In bodybuilding, there are a lot of different philosophies concerning a variety of subjects, since a lot of the advice and "evidence" comes from a LOT of trial and error and vague concepts that only appear to work for most people most of the time. That, and the fact that everyone's body responds to different stimuli and fitness / dietary protocol differently. There are studies and research you can look up on responses and protocol that appear to be optimal, but the lack of bulk in the actual research to generate a proper sample size to gerenerate a definitive answer to a lot of questions, plus the disconnect in the actual application / success from following the research makes it hard to come up with a definitive answer. There is a lack of research for a lot of bodybuilding topics, supplements, etc., probably due to a lack in funding or lack of interest for such a niche population. Furthermore, a lot of the research and hard science involved in bodybuilding are far from perfect, as research on dietary and fitness habits are very hard to do free from participant deviation, time required, lack of consistency, and a LOT of unavoidable variables that convolute the conclusions derived.
This is very true when concerning opinions on "overtraining" and resting your body so as to not risk injury or overworking muscle groups and other body structures. Many bodybuilding videos and forums that I have visited have many people advising not pushing your muscle groups to complete exhaustion or fatigue, so as to have them at full strength come the next time you decide to work that muscle group out. Some of the advice that they stress are, for example, not going to failure on every set of every exercise, and that feeling sore could possibly be an indication that you may be working out too hard and over-working your muscle groups.
Source: militarygradenutritionals.com
So........should you make sure you don't overwork your muscles, or heavily fatigue it on days you work out to prevent injury, and preserve muscle ability?
In my opinion, and based off of MY experience, it is absolutely essential that you always push your muscles to failure on every exercise, and to fatigue the muscle as much as possible on days you work it out (using great form too of course).
Workouts should always be intense, and you should always push them to the limit
Source: bodybuilding.com
I like to use an analogy when giving people advice on pushing / challenging themselves for muscle growth:
"If you were in a class that you could ace without doing the homework, would you ever do the homework?"
I think muscle growth is the same way. If your body is not constantly bombarded with a stress it doesn't think it is adequately built to sustain or handle, would it ever be stimulated to grow? If you don't constantly tear apart muscle fibers from overloading it with resistance and challenging it, would your body want to better prepare itself for being able to sustain that stress for the next time it happens?
Workout until failure and complete exhaustion on every exercise (not until you pass out like in this picture though)
Source: timeoutchicago.com
In my opinion, your bodily functions and systems are built to act in much the same way. When your body is hit with certain infectious diseases for example, it starts to create antibodies to better be able to handle that infectious agent should it happen again. If your body is overloaded with stress it's not used to handling or can't handle, it will be stimulated to increase muscle mass and strength to handle the constant bombardment of said stress.
That's why, from my viewpoint, you should ALWAYS go until failure on every set of every exercise. You should ALWAYS keep pushing the amount of weight you can lift (so long as you can keep good form and fail at a good rep-range). After you fatigue your muscle to failure, you should even consider lowering the weight in the form of a dropset / superset and keep going to FURTHER tax and stimulate the muscle.
As for soreness, I believe that to be a very healthy and necessary consequence of the muscle-building process. The soreness you feel is from inflammation brought on from your body's reaction to torn-apart muscle fibers, meaning you've successfully provided the physical trauma necessary to stimulate your body into building more muscle or heal that trauma with more muscle mass.
Normal muscle on left, inflammation and trauma to same tissue on right after marathon
Ever since I started, and even until this day, I've done all of my repetitions until failure, with my last couple of sets being dropsets or super sets. I want to fatigue my muscles as MUCH as possible, and then rest whichever particular muscle group I've worked for that day for a week. Complete destruction of the muscle group is a pretty involved and lengthy process, which is why I never recommended working out more than two muscle groups a week for maximum fatigue.
Now, are there times when you probably SHOULD rest and no try to train a muscle group or try to work it out as hard as possible? Absolutely, but not nearly as often as you might think. If you feel sore after a workout, I think you did something right. The ONLY times I'd recommend taking it easy on a muscle group, or not working it out at all are:
1) You feel joint pain and not muscle pain
2) Your muscle feels like they are stressed (not sore) and feel like overworking them would literally cause injury.
Strong pain in the joints is a good reason to rest a particular muscle group for a LITTLE while
Source: med-health.net
All in all, listen to your body. You need to ALWAYS push your muscles to their maximum and completely fatigue them to consistently stimulate them to grow. But if you feel your body is telling you that it would be best to rest that week to prevent injury, it might be best to go easier on them. However, that is completely different from feeling sore and not giving your workouts 100% due to laziness or lack of energy / intensity.
I also recommend taking at least two rest days out of the week where you DO let your body heal. For me, it's the weekends. I give my body two solid days to recuperate, re-energize, and heal itself before giving my workouts 110% on days I work them out. Take rest days to help preserve your body, but never give minimal or less effort to your workouts than you should.
So give it your all, push yourself to the maximum, take alotted rest days, and listen to your body. Don't be scared of "overtraining", and constantly bring an intensity to the gym that will allow you to constantly push your ability and lead to progress in your fitness goals.
-Jtrain
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*Have a question about natural bodybuilding / fitness / nutrition / stress? Need some advice? Email me at jtrainfitness@gmail.com and I will answer it on this blog! Be sure to enter your email to receive alerts for when the next blog post has come out, and be sure to tell your friends about this blog! Follow me on twitter @jtrainfitness and tell your friends to do the same!*
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment