You must work hard to reach your goals, but you must work smart too.
Let me first explain the basic idea behind training work.
Imagine you have a castle and 20 guys to defend it. A group of 20 foot soldiers attack it. They die cause there is no way they are getting in. You are convinced you don't need better defenses, so you just stay put. (We will get back to this idea of convincing the body things are easy in the post on neuro training.) This has some value, as you and your 20 men are more confident and have gathered some fighting experience. This is making your existing muscles better- or neuro training. We will get back to how to exactly do this in that later post. This drains out fast however. After a point, once you are over the initial phase, this is just under training.
Now suppose 100 men attack your castle. You have a hard time defending it and 2-3 men die. The rest of your men get a whole lot better at fighting, and you get 10 more men just in case this happens again and build one more wall. This neuro-muscular training. You are increasing the muscle size and increasing the neural efficiency (to a lesser degree). This is where most people should get. This is optimum training.
Now suppose 200 men attack your castle. You survive, but 10 of your guys die, and the others are injured. Your walls are demolished and your money chest broken and your precious money torn to shreds. You can't possibly recover from this. This is over training. Your body can't compensate for this, you have done too much. Anything beyond this will only make things worse.
You want to stay at that work level, which elicits the best gains.
Work is a function of intensity and volume.
What is exercise intensity?
Strictly speaking, it is the percentage of maximum weight you can lift, being lifted. For example, if you can bench 200 lbs for 1 repetition, 180 lbs would be 90% intensity.
Volume is the number of repetitions being performed.
Your total work done in a workout (for training purposes) is the weight X reps. If this figure goes too high, you may be over training.
Over training is of 3 types- When you are over training volume, when you are over training intensity, or when you are just over doing things over all.
When you over train volume, your muscles and your endocrine system stop responding. When you over train intensity, your nervous systems stops improving and to a lesser degree, your endocrine system also caves in. When you are overdoing both, you start thinking about steroids. So don't.
Now I will tell you my biggest realization about exercise work-
IT IS PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO OVER TRAIN- YET OVER TRAINING IS THE ONE THING THAT HOLDS 90% PEOPLE BACK.
To elaborate, YOU CANNOT OVER TRAIN IN ONE SESSION. Over training is always accumulated. Do anything excessively for an extended period of time, and you will induce specific over training for that factor.
Keep training at high intensity (weight) over and over again, your nervous system will get fried and be unable to recover. Keep training at high volumes, and your endocrine system and your muscles will be thrashed. That being said, in one single session, don't hold back- train as hard as you can.
Here is the deal, you can't make progress if you don't work truly hard and in line with your objectives. For example- if strength is your objective, you have to push the weights. You have to strive to increase the weights you use every session. But, you cant do this at too high a volume.
If muscles size is your objective, you will use reasonably heavy weights, but go for relatively high volume. Pushing it here means churning out more repetitions. You can't do this at an insane intensity level.
The bottom line is, you can only push one thing at a time, and only for so much time, before it stops being useful and giving returns. That being said you have to push hard to make progress. You have to train HARD.
Thus, you have to avoid accumulating over training in the medium and long run.
Push your workouts insanely hard in terms of intensity, then relax your nerves and mind at all times, don't let the stress accumulate. Get plenty sleep, take a day off when you really need it, and don't even think about exercise. That's right, don't even think about it. Trust me, it works miracles to get your motivation levels back up. Don't increase your workout frequency too fast, too soon. You can, and after a point you should, train 6 days a week, but you have to work up to it very gradually. And you have to rest at all times. Just relax, chill.
And when you feel that pushing the intensity is no longer working, lower the intensity and start pushing volumes. When you can't do that anymore, change it again.
This is the essence behind periodization- change your prime focus every few weeks, to avoid onset of over training. Its okay to over train a little bit once in a while, as long as you make sure you bounce back.
You must know when to hold back and when to go full bore. If you periodize your training well (but not too rigidly) and make sure that at least in the long run you keep recovering fully and are fresh, you will become stronger.
Remember, you have to train hard. Too many people don't train hard enough. But you must also know how to recover. You must learn how to relax. And you must learn to never continue using a method beyond it is giving you returns. You must know when you have stopped improving. At the same time, you must get as much benefit as you can out of a method, before moving on.
The two great components of hard work and full recovery are- the empty mind and the relaxed mind. An empty mind allows you to focus and work hard. A relaxed mind allows you to judge what methods to use, how much to use it and just helps you recover in general.
Go train HARD!! Push your self!! Then relax and think about what your workout achieved, and if there is something you are over doing, or some thing you need to work harder at. Be honest. The only person you will be lying to is yourself.
Let me first explain the basic idea behind training work.
Imagine you have a castle and 20 guys to defend it. A group of 20 foot soldiers attack it. They die cause there is no way they are getting in. You are convinced you don't need better defenses, so you just stay put. (We will get back to this idea of convincing the body things are easy in the post on neuro training.) This has some value, as you and your 20 men are more confident and have gathered some fighting experience. This is making your existing muscles better- or neuro training. We will get back to how to exactly do this in that later post. This drains out fast however. After a point, once you are over the initial phase, this is just under training.
Now suppose 100 men attack your castle. You have a hard time defending it and 2-3 men die. The rest of your men get a whole lot better at fighting, and you get 10 more men just in case this happens again and build one more wall. This neuro-muscular training. You are increasing the muscle size and increasing the neural efficiency (to a lesser degree). This is where most people should get. This is optimum training.
Now suppose 200 men attack your castle. You survive, but 10 of your guys die, and the others are injured. Your walls are demolished and your money chest broken and your precious money torn to shreds. You can't possibly recover from this. This is over training. Your body can't compensate for this, you have done too much. Anything beyond this will only make things worse.
You want to stay at that work level, which elicits the best gains.
Work is a function of intensity and volume.
What is exercise intensity?
Strictly speaking, it is the percentage of maximum weight you can lift, being lifted. For example, if you can bench 200 lbs for 1 repetition, 180 lbs would be 90% intensity.
Volume is the number of repetitions being performed.
Your total work done in a workout (for training purposes) is the weight X reps. If this figure goes too high, you may be over training.
Over training is of 3 types- When you are over training volume, when you are over training intensity, or when you are just over doing things over all.
When you over train volume, your muscles and your endocrine system stop responding. When you over train intensity, your nervous systems stops improving and to a lesser degree, your endocrine system also caves in. When you are overdoing both, you start thinking about steroids. So don't.
Now I will tell you my biggest realization about exercise work-
IT IS PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO OVER TRAIN- YET OVER TRAINING IS THE ONE THING THAT HOLDS 90% PEOPLE BACK.
To elaborate, YOU CANNOT OVER TRAIN IN ONE SESSION. Over training is always accumulated. Do anything excessively for an extended period of time, and you will induce specific over training for that factor.
Keep training at high intensity (weight) over and over again, your nervous system will get fried and be unable to recover. Keep training at high volumes, and your endocrine system and your muscles will be thrashed. That being said, in one single session, don't hold back- train as hard as you can.
Here is the deal, you can't make progress if you don't work truly hard and in line with your objectives. For example- if strength is your objective, you have to push the weights. You have to strive to increase the weights you use every session. But, you cant do this at too high a volume.
If muscles size is your objective, you will use reasonably heavy weights, but go for relatively high volume. Pushing it here means churning out more repetitions. You can't do this at an insane intensity level.
The bottom line is, you can only push one thing at a time, and only for so much time, before it stops being useful and giving returns. That being said you have to push hard to make progress. You have to train HARD.
Thus, you have to avoid accumulating over training in the medium and long run.
Push your workouts insanely hard in terms of intensity, then relax your nerves and mind at all times, don't let the stress accumulate. Get plenty sleep, take a day off when you really need it, and don't even think about exercise. That's right, don't even think about it. Trust me, it works miracles to get your motivation levels back up. Don't increase your workout frequency too fast, too soon. You can, and after a point you should, train 6 days a week, but you have to work up to it very gradually. And you have to rest at all times. Just relax, chill.
And when you feel that pushing the intensity is no longer working, lower the intensity and start pushing volumes. When you can't do that anymore, change it again.
This is the essence behind periodization- change your prime focus every few weeks, to avoid onset of over training. Its okay to over train a little bit once in a while, as long as you make sure you bounce back.
You must know when to hold back and when to go full bore. If you periodize your training well (but not too rigidly) and make sure that at least in the long run you keep recovering fully and are fresh, you will become stronger.
Remember, you have to train hard. Too many people don't train hard enough. But you must also know how to recover. You must learn how to relax. And you must learn to never continue using a method beyond it is giving you returns. You must know when you have stopped improving. At the same time, you must get as much benefit as you can out of a method, before moving on.
The two great components of hard work and full recovery are- the empty mind and the relaxed mind. An empty mind allows you to focus and work hard. A relaxed mind allows you to judge what methods to use, how much to use it and just helps you recover in general.
Go train HARD!! Push your self!! Then relax and think about what your workout achieved, and if there is something you are over doing, or some thing you need to work harder at. Be honest. The only person you will be lying to is yourself.
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