What is overtraining and how often should I workout?

What is overtraining and how often should I workout?

The simple answer to this question is overtraining is repeating exercises or body parts to often. Overtraining leads to injury, lower immune systems, chronic fatigue and a number of other negative responses.

Too often I see people repeating routines and exercises on a daily basis and complaining they don’t know why they are not making progress. The body simply does not have time to heal, repair and progress.

A general rule of thumb is each body part needs at least 48 hours before it is ready to be worked again

As for weight training, you should never workout the same muscles on a daily basis. Whether you are trying to decrease the size of your hips and thighs or trying to sculpt your arms never work the same muscles daily. I know it is tempting but the muscles need time to rest to grow and develop or recorporate before you work them out again. Again if you work let’s say chest on Monday do not work chest out again till Wednesday or Thursday.

The time can vary depending on the volume and intensity of the work done to the bodypart generally the harder the work the longer the rest. A very difficult idea for many people to grasp is progress is made while the body is repairing not when it is constantly being torn down.

Watch the video below to check out a few more tips on how often you should workout and how to avoid overtraining.

How to set up your workout routine?

Remember when you exercise it is important to not do the same cardio and weights on a daily basis! If you get on the Precor machine for 40 minute, five times a week your body will not change! Remember you want to change your cardio routines. One day try high intensity walking on an incline then another day the Step Mill and on a third day the Arc Trainer.

Also, remember not to just do 40 minutes daily -one day try 30 minutes interval training -2min. sprint, 1 min recovery for a total of 30 min. On another day, do 45 minutes distance/time. Try keeping your heart rate up for a total of 45 minutes. Remember to stay in your target heart rate!

On that note it is a good idea to plan out your workout routine for the week. Plan out your cardio at the gym, any classes you might want to take and what your weight training routine is for the week.

If you need help planning a weight routine for the gym do not hesitate to contact Better Body Health and Fitness NYC. Even if you are not planing to hire a personal trainer right now, we can simply map out your weekly routine that will have you seeing results just in time for summer!

1. 

   emt training says:

   April 5, 2010 at 12:50 PM

   Keep posting stuff like this i really like it