OVERTRAINING (BY STRENGTH TRAINING ATHLETES)

When you're doing two to four exercises for each muscle group, make sure you don't duplicate movements of specific muscle groups. For example, it makes no sense to do three sets of Bench Press using a barbell and then do three sets of Bench Press using dumbbells or Push-ups. Each of these exercises requires exactly the same movement and works the same specific muscle. Instead, it would make much more sense to do bench press for overall middle chest either barbell, dumbbell, or machine); do incline bench press for upper chest; and do dips for lower-outer chest.

- By Norbert D’Souza

Regular exercise strengthens your heart and lungs and it can strengthen bones, slowing down the process of osteoporosis. It can help you move easily by keeping your joints, tendons and ligaments more flexible. Can help you lose weight when combined with good eating habits or maintain ideal weight by burning excess calories and promote sense of well being.

AVOID OVERTRAINING If you feel burnt out, weak, and/or sore, you are probably overtraining.

Not providing your muscles with enough rest will often prevent you from making improvements. Training the wrong muscle groups on consecutive days will also counteract your good results. Doing too many sets and exercises per muscle group will also cause overtraining.

REMEMBER THAT WEIGHTLIFTING, ESPECIALLY IN AN INTENSE PROGRAM, produces tissue microtrauma, those tiny tears in the muscles that temporarily decrease strength and cause varying degrees of muscle soreness. It is absolutely necessary to provide ample rest time between successive training sessions. Muscles generally require about 48 hours for the resting and rebuilding process before you work them again.

You should never train the same muscle groups on two or more days in a row (abdominals are the exception). Hypothetically then, you would do your chest, shoulders, triceps, and abdominals on Monday; on Tuesday you would train your legs, back, biceps, and abdominals; you would take Wednesday off to give all your muscle groups extra rest; on Thursday you'd do chest, shoulders, triceps, and abdominals again; and on Friday you'd do legs, back, biceps, and abdominals again. This would allow two days (48 hours) of rest for each muscle between training days.