Too much of a good thing is never a good thing. We've all heard that before. But none of us ever can seem to remember complaining about problems with phrases such as "where am I going to keep all this extra money?" or "What am I going to do with all these supermodels in my living room?" Other things in life can lead to distress and disaster when they arrive in abundance too great for our bearings, and training in the gym is one of these things.

The initial enthusiasm that arrives with bodybuilding training is understandable and desired. Our 'beginners gains' are splendid - the muscle arrives faster than we know what to do with it, and we seem to be able to eat anything under the sun and sleep sparingly and still see gains.

Then, we hit the wall!

Suddenly, muscle and strength gains come slower, and body fat just seems to accumulate at a rate that we certainly do not enjoy. What is a lifter to do? You can't dig your way out of a hole, and you can't train your way out of a an overtraining period, but you can make modifications to your situation in order to see better muscle mass gains like you enjoyed in the past. Let's check out an overtraining checklist.

Do you skip meals? This is the number one culprit for lifters who aren't making the gains in the gym that they should be making. You've got to ensure you are getting 2500 to 3500 calories each day, along with at least 300 grams of protein, split into 6 meals of 50 grams apiece.

Do you sleep less than 7 hours? Sleep 8 hours each night. Nothing more to say!

Are you continually stressed? The top bodybuilders in the world all have one thing in common - a laid back, relaxed nature. Stress releases a hormone called cortisol which boosts fat production and eats away at muscle mass. Smile at your problems, deal with them, and focus on building muscle.

Are you consuming enough overall calories? Remember that in the minds of many bodybuilding gurus, 'overtraining' is just another word for 'under-eating'. While it's true that no amount of calories would be able to provide adequate recovery ability for a man training 10 hours a day (unless you are a genetic freak like Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps), it's also true that when you train hard, you need to eat more food!

If you answered yes to one or more of these questions, then you may be overtraining. It's not the end of the world - all bodybuilders do it at times. Sleep and eat more, worry less, and by the way, any training past 90 minutes per day is a no-no. Good luck!


Flex Lewis

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