goergen1
08-16-2007, 03:53 PM
When To Train Light
by Stephen Powell
Go heavy or go home. This phrase represents the mindset of many strength athletes who enjoy hard, intense training. I, as well as many other lifters feel that in order to obtain a sense of accomplishment in a training session you've got to go heavy. If you feel that way you have to think another.
Injury is inevitable if you don't. I'm not going to discuss symptoms of over training that leads to specific injury. The body can be severely over trained without risk of an injury to a specific muscle or joint. There are two signs that indicate the body as a whole unit is tired.
One is unusual breakouts of acne anywhere on the body.
The other sign is trouble falling asleep.
A lot of people ignore this sign because they think the harder they train the better they should sleep. If you recognize these signs it's time to train light. I would recommend a light training week (no higher than 65%) at least once every 4-6 weeks. This light week is important. Keep the reps around 3 to 5 and work on speed and technique.
Instead of just taking a week off of training, the light week will keep the nerves and motor pathways conditioned while your body recovers.
by Stephen Powell
Go heavy or go home. This phrase represents the mindset of many strength athletes who enjoy hard, intense training. I, as well as many other lifters feel that in order to obtain a sense of accomplishment in a training session you've got to go heavy. If you feel that way you have to think another.
Injury is inevitable if you don't. I'm not going to discuss symptoms of over training that leads to specific injury. The body can be severely over trained without risk of an injury to a specific muscle or joint. There are two signs that indicate the body as a whole unit is tired.
One is unusual breakouts of acne anywhere on the body.
The other sign is trouble falling asleep.
A lot of people ignore this sign because they think the harder they train the better they should sleep. If you recognize these signs it's time to train light. I would recommend a light training week (no higher than 65%) at least once every 4-6 weeks. This light week is important. Keep the reps around 3 to 5 and work on speed and technique.
Instead of just taking a week off of training, the light week will keep the nerves and motor pathways conditioned while your body recovers.