There's 1000 different ways to set up your workout program. There's a ton of ways to split up muscle groups and body parts and set up your weekly training frequency and volume. There's a ton of different exercises to choose from for each muscle group. There's also a ton of different ways arrange it all and a ton of different set and rep combinations you could be doing for each.

Like I said, there's 1000 different ways to set up your workout program.

And, guess what? Most of those ways will work. Seriously. As long as you get some basic workout fundamentals right (and of course ensure your diet is what it needs to be), all intelligently set up workout programs WILL work for you and get you the results you want.

That is of course as long as you aren't overtaining. If you are, virtually nothing will work.

While it is certainly possible to undertrain as well, overtraining is a million times more common and, after a poor diet, it is probably the #1 reason people aren't getting the results they want from their workout.

What is overtraining and what causes it?

So then, what is overtraining? Well, for starters, overtraining is pretty much exactly what it sounds like it is... it means you are training too much. Too much for what, exactly? Too much for your body to properly recover from. And, if your body can't recover properly, your body can't (and won't) progress or improve. Simple as that.

You see, your muscles don't grow in the gym. Your body doesn't improve during your workouts. All of the growth and all of the improvements take place when you are resting, not when you are working.

During your workouts your goal is to put your body under a certain amount of stress. We of course create this stress with weight training, and the purpose of causing this stress is to get our bodies to adapt to it.

Why? Because those adaptations ARE results. They are progress. They are new muscle. They are increased strength. Those adaptations are EVERYTHING we want to happen.

It's very simple, actually. We create a stress during our workouts, allow enough time for our bodies to adapt to that stress and recover from it, and then get right back in the gym and start this cycle all over again. Every time this cycle repeats, our bodies improve. Muscle grows, strength increases.

However, if you are overtraining, none of this happens. There's 3 possible scenarios for why. First, you're creating the proper stress, but you are not allowing enough rest and recovery before creating the stress again. Second, your recovery time might be fine, but the stress caused during your workouts is WAY too big. Third, you're doing a combination of both.

Whichever of the 3 you are doing, it doesn't matter. It's all a form of overtraining and it will all hinder (or completely STOP) your body from making any sort of progress or getting any kind of positive results.

Signs and symptoms of overtraining.

Here now are some of the most common signs of overtraining:

• You get sick and/or catch colds more often than usual.
• You feel tired and run down all the time.
• You're experiencing occasional muscle and eyelid twitches.
• Instead of getting easier, your workouts are getting harder.
• And most important of all, you are making NO progress and getting NO results for an extended period of time (no new strength, no new muscle, no new anything). In some really bad cases of overtraining, it's also pretty common to notice that you are actually LOSING strength and/or muscle.

If you are experiencing any or all of the above, STOP WORKING OUT and take a full week off. During this time, come up with a new workout program that will NOT cause you to overtrain. How? Good question...

How to set up a proper workout program and NOT overtrain.

Explaining all of this would take a whole separate article or two (or three). Luckily though, I've already written them.

The best place to start would be this one: How to set up your weekly workout frequency and volume.

Additionally, a perfect place to start would be The Intense Workout's Muscle Building Program, which is a complete guide to every single aspect of putting together your muscle building workout and diet (complete with the brand new Intense Workout Weight Training Program).

If this sounds like something you'd be interested in, you can check it out here: The Intense Workout's Muscle Building Program

Questions, comments or feedback? Feel free to e-mail me at:
IntenseWorkout@gmail.com

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