Hey you, yeah I’m talking to you pencil neck. Stop what you’re doing and come over here. I’m going to let you in on a secret. Are you ready? Here it comes. Those 28 sets of Bicep curls and Tricep pushdowns you just did…suck! Maybe you already knew that but for those of you who don’t, I am going to give you some advice. Who knows, maybe you will learn something that can be applied to putting on loads of muscle or maybe you just want to put a few finishing touches on your physique. Seriously though, I am not always this nasty. Just ask anyone I have pissed off. That story is for another day though. Like I was saying, overloading your Bicep’s and Triceps’ day after day often equals negative results. What might these negative results be you ask? How about: overtraining your muscles, becoming vulnerable to a greater level and amount of injuries or preventing your muscles from recovering properly. Doesn’t sound too good does it? Wait! Before you end up throwing a temper and destroying your Jonas Brother’s posters, I want to help. Seriously, put the scissors down and let’s talk.
Take this thought into consideration, working out is like falling off a bike and scraping your knee. Your muscle tissue tears during intense physical activity and requires a recovery process. The recovery process allows muscle tissue to repair and rebuild. This results in increased strength and greater muscle tissue content. Sounds pretty badass, right? When you scrape your knee, the skin tissue tears and will also require a recovery process. Over time, the scrape on your knee will progress into a scab and eventually result into a scar. However, if you continuously end up scraping your knee, the injury becomes worse and has a greater chance of becoming infected. This prevents the skin tissue from repairing efficiently. Building muscle tissue sounds a lot more tempting though.
Below I will provide you with advice to correct and prevent these problems.
Minimize your training to four or five days
Placing your body under repeated amounts of stress day after day will only drive you into the ground. This means increasing stress levels, reducing energy output and losing motivation. This is bad news not only for you but the rest of the neighbourhood as well. What about the professional athlete’s you might ask? Well are you a professional athlete? Didn’t think so. Do yourself and your body a favour and take a day or two away from training.
Get in and get out!
Training periods shouldn’t consist of a two hour or greater session. If this is the case, you have a problem. You are either performing too many sets and reps or the social aspect of the gym has become too distracting. Also, the stress hormone cortisol will be released within your body. Cortisol places your body into a catabolic state. This means your body is literally burning hard earned muscle for fuel!
Train smaller muscle groups in moderation.
For all of you Bicep curl fans out there, I know you are disappointed. You must take into consideration that the biceps and triceps are a smaller muscle group and do not require a great deal of isolation. By overtraining these muscle groups continuously, your arms will not grow. Besides, the majority of your training routine should include exercises that focus on multiple muscle groups. For instance, let’s take the pull up. The main muscle worked during this exercise is the latissimus dorsi, while the bicep wins the award for second place. As a final tip, try to incorporate multiple muscle exercises into your training program.
Proper Supplementation
Applying the proper supplementation to your training protocol is a crucial aspect in order to prevent over training. Post-workout (after) your body undergoes a state of catabolism (the breakdown of muscle tissue for fuel) and requires a source of fast digesting protein in order to prevent this from occurring. When amino acids (building blocks of protein) are transported to the muscles, this flips the switch on catabolism and creates an anabolic (muscle building) state.
There you have it; hopefully you learned something new to jam into that meathead mind of yours. As a final note, we also recommend going ahead and destroying those posters of the Jonas Brother’s anyway.
Continued Success,
Josh Buchan