“I’m so frustrated! I cannot get any Bigger and I’m not accepting stronger!” Sound familiar? Maybe you’ve said it yourself. You go to the gym religously, absorb hour afterwards hour accomplishing bank presses for your chest, rows and pulldowns for your back, barbell curls and tricep extensions for you accoutrements yet annihilation is happening. Or at atomic not what you were acquisitive for aback you started bodybuilding.
Here’s a accurate story: Some years ago I was approached by a gym associate who asked me what my thoughts were on his training. His annoyance was over the actuality that in over 3 years of alive out and appropriation weights, his anatomy had afflicted alone minimally and his lifts were not abundant bigger than aback he had started.
I had been watching him and sometimes alive out with him for a brace of years so I was acquainted of his training style: On chest canicule he would about alpha off with some countdown reps and afresh would get started on the collapsed bench. He would usually pyramid up from a starting weight area he would do 12-15 reps and about would accomplishment at about 4 reps on his sixth set!
Then, he’d usually go to the acclivity bench, grab the heaviest weight he could handle for 5 or 6 reps and would do addition 4 sets with that. He would afresh go to an acclivity armchair and do added acclivity dodo flyes. afterwards this, he would added bang his poor chest anatomy with pec deck, abatement and sometimes cable flyes. By the time he was done with aloof his chest, he’d spent about an hour and about had done anywhere from 18 to 24 sets!
What this guy didn’t charge was advice, he bare a REST! He was so overworking his chest anatomy that by the time he came aback to assignment them the afterward affair (sometimes alone 4 canicule later), they could not possibly recuperate/recover from the announcement he had aloof accustomed them. If this guy had been in his 20’s he ability accept had a adventitious but the actuality that he was in his aboriginal 40’s alone fabricated things worse.
This adventure altogether illustrates one of the capital affidavit why bodies accept such a adamantine time architecture muscle: Overtraining.
Muscles abound by actuality subjected to stress. You lift a weight, accent the beef and if all goes well, in time that beef will abound to accomodate the accent actuality put on it. But the beef does not abound while you are in the gym. That is aback you are absolutely breaking bottomward the muscle. The growth/repair comes aback you accord your anatomy abundant time to adjustment the beef that has been formed thereby acceptance it to grow. Overtraining occurs aback the beef is put beneath too abundant accent and the accretion time is not abundant for it to adjustment itself.
Another archetype of a specific beef actuality overtrained is the biceps/triceps group. Too abounding times, I’ll get to they gym, alpha my conditioning and see some guy accomplishing biceps. Set afterwards set afterwards backbreaking set. I’m done with my conditioning and they’re still accomplishing curls. It is accidental and counterproductive.
So What Is The Exact cardinal Of Sets I Should Do?
There is no set blueprint for any one person. What works for you ability not assignment for me. What works for an 18 year old will about absolutely not assignment for a 50 year old! The accuracy is that it is balloon and error. You will accept to acquisition the “sweet spot” in your training that allows you to accent your beef fibers but additionally allows you to appear aback on your abutting affair and bang them again. As a actual accepted aphorism and depending on age and experience, hitting anniversary beef accumulation alert a anniversary should be article to shoot for. But if you are not authoritative gains, booty a attending at both the cardinal of sets you’re accomplishing and the abundance that you’re alive a group. Remember, sometimes beneath is more!
In Part 2 of this series, I’ll blow on addition acumen why you ability not be authoritative any assets – Stagnant Training
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