explained by the art and psychology of this phenomenon of overtraining.
Overtraining is more of a mindset than anything else. I see it in many athletes still under the impression and belief that more is better. It is based on the fear of lack, of lack. If you’re looking to get lean and fit, bigger and stronger, build muscle and lose fat faster than butter in a steam room, you need to learn to think about it and manage your exercise routine based on training theory. high intensity. .
Arthur Jones said it best…
“Anything of any value related to exercise can be expressed in less than a thousand words; in fact, it can be covered quite well in a few words, as follows: train hard, train short, train infrequently, and always remember to Your final results will be primarily a consequence of genetics” -Arthur Jones
Arthur understood this but did not perfect it. It wasn’t until a man named Mike Mentzer came into bodybuilding circles that the rise began!
“The Earth is not flat!”
“Think of the people!” She could hear him say.
Well, what Mike said could certainly have been compared to the “earth is flat” statement, based on the ignorance of the bodybuilding community at the time. Not only did he underscore what Jones said, but he asserted that there is a precise volume and frequency, based on individual genetics.
Mike asked questions like…
“If we think about this logically, where should we start? Should we start less since everyone is doing 20 sets…” maybe 9 or 7 or 3 since we’ve let dogma and tradition dictate Our thinking?
Seven days a week, three full meals a day, the father, the son and the holy spirit or should we start with the logical place?
What would be the logical place?
Well, Mike and I agree… let’s start with one!
Yes one! One set! One set per exercise. There’s no point in stimulating muscle growth (which is what a set taken to the point of failure is), and then when the body is ready to adapt… do it again or two more times or whatever! Not to mention reducing the intensity of the effort by reducing the weight! Remember, getting fit is building muscle, fitting in is like getting a tan. It takes intensity to do that. Like the hot August sun and its intensity of ultraviolet rays, the body needs a reason to put on the muscles.
Yes… yes of course, you will say that you know people who do not go to failure and make a series of casts that have improved. Of course you do, because going from doing nothing to doing something is also a stimulus that elicits an adaptive response. But unless you give the body a reason to grow, it will do very little when it comes to muscle. And of course, who wants to spend hours in the gym?
I’ve been in the gym for 4 decades and I see people come and go all the time. I also noticed that they change very little after a certain point…just going through the motions. Frankly, they could have been a Mr. Olympia and never know it! Because? Because going to the gym and doing an arbitrary number of reps and sets, going through the motions is like going out on a cloudy day and hoping to get a tan… It’s not going to happen! Once again, the theory of more is better has been misapplied to bodybuilding…
So if we use the theory of more is better, does that mean when progress stops, you insert 2, 4, 10, 12 extra sets… eventually be in the gym all day? Sounds pretty silly, right?
No, this is just the way most people sabotage themselves by not understanding how the body reacts to exercise and how to find their way to their goals. Remember, it must first exist in your mind before you can put it into your reality.
The way the body lays down muscle is this…
1- You have to stimulate him, give him a reason, so that he changes. One set of an exercise taken to a point of momentary muscular failure is enough, especially at first. It is the last almost impossible repetition of a series that activates the growth mechanism of the body. Notice I said the body, not the body part.
2- Sufficient time must be given to compensate for the exhaustive effects of the training. A set to failure is much different than going through the motions to an arbitrary repetition with a weight that won’t challenge your system. You can do 5-8 sets of squats that don’t go to failure, which will leave you pleasantly tired… but do a set of squats to failure with a weight that allows you 10-20 reps; true failure and I guarantee you will need a few days just to recover and possibly a bucket to vomit after completing the set. Now that’s a set to fail.
3- You must allow enough time, after it is at 100% to allow overcompensation to occur. I call this the Two Day Rule!
What I have not said is that the body can increase its strength by 300-400% or more, while the recovery ability can only be increased by 50%. This means that as you get stronger and more muscular, you should reduce the volume and frequency of your training. I have some training once every 10-14 days with only 2-4 sets depending on your goals! Remember, your body is changing from workout to workout, so it requires volume and frequency changes and management to allow you to adapt as much as possible.
Again, it’s a mindset… a detached mindset. You must think of yourself as a specimen in an experiment and pay attention to your results. Signs of illness, feeling lethargic, stagnant weights on exercises, or loss of strength and muscle are signs of overtraining.
See it for what it is and make any necessary changes to your volume and frequency. While you are training intensely you are stimulating the increase of muscle and strength. You then need to manage your volume and frequency using the two day rule to allow it to happen. If you’re not making progress on each and every workout, whether it’s reps or weight or both, it means you’re not handling it correctly. It’s time to step back and look at it detachedly to find out where you miscalculated. If you have allowed it to get to this point, it needs complete rest with proper rest and nutrition. I usually recommend 3 weeks to a month.
If you’re making progress with each workout, you should continually reduce volume and frequency by inserting more rest days between your workouts. Although you can schedule when your body will be ready and overcompensated again, it is essential to use the two-day rule. You will never have to hit a wall again and you will progress to the upper limits of your genetic potential.
This is certainly an art and a way of thinking to learn how to handle this. The hardest part is being so close to her. Being emotionally tied to the gym or feeling like it’s not where you want to be if you want to be successful in your bodybuilding or personal fitness goals… remember it’s the result you’re after!
I wish you success in your endeavors and always remember, it starts in the mind!