Regular weight training is the most basic requirement for gaining sizeable muscle mass. However, many dedicated gym regulars risk entering a harmful phase of Overtraining. Please understand that this phase is usually found among the more serious gym-training folks, i.e. bodybuilders and other gym devotees who tend to spend hours in the gym on a daily basis.
Understand Overtraining
Overtraining is established when the body is not allowed sufficient time to recover. Here, understanding the basics of muscle growth is vital. Muscle development is essentially a process of muscle repair and the associated increase in volume and size of muscles that happens after the muscles have been stretched or worked upon during a physical training regimen. After a workout, a muscle group undergoes a process of recovering wherein more nutrients and muscle building nutrients like amino acids are absorbed into the muscles, helping them recuperate fully. Now, during Overtraining the muscles are pushed into a mode of continuous exertion without being allowed to recover. As a result the muscles don’t develop properly and the affected bodybuilder might complain of not seeing any visible gains from his workout schedule.
Symptoms of Overtraining
It is very difficult to decode when overtraining has commenced. This is because training hard and Overtraining are separated by rather confusing, hard-to-identify factors. If you are regular in the gym and are suffering from any of the following signs, you should get an opinion from an expert gym trainer to re-evaluate your exercise regimen:
- Your body feels sore all the time even though you have been working-out for months and are used to lifting heavy weights. This indicates that your muscles are not being allowed to recuperate properly. Some degree of muscle soreness is common among the serious weight-trainers but permanent soreness and pain-like contractions in the body indicate Overtraining.
- You feel tired throughout the day as if you are suffering from light fever. This condition is often referred to as Malaise. However, this is not due to an illness but due the higher presence of lactic acid that is produced in the muscles due to lack of oxygen. This physiological problem is created when the muscles are overworked and their oxygenation is incomplete. Lactic acid accumulation produces symptoms that are similar to having fever, including headache and feeling drowsy throughout the day.
Please Note: the most unacknowledged form of overtraining is mental exertion. This refers to a stage when the psychological intensity for working-out is lost. It is a commonly-acknowledged fact that physical training is executed at two levels, i.e. the mind and body. Once, the mind enters a state of sustained fatigue, the enthusiasm to exercise and the inherent ability to lift more and keep oneself motivated. Thus, an over-trained mind is as big a deterrent to gaining serious gym gains as physical overtraining.