Overtraining is one of the most common mistakes in the iron game. As 8x Mr. Olympia Lee Haney said: “Stimulate, don’t annihilate.”
Young Bulls Recover Fast. Old Heads? Not So Much.
Muscle growth, speed, and performance all depend on proper training, smart recovery, and great nutrition. You can’t blindly push training volume or intensity to the maximum, or you will get folded. When you’re young and closer to your physical prime, recovery comes much easier, even when you are overtraining.
I remember the days where I could go to school, lift, sprint, hoop, skimp on sleep, and eat poorly. I could do this day after day with little consequence. That was the early 2000s when I was at West Chester University. But as you mature, the recovery game changes. You won’t be like Wolverine anymore. If you train with the same reckless abandon at 41 like you did at 21, you’re inviting injury and burnout to Sunday dinner.
Natural Lifters Must Train Differently
Many “influencers” are deceptive with some of the claims they make about overtraining and recovery. And many of these same influencers get away with overtraining because they are on steroids.
The fact of the matter is that steroids change everything. Juiced up athletes can recover faster and train longer. As a natural lifter, you can’t follow the same program, or you will get cooked. I used to follow enhanced pro routines when I was in college and they had me going nowhere fast. If you push high intensity and high volume, you’ll hit the wall fast.
In my experience, 3 to 5 days of consistent training delivers the best results. I’ve trained 6 and even 7 days a week, but only short-term during contest prep. Even with good sleep, precision nutrition, and structured training programming, I wore down quickly.
Stimulate Means Intentional, Not Easy
Many lifters hear the word “stimulate” and they associate it with soft. But that’s a false narrative.
Stimulate means to take a muscle to the edge and then back off. It doesn’t mean easy by any stretch of the imagination. It means training with intensity, focus, and precision. Say you were training using the two sets method. This method involves you doing two sets that end close to muscle failure. Once you do two hard sets on the flat dumbbell bench press, there’s no need to do 10 more sets to failure to “destroy” your pecs. Annihilation is where progress stalls because you won’t recover fast or properly.
Bad Programming = Poor Results
Lousy training programs will hinder even the best athletes.
My sophomore year at West Chester, we ran insane, high-volume sprint workouts all season. We thought we were killing the game. But as a team we ran slower as the season progressed. Injuries piled up and our recovery was lousy. We had no structure, an incompatible bodybuilding style lifting plan, and cafeteria food full of empty calories and low-quality nutrition. By my junior year, I rebuilt my training program with new knowledge. And that’s when I finally started performing better.
Train Smart, Not Just Hard
If you want to grow and improve long term, follow these three rules:
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Train 3–5 days per week
Structure your training week to avoid overtraining, overlapping intensity, and excessive volume. 3–4 days is plenty for most people. 5 is for the advanced lifters. -
Fuel your body, especially around workouts
Eat most of your carbs pre- and post-training for better performances and recovery. -
Prioritize recovery
Aim to get 7–8 hours of quality sleep each night. Like everything in life, you won’t be perfect because there is no perfect. Full disclosure, I average about 6.5 hours of sleep a night. I’ve tracked it since Covid. On the days I get 7 to 9 hours of quality sleep I’m like Black Panther after he eats the heart-shaped herb. No amount of hustle will replace rest. If you’re chronically under-recovered, you’re leaving gains and performance on the table.
The Last Rep
Fatigue masks fitness.
Don’t chase soreness or excess volume. Chase progression. Stimulate your muscles, recover fully, and live to train another day. If you are sick and tired of using low-quality workout programs and getting lousy results, it’s time to connect with me.
I’ll holla at you next time.
The People’s Trainer & Barber,
Fitman x Fademan
