The workout above is hilarious, but there are one thing missing: How often should you / Jim Carrey work out – and get benefit from it?
Have been working out for 9 months now, the initial 5 was wasted. The reason:
Overtraining
What is overtraining? Its the main reason some of the people in gym look like they have their first workout. It’s the reason most people don’t see the gains they want, and give up right away. They get monuments of failure.
Here are a small metaphor: Pretend your body is a car. Lets say on Monday, you crashed into a tree. Yeah, there is a little dent in the car, but it still runs fine. And then the day after, on Tuesday, you crash it again. Well, the car isn’t running as good anymore, and does not look too good. What you had to do, was bring the car into the shop on Monday after you crashed the first time, give it time to get fixed.
You see, you can crash your car every Monday, just as long as you give it time to be fixed, and it will still run fine.
Your body works the same way. When i first went to the gym, I was told the above from an insructor. At the same time I saw persons working out every day. Do you know what they did look as? It was as if they were at the gym for the first time ever, always..
You see, the gym instructors said, your muscles don’t grow when they are being worked, they grow when they are resting. You need to work your muscles, give them time to recover, work them again, recover, and so on. Each time they get worked recovered, they get stronger and bigger. Each time you work them, and then work them again before they had time to recover, they get weaker and smaller.
You can do the best exercises, with the best form for years, and still see no gains if your doing too much. So, what do you do? LESS! Outside of the world of UNIX derivates, Less is More. It might sound hard to believe, but the less you do the better. Now don’t get me wrong, don’t think 5 minutes of working out 1 time a month is going to do anything. But working out 7 times a week, for 2-3 hours each time, doing 5 exercises per muscle and doing each muscle 4 times a week will do just as much for you as sitting home and eating potato chips all day.
Some signs of overtraining are:
- Getting sick and getting colds more often then normal.
- Feeling tired all the time.
- Muscle and eyelid twitches.
…And most importantly, NO strength or size gains for an extended period of time.
If you are experiencing any or all of the above, STOP WORKING OUT and take a week off. During this time, get help from experienced trainers and get a new workout – that will not cause overtraining. Then, after the week off, start back again with the new routine.