Lifting and strength training is an essential aspect of every bodybuilder’s workout routine. These exercises will help you build muscles and increase their strength over time. However, this isn’t a speedy process and it takes a lot of time to get that ideal physique. Unsurprisingly, people want quick results and are willing to put in the hard work required for it. They assume that the more they train, the better the result would be and they lift every single day of the week.
Should You Lift Every Single Day of the Week?
No, absolutely not! The human body isn’t designed to endure so much strain on a regular basis. If you don’t give your body a break and let it heal, you can damage it permanently and negate the effects of all the time and effort you put into building it. Here are some reasons why you shouldn’t lift every day of the week:
CNS Fatigue
If you lift every day of the week, you will strain your central nervous system. That can lead to listlessness, fatigue, weakness, headaches, and other such problems. CNS fatigue will put you off your game for a long time and make it difficult for you to get back into training. You should avoid this completely.
Damage Your Muscle
What would happen if you repeatedly reopen a cut on your skin and don’t allow it to heal? Eventually it will scar horribly and become damaged. That’s exactly what you’ll do to your muscles if you lift every day. Your muscle tissues tear and break down during high-intensity training.
These tissues need to heal before you subject them to the strain once again. Once they heal, they grow back stronger and more resilient and that’s how you build muscle. If you lift every day, you won’t get these results. In fact, you might even start losing muscle mass.
Sleep Problems
Overtraining can cause sleep problems. You might not be able to fall asleep or may sleep for longer hours than you usually do. It is an indication that something is wrong and you need to slow down a little.
Overtraining can cause a number of problems that can be easily avoided if you take care of your body and give it time to recover. That would actually help you gain more muscle in the long run.
Lifting Weights Every Day Doesn’t Help
Several researchers have studied the effects of lifting weight and training carefully and published their observations. All of them agree that lifting every day can do more harm than good. Here are some observations you should take a note of:
- Lifting two times a week is more effective than training once a week on the same amount of reps. So, if you do 4 reps of bicep curls every Monday and Thursday instead of all 8 reps together on Monday, you’ll see better results and bigger muscles.
- After your high-intensity workout, your body builds muscles over a span of 48 hours. You don’t need to train in this 48-house timeframe as you still experience the effect of your previous workout.
- People who work out more than 3 times a week don’t experience any difference or improvement in muscle gain. This means you will gain the same amount of muscle if you train 2 or 3 times a week as you do if you train every day.
As you can see, you should need to and should not lift every day of the week. If you have any questions about a proper diet and workout routine that would help you avoid it, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at Schembri PT. You can send us an email to info@schembript.com or fill in this contact us form and we’ll reply as soon as possible.
Thanks for reading,
Schembri PT Team
02 9648 6405