The most common reason why so many struggle to gain muscle, is that they train too much. Too many people believe that the more time they spend at the gym, the more muscle they will grow.
In actual fact it is quite the opposite.
You know the old saying “more is better”? Well forget it! It doesn’t apply to building muscle.
Once a muscle is stimulated it needs at least 3-7 days to recover. That is, it takes 3-7 days to simply recover and regain the condition and strength you had before completing the workout. Another couple of days of rest are required to allow the muscle to over-compensate and grow stronger. Research has shown that muscles are still developing strength 21 days after a workout.
Muscles do not grow in the gym. Once they are stimulated, they need adequate time to rest, recover and grow stronger. Training the muscle again during this recovery and overcompensation phase will only interfere with the body’s recuperative process and thus lead to diminishing gains.
Another fact to consider is your central nervous system. The CNS can take longer to recover then your muscles. After an intense weight training session, it can take from 7-14 days for your CNS to completely recover. Even if you train different muscles on different days, your central nervous system is still being stimulated.
Not giving your CNS ample time to recover will cause you to overtrain. Symptoms include tiredness, agitation, lack of sleep and decreased performance.
So can you see why training 3-4 times a week doesn’t work? Problem is many believe that this isn’t working because they aren’t training enough. So they might increase it to 5-6 times a week! This only leads to overtraining, lack of recovery and a decrease in gains.
You must realise that gains in size and strength are dependent on your recovery between sessions. Sufficient recovery is vital if you are to receive optimal gains from your training. That is, the adequate recovery of both the physical and psychological stresses that comes from training.
For optimal gains in size and strength, I recommend training a muscle only once every 7 days. To prevent overtraining the CNS I also recommend that you stimulate all muscles in only 1-2 workouts a week. Any more than this will become too much stress for the nervous system to handle.
Here is a great workout that only has to be performed once a week.
Parallel Bar Dips OR Bench Press
Chin Ups
Squats OR Deadlifts
I know many of you might find it hard to swallow, but training less will provide faster results. If you are in a rut at the moment, give it a go. Just make sure to give your body plenty of rest and food in between workouts.
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