[h=2]Here's what you need to know...[/h]• You need to train very hard to progress optimally, but if you train so hard that it affects the quality of your other workouts or causes so much stress that performance decreases, it's a bad move.
• If you train a muscle only once a week, you'll be able to impose a lot more punishment without too many ill-effects than if you train each muscle several times in a week.
• Testing your mettle with challenge-based workouts can be a great way to see how physically capable you are and preparing for those challenges can boost your training motivation significantly.
• If you don't go borderline crazy from time to time you lose sight of what training hard means. An occasional lesson in pain in the gym will allow you to keep things in perspective.
• Puking may make you seem hardcore, but vomiting during a workout simply means that you mistimed your food intake and training, which really doesn't make you that hardcore at all.
[h=2]Take Home Points[/h]
1. Training a muscle until you're crippled at the end of the session can limit your capacity to train that muscle again in the near future. It might work for those hitting each muscle once a week, but if you train each muscle/movement pattern frequently it might be counterproductive.
2. We all have a limited capacity to recover and grow from physical work. If you invest in beyond-failure sets, understand that you should decrease overall volume or you'll stagnate.
3. Some individuals, due to their physiology (genetics or chemical assistance) can recover and thrive on death-defying workouts, but most can't when they're done too frequently.
4. Infrequent challenge workouts performed once every couple of weeks can be a very effective strategy both from a physiological and psychological perspective.
5. The name of the game is progression. If you're not progressing in strength, performance and/or body composition from week to week, your training or nutrition might not be optimal.
If going crazy in the gym doesn't lead to week-by-week progression, then it's likely holding you back.
T Nation | How Hard Do You Need to Work Out?
• If you train a muscle only once a week, you'll be able to impose a lot more punishment without too many ill-effects than if you train each muscle several times in a week.
• Testing your mettle with challenge-based workouts can be a great way to see how physically capable you are and preparing for those challenges can boost your training motivation significantly.
• If you don't go borderline crazy from time to time you lose sight of what training hard means. An occasional lesson in pain in the gym will allow you to keep things in perspective.
• Puking may make you seem hardcore, but vomiting during a workout simply means that you mistimed your food intake and training, which really doesn't make you that hardcore at all.
[h=2]Take Home Points[/h]
1. Training a muscle until you're crippled at the end of the session can limit your capacity to train that muscle again in the near future. It might work for those hitting each muscle once a week, but if you train each muscle/movement pattern frequently it might be counterproductive.
2. We all have a limited capacity to recover and grow from physical work. If you invest in beyond-failure sets, understand that you should decrease overall volume or you'll stagnate.
3. Some individuals, due to their physiology (genetics or chemical assistance) can recover and thrive on death-defying workouts, but most can't when they're done too frequently.
4. Infrequent challenge workouts performed once every couple of weeks can be a very effective strategy both from a physiological and psychological perspective.
5. The name of the game is progression. If you're not progressing in strength, performance and/or body composition from week to week, your training or nutrition might not be optimal.
If going crazy in the gym doesn't lead to week-by-week progression, then it's likely holding you back.
T Nation | How Hard Do You Need to Work Out?
