EXERCISE: The Power of Rest
Tonight, everything was just right.
All day at work I was carbing up; Uncle Ben's rice packages in the a.m. , potatoes at lunch with a chicken breast, more rice during my 3 p.m. break and at 6 p.m. when I left work, I downed one Ripped Fuel tablet and it was off to Bally's for upper body. The biggest, best, baddest workout of the week: chest, arms, lats, delts, tri's and bi's. Forget work, forget the boss, forget my problems, forget everything and hit the iron. Everything was bang on. I went in at 7:40 p.m. and left at 9 p.m. One hour and twenty minute workout - slamming through the weights.
Nothing.
No pump.
Not even a slight metabolic rise in my heart rate.
Nothing!
I took off the lifting gloves and got in the car, drove home, made a protein shake and pulled several books off the shelf: Arnold's Bodybuilding bible, Dr. Dean Edell's Eat, Drink and Be Merry and the Iron Man's Ultimate Guide to Natural Bodybuilding. While I stacked those up I gathered up Men's Fitness, Muscle and Fitness and a host of other mags.
Regardless of how well my preparation was prior to going to the gym, I was doomed to fail because of one simple procedure I have allowed to slip by unnoticed and affect my workouts: rest. By not giving my body a requisite amount of time to recover even after the simplest workout, I was overtraining. And, if you overtrain you go backwards, not forwards. Your body takes a nose dive, you lose muscle, definition and eventually you injure yourself.
Therefore, here we go, back to the drawing board for Lesson #1 in Bodybuilding / Weight Lifting / Body Strength Training (BST) ...
ITEM: Rest. After a Body Strength Training (BST) workout, heavy / light weightlifting workout or a workout in which some type of iron has been used ... give yourself two (2) to three (3) days of solid rest. Do not lift during those three days but spend the time doing cardio; treadmill, running (short distance), walking (long distance), yoga or golf or flag football or whatever. But no lifting. None. Use this time to replenish your body with the right foods in order to build muscle and loose fat. Rest. I overlooked it for the past four weeks! Don't make this mistake!
I realize that I am still on the learning curve. Bodybuilding is a lifetime sport and requires a Ph.D. in kinesology, diet, nutrition, body composition from the school of hardknocks. The great thing about weight lifting is that our body is essentially our school, our student body, which tells us when to rest and when to lift.
It's Thursday night. I'm not gonna touch iron until Tuesday evening.
All day at work I was carbing up; Uncle Ben's rice packages in the a.m. , potatoes at lunch with a chicken breast, more rice during my 3 p.m. break and at 6 p.m. when I left work, I downed one Ripped Fuel tablet and it was off to Bally's for upper body. The biggest, best, baddest workout of the week: chest, arms, lats, delts, tri's and bi's. Forget work, forget the boss, forget my problems, forget everything and hit the iron. Everything was bang on. I went in at 7:40 p.m. and left at 9 p.m. One hour and twenty minute workout - slamming through the weights.
Nothing.
No pump.
Not even a slight metabolic rise in my heart rate.
Nothing!
I took off the lifting gloves and got in the car, drove home, made a protein shake and pulled several books off the shelf: Arnold's Bodybuilding bible, Dr. Dean Edell's Eat, Drink and Be Merry and the Iron Man's Ultimate Guide to Natural Bodybuilding. While I stacked those up I gathered up Men's Fitness, Muscle and Fitness and a host of other mags.
Regardless of how well my preparation was prior to going to the gym, I was doomed to fail because of one simple procedure I have allowed to slip by unnoticed and affect my workouts: rest. By not giving my body a requisite amount of time to recover even after the simplest workout, I was overtraining. And, if you overtrain you go backwards, not forwards. Your body takes a nose dive, you lose muscle, definition and eventually you injure yourself.
Therefore, here we go, back to the drawing board for Lesson #1 in Bodybuilding / Weight Lifting / Body Strength Training (BST) ...
ITEM: Rest. After a Body Strength Training (BST) workout, heavy / light weightlifting workout or a workout in which some type of iron has been used ... give yourself two (2) to three (3) days of solid rest. Do not lift during those three days but spend the time doing cardio; treadmill, running (short distance), walking (long distance), yoga or golf or flag football or whatever. But no lifting. None. Use this time to replenish your body with the right foods in order to build muscle and loose fat. Rest. I overlooked it for the past four weeks! Don't make this mistake!
I realize that I am still on the learning curve. Bodybuilding is a lifetime sport and requires a Ph.D. in kinesology, diet, nutrition, body composition from the school of hardknocks. The great thing about weight lifting is that our body is essentially our school, our student body, which tells us when to rest and when to lift.
It's Thursday night. I'm not gonna touch iron until Tuesday evening.
posted by Mike at 9:50 PM
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