1. FALSE ECONOMY
One of the joys of training is seeing positive changes to your fitness and, let’s be honest, your appearance. But there’s a limit. To better understand overtraining, think of it as under-recovering. Push too hard with insufficient rest and you’ll eventually inflict long-term damage on your health, causing your muscle-growth to plateau or even regress.
2. WASTED EFFORT
Beasting your Friday arms session might not cause any long-term harm, but is it effective? Specific muscle groups can only cope with a certain amount of adaptation in a given time, so six sets won’t be twice as good as three sets. That’s why mixing things up is still the smartest policy.
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3. CRASH AND BURNOUT
Going too hard, too fast could help you look slightly better in boardies, but you also risk low energy levels and depression. A study in the Journal of Experimental Biology found that men who push beyond their limits increase their creatine kinase levels by five times – an enzyme that will leave you wired and anxious on the beach.
4. PAIN TRAIN
Overtraining can cause disrupted sleep, erectile dysfunction and hypertension after just two weeks, not to mention a decline in athletic performance. Allow this to continue for months and it could lead to overtraining syndrome. Simply stopping won’t immediately reverse the damage: Sports Medicine suggests a full recovery could take years.
5. BRING IT BACK HOME
Long-term success depends on balance. A burst of all-out effort can be successful if it’s followed by a reduction in volume and intensity. It’s a myth that you get bigger and stronger in the gym. In reality, you progress in training’s aftermath, when your body repairs and adapts – aided, perhaps, by a magnesium supplement. By all means go hard, but make sure you go home, too.
RELATED: How Long Should You Rest Between Sets For Muscle Growth?
