Overtraining & Recuperation

[nextBIGone]

The harder you work your body, the more time it takes to recover and recuperate from that training. Rest and recuperation are very important because, although you stimulate growth by training, it is during the subsequent period of recuperation that actual growth and adaptation take place. That's why bodybuilders frequently overcome sticking points by resting more rather than training harder or more often.
Overtraining occurs when you work a muscle too often to allow it to fully recuperate. You hear bodybuilders talk about tearing the muscle down and then letting it rebuild itself, but this is not really physiologically accurate. There can be small amounts of tissue damage during heavy exercise, and it is this damage that is associated with residual muscular soreness. But the soreness is a side effect and not the primary reason the muscles need time to recuperate after heavy exercise.
A number of complex biochemical process accompany strenuous muscular contraction. The proces of fueling muscular contraction results in the buildup of toxic waste products such as lactic acid. And during exercise the energy stored in the muscle in the form of glycogen is used up.
The body requires time to restore the chemical balance of the muscle cells, clear out the residual waste products and restock the depleted stores of glycogen. But another factor is even more important: Time is needed for the cells themselves to adapt to the stimulus of the exercise and to grow. After all, bodybuilding is all about making muscles grow. So if you overtrain a muscle, forcing it to work too hard too quickly after the preceding exercise session, you will not give it a chance to grow and your progress will SLOW DOWN!
Different muscles recover from exercise at different rates. As I mentioned, the biceps recover the fastest! The lower back muscles recover the slowest, taking about a hundred hours to completely recuperate from a heavy workout. However, in most cases, giving a body part 48 hours rest is sufficient, which means skipping a day after training a muscle before training it again.
Basic training involves only medium levels of intensity, so the time necessary for recuperation is shorter. Once you move on to more advanced training, higher levels of intensity will be needed in order to overcome the greater resistance of the body to change and growth. There is one other important factor, however: Trained muscles recover from fatigue faster than untrained muscles. So the better you get at bodybuilding, the faster your recovery rate will be and the more intense your training program can become.

Review:
~Rest is just as important as training...
~Different muscles recover from exercise at different rates...
~Give your muscle at least 48 hours of rest before training that same muscle again...
~The more you progress at bodybuilding, the faster you will be able to recover...


I thought this was a great read bro's. I wanted to find some facts about muscle recovery...thought I would share...

[JPME]

But how much will this change with the addition of AAS I wonder?

[nextBIGone]

Originally Posted by jpme

But how much will this change with the addition of AAS I wonder?

bro, that is exactly what I was thinking about. Obviously the recovery time would be quicker...but how much is the question

[aguy fish]

Interesting post.
i'm really wondering what's overtraining. After 15 years of training I've seen so many different training methods from very low volume to very high volume.
I've seen really big guys ( of course non natural) training "only" 4 times a weeks and no more than 12 sets for big bodyparts and 9 sets for small ones.
I've seen guys who did high volume and still grow well. So It still don't know what to think.
I just cannot put myself into what I see as a very low volume routine (12-9 sets per bodypart as stated before). I'd have the feeling to be "lazy". I do very high volume and low restb ( no more than 75sec)( 16-25 sets for large bodypart- 14-20 sets for small) and it obviously works not bad but i cannot set up my ming trying something very different. But I still wonder if it would not be good to train lower volume... I'm torn really...Any of you could relate your experience on lower volume?
What do you think the best volume is? How many training sessions a week?
Thanks a lot

[nextBIGone]

Well, I can relate to lower volume.
DC training is a great example. Only 1 set per bodypart to total failure. Talk about soar bro...damn!
5x5 training is also another low volume example. I was using 5x5 when I first started lifting...and now I am currently going to go back to it...then eventually upgrade to DC.