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A lot serious trainees in the gym think it is so important to workout really hard, give every rep their most and it is not a great workout without being totally exhausted. But more is not necessarily better. A good balanced plan for your goals is what is best. Putting your body through tough workouts day in and day out is counterproductive to what you want for your fitness goals. Some people think the more you are in the gym, the quicker your results are going to be or the faster you are going to grow those big biceps or 6 pack abs. Sometimes doing nothing is better than doing everything.
Let’s start off with what the gym really is. The gym is nothing more than a tool for torturing your muscles. It is where you break down muscle fiber, work it hard and where the building of good quality muscle actually does not start. Workouts are only a small percentage of the overall picture of what you fitness goals should be. Just working out will not get it done. I used to think I could out workout my diet by thinking the harder I worked out that I would burn more calories and therefore lose weight just by working out harder and more often. I learned this was not the case. I was actually going backward. You can’t out run a bad diet, first off. It has to be balanced as well. Having the right amount of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats in your diet will help build quality muscle and shed unwanted fat . But, that is not what totally does it. The biggest aid in any intense fitness program is rest. Yes...rest! You must get enough rest to properly build quality muscle and or lose or gain weight. Rest is by far one of the most important factors in a good program. Most people don’t get enough of it. In fact, the ones that think they get enough rest are the ones that usually burn out or hit training planes and don’t reach the goals they have set for themselves.
So what happens with proper rest? Like I stated before, the gym is for breaking down muscle and a good diet is used partially to fuel those workouts and help build muscle but rest allows you to recover. It is a scientific fact that the cells and hormones in the body work differently in your body when you are sleeping. Getting enough sleep helps your immune system fight off all sorts of illnesses including colds, the flu and even heart disease and diabetes. Getting 7 to 8 hours of good sleep in a good rule of thumb to proper sleep but that is not the end of it. Your body has a reflex set up in it that if you skimp on the amount of rest you are getting you can make it up by using a longer session to fully recover. But if you stick to that 7 to 8 hour rule you will be refreshed and recover a lot more faster than if you skimped on some sleep during the week. Sometimes getting enough rest takes a great deal of sacrifice on ones part because let’s face it, in this fast pace world we are told that you can get a good workout in only twenty to thirty minutes a day so you don’t have an excuse to not workout. But what about the quality of rest are you getting. How do you know if you are getting enough rest? How do you know how to judge if you’re getting enough rest or not. Most of us have jobs that are at least eight hours a day. We are not professional bodybuilders whose jobs are most of the time working out, eating and resting all day. But how do some of those professional bodybuilders get enough rest in the process that has full time jobs? They know how to schedule proper rest and have what I like to call “Nothing days”. Nothing days are just what it says. You pick a day and do nothing at all. Whether its vegging out in front of the TV or sleeping all day. It does not mean you are lazy because that is what has been ingrained in our society now that if you are not up working hard all day long you are lazy. Your body needs rest.
Your daily nutritional intake is a huge factor here. If you put junk in your body , your performance will be junk. It is as simple as that. So make sure you are getting enough quality carbohydrates (not too much) and proper protein to help rebuild muscle tissue, and enough good fats to help brain function and fight off illnesses and other possible chronic diseases.
Sleep is vital for recovery. Sleep is when your body does its best repairing and rebuilding. Skimp on sleep and you will delay recovery. Through the course of a night's sleep, you cycle through several phases. During the slow-wave stage, growth hormone is released by the pituitary gland, stimulating tissue repair.
These nothing days I have talked about are totally personal but try them for a while and see how they really help in your other day to day activates. Force yourself to have them. Good luck and have some awesome nothing days!
GD
Let’s start off with what the gym really is. The gym is nothing more than a tool for torturing your muscles. It is where you break down muscle fiber, work it hard and where the building of good quality muscle actually does not start. Workouts are only a small percentage of the overall picture of what you fitness goals should be. Just working out will not get it done. I used to think I could out workout my diet by thinking the harder I worked out that I would burn more calories and therefore lose weight just by working out harder and more often. I learned this was not the case. I was actually going backward. You can’t out run a bad diet, first off. It has to be balanced as well. Having the right amount of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats in your diet will help build quality muscle and shed unwanted fat . But, that is not what totally does it. The biggest aid in any intense fitness program is rest. Yes...rest! You must get enough rest to properly build quality muscle and or lose or gain weight. Rest is by far one of the most important factors in a good program. Most people don’t get enough of it. In fact, the ones that think they get enough rest are the ones that usually burn out or hit training planes and don’t reach the goals they have set for themselves.
So what happens with proper rest? Like I stated before, the gym is for breaking down muscle and a good diet is used partially to fuel those workouts and help build muscle but rest allows you to recover. It is a scientific fact that the cells and hormones in the body work differently in your body when you are sleeping. Getting enough sleep helps your immune system fight off all sorts of illnesses including colds, the flu and even heart disease and diabetes. Getting 7 to 8 hours of good sleep in a good rule of thumb to proper sleep but that is not the end of it. Your body has a reflex set up in it that if you skimp on the amount of rest you are getting you can make it up by using a longer session to fully recover. But if you stick to that 7 to 8 hour rule you will be refreshed and recover a lot more faster than if you skimped on some sleep during the week. Sometimes getting enough rest takes a great deal of sacrifice on ones part because let’s face it, in this fast pace world we are told that you can get a good workout in only twenty to thirty minutes a day so you don’t have an excuse to not workout. But what about the quality of rest are you getting. How do you know if you are getting enough rest? How do you know how to judge if you’re getting enough rest or not. Most of us have jobs that are at least eight hours a day. We are not professional bodybuilders whose jobs are most of the time working out, eating and resting all day. But how do some of those professional bodybuilders get enough rest in the process that has full time jobs? They know how to schedule proper rest and have what I like to call “Nothing days”. Nothing days are just what it says. You pick a day and do nothing at all. Whether its vegging out in front of the TV or sleeping all day. It does not mean you are lazy because that is what has been ingrained in our society now that if you are not up working hard all day long you are lazy. Your body needs rest.
Your daily nutritional intake is a huge factor here. If you put junk in your body , your performance will be junk. It is as simple as that. So make sure you are getting enough quality carbohydrates (not too much) and proper protein to help rebuild muscle tissue, and enough good fats to help brain function and fight off illnesses and other possible chronic diseases.
Sleep is vital for recovery. Sleep is when your body does its best repairing and rebuilding. Skimp on sleep and you will delay recovery. Through the course of a night's sleep, you cycle through several phases. During the slow-wave stage, growth hormone is released by the pituitary gland, stimulating tissue repair.
These nothing days I have talked about are totally personal but try them for a while and see how they really help in your other day to day activates. Force yourself to have them. Good luck and have some awesome nothing days!
GD
