A famous CEO recently scheduled several different trainers in our facility to exercise everyday while in town. Halfway through his 7th workout, he ran out of gas by his own admission. It was lecture time.
"A muscle needs two ingredients for growth," I started, "stimulation and recovery ability." He at least had the courtesy to hear me out.
Muscle cannot grow without stimulus and will not grow without opportunity - time between workouts. Every muscle has a threshold of stimulation, that is a level of intensity (not amount of exercise) that must be reached to trigger change. It is probably a high percentage of a full-out effort, if not 100%; and, like a light switch, it's either "on" or "off." Once "on," you don't need more exercise - you need energy to recover from what you accomplished. Nautilus inventor Arthur Jones equated muscle stimulation to starting your car. Once you turn the ignition "on," you don't keep trying the key - you'll ruin the starter. Stimulate change, then go home.
Recovery time? A minimum of 48 hours and more if you are advanced. The body can perform any amount of exercise (as illustrated above), but is not capable of recovering from any amount of exercise. Whenever professional bodybuilders got "stuck" in their workouts, Jones reduced the amount of exercise and the training frequency (sent them home a few days between workouts because systems couldn't recover from their efforts). Worked every time.
You can't start a race until the gun goes off. You can get away with it for a while, but too many trainees are trying far too often to win a race they don't know how to run.
"A muscle needs two ingredients for growth," I started, "stimulation and recovery ability." He at least had the courtesy to hear me out.
Muscle cannot grow without stimulus and will not grow without opportunity - time between workouts. Every muscle has a threshold of stimulation, that is a level of intensity (not amount of exercise) that must be reached to trigger change. It is probably a high percentage of a full-out effort, if not 100%; and, like a light switch, it's either "on" or "off." Once "on," you don't need more exercise - you need energy to recover from what you accomplished. Nautilus inventor Arthur Jones equated muscle stimulation to starting your car. Once you turn the ignition "on," you don't keep trying the key - you'll ruin the starter. Stimulate change, then go home.
Recovery time? A minimum of 48 hours and more if you are advanced. The body can perform any amount of exercise (as illustrated above), but is not capable of recovering from any amount of exercise. Whenever professional bodybuilders got "stuck" in their workouts, Jones reduced the amount of exercise and the training frequency (sent them home a few days between workouts because systems couldn't recover from their efforts). Worked every time.
You can't start a race until the gun goes off. You can get away with it for a while, but too many trainees are trying far too often to win a race they don't know how to run.
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