"I'm so frustrated! I cannot get any bigger and I'm not getting
stronger!" Sound familiar? Maybe you've said it yourself. You go to the
gym religously, spend hour after hour doing bench presses for your
chest, rows and pulldowns for your back, barbell curls and tricep
extensions for you arms yet nothing is happening. Or at least not what
you were hoping for when you started bodybuilding.
Here's a true
story: Some years ago I was approached by a gym buddy who asked me what
my thoughts were on his training. His frustration was over the fact
that in over 3 years of working out and lifting weights, his physique
had changed only minimally and his lifts were not much better than when
he had started.
I had been watching him and sometimes working
out with him for a couple of years so I was aware of his training
style: On chest days he would typically start off with some warm-up
reps and then would get started on the flat bench. He would usually
pyramid up from a starting weight where he would do 12-15 reps and
typically would finish at about 4 reps on his sixth set!
Then,
he'd usually go to the incline bench, grab the heaviest weight he could
handle for 5 or 6 reps and would do another 4 sets with that. He would
then go to an incline chair and do more incline dumbbell flyes. After
this, he would further blast his poor chest muscles with pec deck,
decline and sometimes cable flyes. By the time he was done with just
his chest, he'd spent almost an hour and typically had done anywhere
from 18 to 24 sets!
What this guy didn't need was
advice, he needed a REST! He was so overworking his chest muscles that
by the time he came back to work them the following session (sometimes
only 4 days later), they could not possibly recuperate/recover from the
blasting he had just given them. If this guy had been in his 20's he
might have had a chance but the fact that he was in his early 40's only
made things worse.
This story perfectly illustrates one of the main reasons why people have such a hard time building muscle: Overtraining.
Muscles
grow by being subjected to stress. You lift a weight, stress the muscle
and if all goes well, in time that muscle will grow to accomodate the
stress being put on it. But the muscle does not grow while you
are in the gym. That is when you are actually breaking down the muscle.
The growth/repair comes when you give your body enough time to repair
the muscle that has been worked thereby allowing it to grow.
Overtraining occurs when the muscle is put under too much stress and
the recovery time is not enough for it to repair itself.
Another
example of a specific muscle being overtrained is the biceps/triceps
group. Too many times, I'll get to they gym, start my workout and see
some guy doing biceps. Set after set after exhausting set. I'm done
with my workout and they're still doing curls. It is unnecessary and
counterproductive.
So What Is The Exact Number Of Sets I Should Do?There
is no set formula for any one person. What works for you might not work
for me. What works for an 18 year old will almost certainly not work
for a 50 year old! The truth is that it is trial and error. You will
have to find the "sweet spot" in your training that allows you to
stress your muscle fibers but also allows you to come back on your next
session and blast them again. As a very general rule and depending on
age and experience, hitting each muscle group twice a week should be
something to shoot for. But if you are not making gains, take a look at
both the number of sets you're doing and the frequency that you're
working a group. Remember, sometimes less is more!
In Part 2 of this series, I'll touch on another reason why you might not be making any gains - Stagnant Training
Mike Berg has been involved in bodybuilding and fitness as an enthusiast and trainer for over 20 years.
Visit his website for bodybuilding and fitness articles and Bodybuilding Supplements at http://www.milleniumfitness.com
