Are We Over-Training?
Not often a trainer gets asked “What is your training philosophy”? Even though this might be one of the most important questions.
Although training can be very healthy, over-training is easily done. Especially cardio can be detrimental to health. The constant high supply of oxygen creates an overload of radicals that cause inflammation in the body, a burden that can overwhelm the anti-oxidant system in our bodies. In 2023, I published a book (Insider Training), outlining and explaining that many types of exercise, especially cardio, are not healthy and likely very dangerous. Below are some examples of higher incidence of plaques and calcification of cardio athletes versus non-cardio athletes.
Schwartz RS, Kraus SM, Schwartz JG, Wickstrom KK, Peichel G, Garberich RF, Lesser JR, Oesterle SN, Knickelbine T, Harris KM, Duval S, Roberts WO, O’Keefe JH. Increased Coronary Artery Plaque Volume Among Male Marathon Runners. Mo Med. 2014 Mar-Apr;111(2):89-94. PMID: 30323509; PMCID: PMC6179497.
Overtraining & Muscle Growth
When clients ask me how many times they should train, they are surprised when I answer them “2 times a week is enough”. Performing compound whole-body exercises twice a week gives enough of an impulse to stimulate growth. Arthur Jones (owner and inventor of Nautilus) trained many bodybuilders and did experiments with himself, he found that training 2-3 times a week was a good average to increase strength and muscle growth, the rest was considered over-training. An example of Arthur Jones’s suggested training is listed below
With an impulse for strength and muscle growth after a workout, rest and nutrition will do the rest. This impulse of muscle strength and growth typically lasts for 3 days, making 2 times a week a good ratio.
Even Bodybuilders Train Too Much
Even though bodybuilding is equated with steroids and rightly so, we can learn a lot from the different bodybuilding styles for muscle growth. Especially where everybody is using something, training and rest can bring forth the difference.
One example could be Dorian Yates, a 6-time Olympian bodybuilder winner, who noted that with less training his muscle size increased. Especially from 1992-1993, Yates noted
“This year for this contest, I am training even less. I am probably doing a total of maybe 3 and a half hours a week in the gym of actual weight training, and some of my competitors are doing that much every day”
Dorian Yates
See the results below
Dorian Yates increased his muscle mass by avoiding over-training
Do you also want to increase muscle mass and strength, and avoid over-training?