Muscle Growth Through Recovery

Contrary to popular belief, muscle growth occurs when you are recovering from your workout, not while you are lifting weights. If you don't give your muscles enough time or the right nutrients to recover, you are hindering their growth. This is most often referred to as "overtraining" and is the most common reason that people, especially "hardgainers" don't get the results they are looking for.

Signs of Overtraining:

Sympathetic	Parasympathetic
Increased resting heart rate Increased resting blood pressure Decreased maximal power output Decreased sports performance Decreased maximal blood lactate concentrations Slower recovery after exercise Weight loss Decreased appetite Decreased desire to exercise Increased irritability and depression Increased incidence of injury Increased incidence of infection	Decreased resting heart rate Faster return of heart rate to resting value after exercise Decreased sports performance Decreased blood lactate concentrations during submaximal and maximal exercise Unemotional behavior

Stone, M.H., Keith, R.E., Kearney, J.T., Fleck, S.J., Wilson, G.D. and Triplett, N.T. Overtraining: A Review of the Signs, Symptoms and Possible Causes. The Journal of Applied Sports Science Research 5:35-50, 1991.

How long does it take muscles to recover?
Most people think that if muscle soreness has eased, you can train that muscle group again. However, researchers have shown that your muscles are still recovering from exercise for days after they no longer feel sore.

The study tracked a group of men who took part in an intense leg workout. Muscle soreness was measured in the days following exercise.

Although the men reported no soreness after 3 days, tests showed that the muscles showed signs of damage for up to 5 days after exercise. Muscle strength was also reduced for almost one week after training.

One of the most common reasons for lack of results in the gym is overtraining. If you train your muscles before they have recovered fully, they won't be able to adapt - which means little or no progress.

In short, training each muscle group once each week (unlike the drug-assisted routines of professional bodybuilders) is sufficient for you to make continued progress in both strength and size, and also ensures that you avoid overtraining. This is why split routines where you train once bodypart once a week, using a 2, 3 or 4 day split routine per week works so well for results and motivation!

So what is the answer?
I believe the answer is two-fold.
1) Hit It Hard Once A Week! When you workout, you have to hit it hard. You have to break them down as much as you can, each and every workout so they have something to recover from. Work until your muscles are completely exhausted and make sure you are going heavy at least once per month per body part. The kicker is that you should only hit each bodypart one time per week. Give each part a full 6 days to recover before you hit them again.

2) Supplement For Recovery! A high protein and complex carbohydrate diet is a must. I highly recommend taking a pre-workout creatine and a post workout recovery supplement. If you have the means, a nighttime ZMA formula is awesome too.