If you’ve spent any time in the bookstore browsing through magazine articles on bodybuilding, you’ve no doubt come across some pretty strong claims about how the latest supplement fad can provide you with unbelievable results. You may have also seen some recommendations on improving your workout technique and other such advice.
What was probably missing from the discussion is the importance of a solid recovery phase when embarking on a new strength training or bodybuilding program. If you seem to spend all your time in the gym without making any progress, or if your initial muscle gains have reached a plateau, take a moment to think about your recovery plans (or lack thereof).
If you know how muscle grows in the first place, you should understand why a recovery period is so important. It has to do with our body’s basic need to survive. If you want muscle to grow, you have to challenge it beyond its previous limits. By lifting heavier and heavier weights, the muscles will grow in response to these challenges.
In fact, the muscle fibers are actually being broke down at the cellular level. The body rebuilds these muscle fibers in order to prevent the situation from happening again. This is why you continually have to increase your weights if you want your muscles to get bigger and bigger.
If you don’t give muscles rest in between your workouts, they will not be ready the next time you put them under stress. If you continue to work out without giving your muscles rest, you will really hurt your progress.
As a matter of fact, some well known muscle building experts recommend only training a few hours per week. Too many people go way over this because they think that more is always better.
Along with simply having a pause in between your workout sessions, you need to make sure that you’re getting plenty of sleep as well. Sleeping, not just resting or taking it easy, is crucial for muscle growth to occur as effectively as possible.
Sleep helps the body repair itself, which is absolutely relevant to the topic of muscle building. Your muscles need to be rebuilt bigger and stronger, and proper recovery methods are crucial to help this happen.
