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Muscle building tips: The importance of the recovery phase

By Jon Cardozo

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Published: 04May2008
Word count: 436
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Have you spent any time browsing through the bodybuilding magazines at your local bookstore? If so, you've probably seen quite a few recommendations on how to improve your workout, not to mention the ton of advertisements for the latest supplement fad. Likewise, you may have heard talk around the gym about which techniques are best for weightlifting or which supplements you should take. Unfortunately, chances are you've heard little about the importance of a recovery program for building muscle. If you've struggled to make progress in the gym, or if you started out with great gains only to have quickly reached a plateau, then this discussion is for you.

In order to explain the recovery phase, we should first review how muscle is built. If you want to force your body to grow muscle, you first have to give your body a reason to build it. After all, biologically muscle is difficult to maintain, and your body would rather not have to deal with it. If you wish to stimulate new muscle growth, you must give your body a reason to need it.

When you lift a heavy weight and challenge your muscle beyond its previous limits, muscle fibers are torn and must be repaired. Your body will rebuild the muscle with more mass and strength than before in order to prevent this kind of stress from recurring in the future. What does this have to do with the recovery phase?

Muscles must be given enough time to rebuild before they are put under this kind of pressure again. This requires adequate raw materials from your diet, but it also requires significant amounts of rest. You must limit the frequency of your workouts to make sure your body is ready, and many experts recommend only a few hours of training per week. You can think of this concept as Less is More.

Training to exhaustion, for example, is usually considered over training and can put a heavy strain on your nervous system and immune system, not to mention your muscles themselves. Because your nervous and immune systems take longer than your muscles to recover, you need to be very careful to avoid over training in the gym. You'll probably find yourself overdoing it from time to time, but be careful not to make this a habit.

By following this simple but crucial advice, you can avoid long-term injury or illness from over training. Moreover, you'll have a better time progressing through your workouts and building muscle from week to week if you give yourself enough time to recover between workouts.

If you would like to learn more about how to gain weight , visit Jon Cardozo's Web site at http://maximum-muscle-gain.com. Learn the secrets to building a muscular physique and avoid the myths of the bodybuilding industry. Brought to you by Jcardozium.

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