Recovery, Recovery, RECOVERY

     Let me paint a scenario for you: You join the gym and start hitting it HARD 7 days a week. Sure 2 or 3 of those days are your "cardio" days, and sometimes you take a Zumba class. But you are going hard in the gym and you feel great. Now jump to one month later: You are dreading going to the gym because it is squat day and you are still beat to shit from your bench day (the day before). Your ankles and hips hurt, you are getting snippy with your significant other, and you feel almost depressed. You haven't lost an ounce of bodyfat or gained an oz of muscle and you are sitting on the couch, waiting for your pre workout to kick in for some chemical motivation. 

    You have officially done what millions of trainees have done before you: went too hard too fast and skipped "recovery". The process of gaining strength, and therefore muscle mass, is referred to as the "stress, RECOVERY, adaptation" cycle. The stress is the hour or so you spend in the gym TEARING SHIT DOWN. Your muscles, connective tissues, even your bones are taking a beating. This is what is necessary so your body can rebuild during the recovery section. IF you get 7.5 hours of sleep and eat 200 grams of high quality protein, WHILE adding in days off, you WILL get bigger and stronger. 

    This is the USA, so we have a "more is better" mentality. If 3 days of workouts gets you bigger and stronger, then 7 days will accelerate the process for sure! Working out every day, or even 5-6 days per week is a fantastic way to run yourself into the ground and halt all processes that you care about, like gaining muscle and burning fat. That is because your stress hormones go through the roof and never have a chance to come back down. If you add in "cold plunges" or "breathing exercises" that are all the rage right now, your stress will destroy you eventually. If you are young and healthy(ish) you can even get away with it for months, but you will end up injured, burnt out, and smaller than when you started before you finally admit that "Coach Kyle was right." 

    You would be better served with a "high intensity" training approach, as made popular by Mike Mentzer and Dorian Yates. Train EXTREMELY hard with heavy weights for about 40 minutes per session, 3-4 days per week (2 days per week as you become intermediate), then hit the hot tub, get a massage, eat a dozen eggs, get 9 hours of sleep, or just cuddle with your family and watch a movie. The point is YOU ONLY GROW WHILE RECOVERING. The more often you are in the gym hitting it hard, the less recovery resources you have to utilize during your days off. 

    The "no days off" mentality is wrecking people and their goals. This is not to say you can't go on a walk in the sun, or take a gentle hike with your family, or shoot some hoops on your days you're not lifting, it is too say you can not go balls to the wall intense every day and expect to escape unscathed. 9 times out of 10, when a client goes on vacation, I tell them to enjoy their time and stop working out for 1-2 weeks. When they return, they have 1-2 lbs. of new muscle and less bodyfat (plus a sick tan). This is simply because they let their stress hormones come down, and actually RECOVERED. 

    So always remember: RECOVER more to grow more. Keep in mind our motto - "Eat steak, lift heavy thing, conquer, rest, repeat".

Sample HIT workout template - 

Monday - Bench / horizontal push focus - 4-6 exercises, 45 minute work cap. 

Tuesday - OFF / 6000 steps on the day

Wednesday - Squat / lower push focus - 4-6 exercises, 45 minute work cap. 

Thursday - OFF / 6000 steps on the day

Friday - Overhead Press / vertical push focus - 4-6 exercises, 45 minute work cap.

Saturday - Deadlift / hammy and pull focus - 4-6 exercises, 45 minute work cap.

Sunday - OFF / nothing

    This will get you more than enough work in a week, and every 6 weeks, you will take at least 4 days COMPLETELY off. As you progress, you can do a 2 day a week split, condensing it into a "lower push/pull" and an upper "push/pull" with the same parameter's, but upping your work time limit to 60 minutes.