By now, we’ve all grown pretty familiar with the term over training. As fitness coaches, we’re typically more concerned about getting our clients to work harder, as opposed to worrying about them working too hard. However, it’s a common thing for athletes and body builders to over train. Over training can result in a plethora of issues that along with making you feel fatigued, also inhibit muscle growth.
We all know that lifting heavy stuff results in hypertrophy of the muscle. The term Hypertrophy comes from the Greek words “Hyper” (Excess) and “Trophy” (Nourishment), and is a physiological adaptation from micro tearing the muscle fibres. As the body repairs the muscle fibres, the muscle fibres grow and increase in strength. Not allowing adequate time for the body to repair the muscles, prevents the muscle fibres from growing and limits the strength that can be gained. In addition, over training can result in fatigue, hormone imbalances, and metabolic issues.
Let’s face it though; unless you’re spending over an hour in the gym six plus days a week, odds are you aren’t over training. But, you could be under recovering! Over training and under recovering have some similar negative effects, including: excess soreness, movement dysfunction, and increased risk of injury. And regardless of whether you’re a professional athlete, a body builder, or a stay at home mom trying to lose a few extra pounds, under recovering can be detrimental your health and wellness. But what is under recovering?
Under recovering can be summed up like this – Devoting insufficient effort and time to recovery from your training program. You see, people don’t like to spend time or devote the effort it takes to recover from their workouts. This is because they don’t associate recovery with the aesthetics benefits that result from training. Unfortunately, recovery is as equally important to your fitness level as training.
Here’s the deal, recovery requires proper nutrition, adequate rest, and soft tissue work including foam rolling, using the lacrosse ball, massage, myofascial release, FST, sauna/steam room, etc. Without including these elements in your training regimen, your workouts will lack intensity, your form and movement patterning may fail leading to a higher risk of injury, and overall, you’ll move with lower efficiency in the gym and in day to day life.
No, this does not mean you need to hire “Shven” a Swedish Masseuse to give you relaxing massages every day or if you fail to foam roll you will not lose fat but it will take away from a lot of the muscle soreness, lactic acid and tight muscles experienced by everyone who trains.
Regardless of whether you’re a professional athlete, a body builder, or someone who’s just trying to look and feel a little bit better, devoting time each week to proper recovery is an absolute must. While you may not be at risk of over training, we’re all at risk of under recovering.
Don’t feel like you are recovering from your workouts? Feel that you’re not getting the proper rest, nourishment or gains in your current exercise program?
There’s a reason for everything logical in this world and one for you too. Book a session with us and let one of our staff provide you a 15 min Educational Discovery call to assist you with any questions or health related programs you are interested in.
Dont forget…Attitude is Everything,
