Feeling Haggard and Weak?

What does weight training do? Weight training overloads the muscular system and breaks muscle tissue down. Consequently repeatedly training the same body part or muscle group without sufficient rest between workouts derails any effort to increase muscular size or strength. The more intense a training regime, the more time it takes to recover.

Generally it takes 48 hours to recover from an episode of weight training, if one is training at 70-80% of their maximum (weight pushed or pulled for 10-12 repetitions for 1-3 sets). However recovery time is even longer when exercising at loads approaching 85-100% of maximum (muscle failure occurring at 1-8 repetitions for 3-6 sets), resulting in muscle soreness, tightness and fatigue that can last a week or more depending on the volume of exercise performed.

Until the micro-trauma inflicted by weight training at intensities of 70% or more is thoroughly repaired, bullying one’s self through a workout prematurely is an exercise in futility, not strength training.

Furthermore, combining the effects of overtraining with a diet lacking in essential nutrients (protein, carbohydrates, fat, minerals, vitamins and water) and less than 8-hour sleeping habits initiates a catabolic meltdown of the muscular, neurological and skeletal systems. It’s like a retired battleship without engines and crew to run it; dead in the water.

To sum it all up in layman’s terms, weight training breaks muscle fibers down; the body then responds by rebuilding the damaged tissue stronger than it was before to overcome the applied stress. But the rebuilding process cannot occur without taking-in sufficient amounts of nutrients found in healthy food choices. Last, sleep is the optimal time for the body to repair itself. If you’re not well rested, undernourished and over-trained, you are going to feel like a train wreck most of the time.

10 things I do to bounce back after physically assaulting myself:

1. I eat before and after I workout – I eat a balanced meal of carbohydrates, protein and low fat 2 hours prior to training. Then 30 minutes away from training I have a small liquid carbohydrate drink. These pre-meals provide me with the fuel I’ll need to kick my tail in the gym. Immediately following the workout I drink a protein yogurt and fruit shake and down a can of V-8 juice to immediately start repairing the damage to my body.

2. Drink water – It’s very simple; the body literally needs water to survive. Lack of water causes the body to metabolically not function well, which impedes muscle development and weight loss. You roughly need 1 once of water for every 2 pounds of body weight daily.

3. Eat lots of vegetables – Rule of thumb, the greener or darker the better. Spinach, broccoli, cucumbers, beats, and carrots are all good choices. One important benefit of eating vegetables is that they contain essential minerals and vitamins that act as catalyst for improving the body’s performance and help regulate hormones.

4. Manage your time – People that operate with an effective game plan get more done. Entering into the weight room without a goal and way to achieve it wastes precious time. You will either wind-up doing too little or too much; resulting in zero net gain.

5. Time your workout – Keep your resistance training inside of 60 minutes. Energy reserves are fairly depleted by this time and the risk of injuring yourself increases. A strained muscle, tendon or ligament can put you out of commission for weeks.

6. Keep your bedtime fairly consistent – it is easier to maintain regular healthy sleeping patterns when you have a specific shut off time. My mother was right when she told me "there really isn’t any good reason why anyone needs to be up until 2:00 A.M. in the morning”. So you can party like a rock star occasionally, but make it the exception; not the rule.

7. Ice what hurts – If you’re bold enough recent research suggests that dunking yourself for 15 minutes in 15 degree Celsius water helps to reduce swelling of damaged tissue, constrict blood vessels and flush waste products (lactic acid) from the trained muscles. In fact many of the Aussie rugby teams practice this method of recovery. But I’m guessing this is a bit dramatic for the weekend warrior, so try taking a cold shower or using a gel ice pack on the specific places that hurt. Then warm up for 20-30 minutes to get blood circulation moving and start the healing process.

8. Light cardio the day after – Get it moving the next day following a heavy weight training episode by doing a cardio exercise at about 70% of your maximum heart rate for 15-20 minutes. The idea is to get your lymphatic system in gear, flush your muscles with nutrient rich blood to facilitate healing and carry waste out of the muscles trained the day before.

9. Choose your battles – Keep your specific types of training spread far enough apart to allow for sufficient recovery. Avoid doing extended cardio exercises over 20-minutes and extended weight training sessions over 30-minutes in the same workout. The energy demands are too great for the body to adequately accommodate. I strongly suggest that you have specific workout days for the various types of training you like and enough rest and fuel to support those activities.

10. Change your routine every 2 months – Avoid overuse syndrome by changing exercise movements in your routine. This discourages boredom, encourages physiological gains by forcing the body to adapt to new stimulus, reduces wear-and-tear on joints, and allows for a balanced approach to fitness.