Appreciating the Value of Rest and Recovery

Resting a trained muscle at least one day

Always let a muscle rest at least one day between workouts. This doesn’t preclude you from lifting weights two days in a row; you could work your chest and back one day and then your legs the next. But if you’re doing a full-body routine, don’t lift weights more than three times a week and don’t cram your three workouts into one weekend.

Avoiding overtraining

As unbelievable as it may sound to a beginner, many exercisers become overly enthusiastic after they start getting results and think that if a little is good, even more has to be great.Overtraining typically occurs in the following scenarios:

• Training too many times per week
•  Doing too many exercises per session
•  Lifting excessive numbers of sets
•  Lifting too heavy a weight over too long a period of time

Getting enough sleep

Regular training improves the quality of your sleep because you’ll be physically tired at night when you go to bed. Current sleep researchers recommend that most people get at least seven to nine hours per night. Individuals vary, so you need to discover what is best for you. Many adults are chronically sleep deprived and are compromising their health and well-being. Sleep is always important to your health, but even more so when you’re training your body. Because you’re actively stressing your muscles, your cells need time to repair. An important hormone for the maintenance and repair of muscle tissue is human growth hormone. Your body naturally secretes this hormone when you sleep. Studies show that supplementation isn’t beneficial for healthy individuals so don’t go out and buy HGH pills. If you deprive yourself of adequate sleep, you’re limiting your opportunity for your muscle tissue to repair itself optimally.