Resting or minimum heart rate can be a very reliable indicator of your fitness level.

 

Resting heart rate or RHR is the number of your heart beats per minute measured when you are inactive.

 

The best time to calculate your RHR is when you are awake first thing in the morning.

 

You can place your index and middle fingers either on your carotid or on your radial arteries and count your pulse for 20″. Multiply by 3 and you are OK.

 

I won’t recommend this methodology. I prefer a heart rate monitor.

 
Relax and count your pulse for about 60″. Your RHR is the lower number on the dial. For a more reliable measurement you can use the average indication of three consecutive days.

 

 

 The RHR is dependent on various parameters. Some of the most important are:

 

 

 - Age: A 20 years old man should have a RHR reduced by 3-4 beats/min from a 50 years old man (for the same fitness level).

 

- Sex: Women have RHRs higher by 3-5 beats/min when compared with men of the same age and fitness level.

 

- Stress: If you are stressed, your RHR will be higher up to 10%.

 

- Fitness level: The lower your RHR the more fit you are. Average, healthy men in their thirties have RHRs in the range of 70-75.

 

If their RHR is 85+ beats, they will have to do something because their heart overworks.

 

Conversely if their RHR is less than 60 beats/min, they are in an excellent form!

 

 - Overtraining: Overtrained people can have their RHRs increased by 10% or even more compared to their normal measurements.

 

 You can lower your RHR with systematic aerobic activities. This will make you heart a more efficient pump with a higher stroke volume. In other words it will be capable of sending more blood around the body with each beat.

 

 Compare an athlete with a RHR of 50 beats to an unfit man, same age, with a RHR of 100 beats: The second man’s heart has to do double job for the same result!

 

 RHR is used to determine the training heart rate zones. This is an issue we will address very soon.

 

 Chris Strogilis

 

Civ. Eng. – MBA – DipM

 

 http://totalfitness-christos.blogspot.com

Ever since the days of the Charles Atlas ads featuring the skinny boy who is getting sand kicked in his face, millions of young boys everywhere wanted to take up body building to try to achieve a body that would be both feared and marveled. This leads many to pick up the sport of bodybuilding in order to try to build and develop their musculature. The fact is body building requires an intense amount of both skill and commitment in order to achieve the goals that most are looking for. Simply picking up some weights at your local gym and lifting them on a daily basis will not do the trick. Let’s examine some bodybuilding basics that everyone should know before they make this rigorous exercise a mainstay of their lifestyle.

First, it is important to start slow. Many times people who start out wanting to build bigger muscles begin lifting without regard to the effect it will have on their bodies. This can lead quickly to overtraining and being sore for days at a time if not injuring themselves in such a way to see them laid up for weeks or months. Bodybuilding and weight training can be very dangerous so start with light weights and build up to heavier ones as your muscles grow and adapt.

One of the most important things you can ever keep in mind about body building is that muscular growth occurs during rest phases, not active ones. It is important that you give your body plenty of time to rest or the growth may simply never happen. Those that are new to bodybuilding often want to overdo it by training every day and this usually leads them to the opposite effect which is their muscular growth stops altogether. Getting a full night’s sleep and taking off at least a day between heavy workouts will be your key to success in bodybuilding.

If overtraining is the first mistake that new bodybuilders make, then nutrition is a close second. In their rush to gain a new physique, many new bodybuilders rush out to buy the latest supplements on the market to help them speed up their muscular growth. The fact is, the only thing you need to be focused on at this time is eating a healthy balanced diet and getting plenty of rest. If you wish to focus on eating more calories of lean proteins such as meat, chicken, and fish, that is fine but there is no need at this stage to rush out and buy the latest supplements.

Finally, those that are new to bodybuilding should do themselves a favor and seek the help and guidance of a personal trainer at least initially. This will help to make certain that your form with particular exercises is spot on and that you don’t hurt yourself before you reach your desired results. Once you have mastered many of the exercises you will be doing while creating your perfect body, you may no longer have the need for this personal trainer but starting out with one at the beginning can greatly speed up the results.

Things That Affect Overtraining

Overtraining is an emotional, behavioral and physical condition that occurs when the volume and intensity of an individual’s exercise exceeds their recovery capacity. They cease making progress, and can even begin to lose strength and fitness. Overtraining is a common problem in weight training, but it can also be experienced by runners and other athletes. An example of overtraining would be lifting at high-intensity with the same muscle groups 2 days in a row.

Personally, I would suggest training each body part twice per week at high intensity with between 2 and 4 sets of 3 different exercises. A routine like this would increase size and strength as well as improving muscular endurance. 

   • Monday – Legs, Chest and Back



Tuesday – Arms and Shoulders

Wednesday – Legs, Chest and Back

Thursday – Arms and Shoulders

Friday – Rest

Saturday – Rest

Sunday – Rest



This workout puts high demand on the muscles, but gives them a day off in between and a large rest, or an opportunity to do cardio work, at the end of the week.

Nutrition:



Nutrition is vital in training. To build muscle, you should aim to get at least one gram of protein per pound of bodyweight. If you go into the gym and lift to fail, your muscles straight away start the process of rebuilding, and if there isn’t enough protein to repair the muscle, the next time you workout and tear the muscle fibers they are going to be too strained and the result is going to be overtraining.



Genetics:



There is something that you should remember about overtraining and muscle recovery and that’s Genetics. Someone who has good genetics might be able to train with more sets and still make good gains without feeling they have overtrained, but most people don’t have these kinds of genetics.



Sleep:



Sleep deprivation can affect muscle growth and repair as your muscles grow while you sleep. If you do not get enough sleep your body cannot repair your torn muscle fibers for your next workout. I aim to try and get around 8 hours a sleep a night to allow for maximum muscle recovery and allow for me to have enough energy to hit the gym hard!



Some of the symptoms of overtraining are:



1. Fatigue

2. Overly sore joints and muscles

3. Lack of appetite

4. Insomnia

5. Recurring illness



When you lift heavy weights, your muscle fibres tear. It is while you are resting hat an increase in size and strength occurs. If you overtrain, your muscle fibers tear and your body does not have enough time to heal the muscles before you go back into the gym and tear the fibers again. 

Overtraining can cause a loss in size and strength, rather than a gain.

Things That Correct Overtraining

The best thing to avoid overtraining is to take a rest from exercise to allow your muscles to fully repair. Take a week off every couple of months, or substitute a workout day for a day of rest or active recovery.

2nd and last part



So what to do?

 



 



*choose weights that can properly tax your muscles

 

 

Repetitions should be in the region of 6-8.Increasing muscle mass needs hard effort and demands exceeding our limits!

 

Throw away the 5kg dumbbells which devour your most valuable resource and grab some decent stuff!

 

 

*Exercise at least 3 times/week with total body workouts.Leave split workouts for the bodybuilders.Try to involve the biggest muscle groups.Perform only compound,multi functional exercises.

 

 

*minimize or completely eliminate the breaks trying thus to impart an aerobic character to your workouts and achieve maximum fat loss.

 

 

* perform strenuous workouts but don’t omit to allow ample recovery time to avoid the very existent danger of overtraining!

 

I know many fitness enthusiasts that have fallen victims to overtraining.So much effort in vain! It’s a pity! With weight training, more in not better!

 

Let’s go now to fat reduction

 



 



 

Ceasar’s wife should be honest and look honest!!

 



 

Ok! We have developed an impressive musculature .Though, it is not well discernible.Why?

 

Because our fat percentage won’t permit it.Our muscles are hidden under a layer of subcutaneous fat.

 

 

You should do two things to reduce your body fat percentage:

 

 

*aerobic exercise

 

*adopt a sound nutritional plan

 

 

Nutrition is the most critical parameter for fat loss!

 

 

Aerobic activity

 



 

Properly done, an aerobic activity of medium to high intensity will help you shed a lot of fat and it will achieve this relatively quickly.

 

I know people with single digit body fat who will never involve in aerobics! But they are monsters of self-discipline!They are the exceptions!

 

 

Let’s see what our options are :

 

 -If you are really fit and your schedule is hectic, HIIT is unbeatable!

 

:-Another option is to run for 30-45′ at about the 80% of your MHR just below your anaerobc threshold.If you have the stamina to do this you will shed tons of fat!!

 

Personally, I would never underestimate the aerobic part of the fat loss equation.I consider this of vital importance!

 

 

When your workout includes both resistance training and aerobics,do ececute them with this order.

 

You will need your maximum strength and endurance for your weights session.

 

 

About nutrition





As far as it regards muscle definition ,a sound nutritional plan is considered to be an absolute must.

You may exercise 1hour/day but there are another 161 hours/week that you don’t !!

Put it simply:all your hard efforts will go in vain if you don’t make right nutrition a top priority!

You will never see your fetish abs!

Check about nutrition here





Essential parameters of nutrition







-If you aim at fat loss you will have to create a slight caloric deficit:burn more calories that those you consume

-While you are trying to achieve definition you will will have to exclude any type of junk food.

Give great emphasis to high quality protein.Every meal should contain a source of premium quality protein.

-You will have to reduce starchy carbs and fruits in favor of vegetables. Eat vegetables at your will. Include them in every meal.

-Only 15% of your caloric intake should come from fats.First choices: omega-3 and monounsaturated fats.

In conclusion







To achieve most coveted muscle definition you will need:

- a taxing strength training program

-to increase and intensify the aerobic part of your training regime

-and the most important:to follow an impeccable nutrition plan

Chris Strogilis



 

There is much advice floating around both on and offline about how to build muscle fast. As a personal trainer myself here are a few little known facts and secrets that I personally consider worth your while contemplating on your quest to build muscle mass:

I often hear that you should train each muscle group just once a week. Whilst this may be provide optimal progress for extremely hardgainers it is not true for the vast majority of people. Of course you need to avoid overtraining but in life generally you get good at things by doing them  more often not less and this is true to some extent in bodybuilding too. Muscle groups should be hit at least twice a week, no less. In fact ideally you should push your body through periods of near overtraining an then drop off into periods of undertraining. This provides times when there is a lot of stress for the body to handle and other times when the body has more time to recover and build momentum for another push. This will prevent you from hitting training plateaus.

Ensure that your training sessions don’t exceed 45 minutes. If you think that is not long enough then either your routine is too long or you don’t workout intensely enough. Focussing on intensity and quality should ensure that 45 mins is more than enough time. If your training session lasts more than this then testosterone levels fall significantly because of the increased cortisol production which actually causes the body to eat muscle tissue plus store fat. completely the opposite to what we are after.

You need to cycle your training. after a while a workout loses its ability to stimulate growth as your body has already adapted to it. You ought to alter your session before you stop making gains from the program. You need to ensure that you don’t change your training sessions to frequently either. Doing so could confuse your bodies muscles overly so and stop it working its way into a nice groove.

Big gains are unlikely to occur for you if you don’t use the correct exercises. The classic time proven muscle building exercises are the multi-joint exercises otherwise known as compound exercises. The best ones are: dead lifts, bench presses, rows, squats, pull ups, shoulder presses plus any exercise that moves your entire body through air ie, not just moving individual limbs. If you use these exercises, with a few of their variations and correct muscle building nutrition then you can’t help but stimulate muscle mass growth. With those points in mind it is time to go hit the gym and get huge.

 

Overtraining is NOT evil. Overtraining can be exactly what you need to achieve continuous and rapid results in your training.

But first, what is overtraining? Overtraining is, most simply, training too much. Your body is unable to recover from the volume or frequency of training and begins to break down. You not only lose motivation to train, you become more susceptible to injury and illness, and you may even start to go backwards in your training, getting smaller and weaker on almost a daily basis.

So how can overtraining possibly be good for you? I’ll tell you.

It all begins with the incredible adaptive power of your body. As you become more advanced in weight training, you will generally notice that you cannot make consistent gains for a long period of time on one training system. Your body quickly adapts to whatever training system you’re using and hits a plateau. To get around this, it’s usually recommended that you change your program every three to six weeks.

The question now is how to use this adaptive ability to your advantage.

It’s really quite simple. You gradually build up to a state of temporary overtraining, then, when you’re overtrained and your adaptive processes are working to their fullest capacity for recovery, you back off. This backing off results in what is called overcompensation.

Imagine you’re driving a car and climbing a hill with the gas pedal to the floor. You’re giving it everything you’ve got but you’re still going up slowly. This is similar to overtraining. When you reach the top, the going gets a lot easier. If you keep the gas pedal on the floor when you go over the top and head down, you’re going to go a lot faster very quickly. This is overcompensation and this is where the results are.

On a normal program, you work a bodypart, it becomes temporarily weaker, then becomes stronger as it overcompensates so you can lift more next time. What a normal program does on a small, local basis, this overtraining program does on a full body, systemic basis.

Sound good? We’re not done. Now we’re going to harness the power of overtraining by using what I call “Controlled Overtraining.”

The overtraining or ramping phase of this Controlled Overtraining program lasts three weeks, which is about the time it takes the body to adapt to a training program. It then backs off to a fairly easy phase for three weeks.

Notes:

- Take all sets to failure. The rep ranges are simply guidelines – if you can get more reps, do them.

- Be sure to keep your workout time to less than 45 minutes for best results. Much longer and you will break yourself down too much.

- Use a timer or stopwatch to time your rest between sets. It is critical to the success of the program to keep your rest periods consistent.

You start out doing 3 sets for your bodyparts the first week, 4 sets the second week, and 5 sets the third week. While you’re increasing the volume, you’re simultaneously decreasing the rest period. This gradually builds you up to overtraining.

For the next three weeks, you decrease the sets and reps and increase the rest periods. This allows you to recover from the overtraining and take advantage of the overcompensation that occurs when the body is still working at dealing with the hard work and then you cut the hard work. Though it may feel like you’re hardly doing anything at all, you should see some great results.

Continue this lower-volume training for at least three weeks. If, at the end of those three weeks, you are still making progress, keep going! Don’t cut yourself off from any results. This phase could last as long as 6 weeks or more. When you start to slow down, however, it’s time to ramp back up to overtraining. Keeping up this cycling of volume and intensity is a strategy that gives consistent results over long periods of time.

The first time you do the program, keep it exactly as it is. This will give you the best, practical experience as to how the program feels.

After that, you can try playing with the numbers a little following this general outline, perhaps starting at 3 minutes rest for the first week, 90 seconds the second week, and then dropping down to 30 seconds by the third week.

If you do decide to play with the numbers, be absolutely certain to reduce your training volume and increase your rest periods for the second three-week phase. If you don’t, you will continue to overtrain yourself and you will break down.

The program that I’ve outlined uses a rep system called Micro-Periodization (Periodization is the cycling of rep ranges. It is traditionally conducted over a period of months, e.g. three months high reps, three months, medium reps, three months low reps.). Dividing the week into three separate phases, such as in this program, is called Micro-Periodization. It is an extremely effective format for building strength and muscle mass.

As you can see, overtraining is not always the horrible thing it’s often made out to be. Training on the edge is where the real results are. Those who shy away from it will never make as good of progress as those who embrace it!

Lots of people hate muscle volume but nobody muscle definition! Chris

 

Muscle definition can more than anything else highlight a well trained body and impart to it a sexy aura!

 

It’s absolutely true,though,that many fitness enthusiasts cannot achieve this mostly desired ripped look despite their really hard efforts.

 

Mind you,muscle definition is principally a matter of sound nutrition than strenuous physical exercise.

 

 

We say that we have muscle definition when our muscles are well discernible under our subcutaneous fat.

 

So it’s more than obvious that our body fat percentage is the critical parameter for muscle definition.

 

Men start to see some definition when their body fat percentage falls under 12%.Many bodybuilders can achieve during their cutting phase percentages as low as 4-5%!

 

 

I don’t know about you but I really hate the dryness of my face when I fall under 10%

 

 

But is low fat percentage the only prerequisite for muscle definition?

 

Certainly not otherwise some skinny people would be impessively defined.

 

Muscle mass is furthermore needed otherwise there nothing there to see!

 

 

Now we can fill the muscle definition equation:

 



 

muscle definition=muscle mass+low body fat percentage

 

 

Muscle mass development

 



 

The most efficient and effective way to develop muscle mass is by the use of free weights.

 

The biggest mistake of fitness amateurs is that they don’t challenge their muscles enough!

 

Muscle hypertrophy demands getting out of our limits!

 

Though,most people lose their precious time with 5kg dumbbells and then they wonder why they see no progression!

 

Of course you know the myth about achieving muscle definition via many repetitions.

 

Allow me to observe that this is mere nonsense and urge you to make full exploitation of your

 

valuable time by adequately taxing your muscles. Just remember the muscle definition

 

equation!

 

 

  So what to do?





*choose weights that can properly tax your muscles

Repetitions should be in the region of 6-8.Increasing muscle mass needs hard effort and demands exceeding our limits!

Throw away the 5kg dumbbells which devour your most valuable resource and grab some decent stuff!

*Exercise at least 3 times/week with total body workouts.Leave split workouts for the bodybuilders.Try to involve the biggest muscle groups.Perform only compound,multi functional exercises.

*minimize or completely eliminate the breaks trying thus to impart an aerobic character to your workouts and achieve maximum fat loss.

* perform strenuous workouts but don’t omit to allow ample recovery time to avoid the very existent danger of overtraining!

I know many fitness enthusiasts that have fallen victims to overtraining.So much effort in vain! It’s a pity! With weight training more in not better!

Let’s go now to fat reduction





Ceasar’s wife should be honest and look honest!!



Ok! We have developed an impressive musculature .Though, it is not well discernible.Why?

Because our fat percentage won’t permit it.Our muscles are hidden under a layer of subcutaneous fat.

You should do two things to reduce your body fat percentage:

*aerobic exercise

*adopt a sound nutritional plan

Nutrition is the most critical parameter for fat loss!

Aerobic activity



Properly done, an aerobic activity of medium to high intensity will help you shed a lot of fat and it will achieve this relatively quickly.

I know people with single digit body fat who will never involve in aerobics! But they are monsters of self-discipline!They are the exceptions!

Let’s see what our options are :

-If you are really fit and your schedule is hectic, HIIT is unbeatable!

Please check my articles:”The best outdoor workout ever” and “The the most effective workout ever”

-Another option is to run for 30-45′ at about the 80% of your  MHR, just below your anaerobc threshold.If you have the stamina to do this you will shed tons of fat!!

Personally, I would never underestimate the aerobic part of the fat loss equation.I consider this of vital importance!

When your workout includes both resistance training and aerobics,do execute them with this order.

You will need your maximum strength and endurance for your weights session.

About nutrition









As far as it regards muscle definition ,a sound nutritional plan is considered to be an absolute must.

You may exercise 1hour/day but there are another 161 hours/week that you don’t !!

Put it simply:all your hard efforts will go in vain if you don’t make right nutrition a top priority!

You will never see your fetish abs!

Please check my articles on nutrition:”Fitness and nutrition:the big picture ”





Essential parameters of nutrition







-If you aim at fat loss you will have to create a slight caloric deficit:burn more calories that those you consume

-While you are trying to achieve definition you will will have to exclude any type of junk food.

Give great emphasis to high quality protein.Every meal should contain a source of premium quality protein.

-You will have to reduce starchy carbs and fruits in favor of vegetables. Eat vegetables at your will. Include them in every meal.

-Only 15% of your caloric intake should come from fats.First choices: omega-3 and monounsaturated fats.

In conclusion







To achieve the most coveted muscle definition you will need:

- a taxing strength training program

-to increase and intensify the aerobic part of your training regime

-and the most important:to follow an impeccable nutrition plan Chris Strogilis http://totalfitness-christos.blogspot.com

It’s no secret that every serious lifter out there desires an impressive pair of strong, muscular arms. Who wouldn’t be happy with tall, peaking biceps sitting on top of rock-hard, horse-shoe-shaped triceps? Who wouldn’t love to have a pair of ripped, well-developed guns forcefully bursting through the sleeves of their shirt? While developing muscular arms is usually at the top of many peoples’ agenda, the reality is that the majority of lifters out there have a very poor understanding of how to properly train their arms for maximum gains. In order to gain the proper insight into effectively stimulating arm growth, we must first recognize three basic truths:

1) Relatively speaking, the biceps and triceps are small muscle groups.

2) The biceps receive heavy stimulation during all basic pulling movements for the back.

3) The triceps receive heavy stimulation during all basic pressing movements for the chest and shoulders.

What do these 3 points tell us about effective arm training? The most important thing for you to realize is this:

For maximum gains in muscle size and strength, the biceps and triceps require only a very small amount of direct stimulation!

So why is it that every time I enter the gym I see the same misinformed people, week in and week out, slaving away on endless sets of bicep curls and tricep extensions?

It’s very important to understand that the biceps and triceps receive a very large amount of stimulation from all of your chest and back training. In fact, a lot of the time when you reach muscular failure on a chest or back movement, it is actually your biceps or triceps that give out first! Couple this with the fact that your biceps and triceps are already small muscle groups to begin with and it becomes quite clear that direct arm training is of minor importance.

Remember, your muscles do not grow in the gym. The work that you accomplish as you train with weights is merely the “spark” that sets the wheels of the muscle growth process into motion. The real magic takes place out of the gym while you are resting and eating, as this is the time when your body will actually be synthesizing new muscle tissue. Because of this, it is vital that you do not overtrain your muscles. You must always make sure to provide them with sufficient recovery time if you want to see impressive results. Overtraining can actually make your muscles smaller and weaker.

If you’re looking to achieve serious arm growth, you must stop placing so much emphasis on direct arm movements. Forget about performing endless sets of concentration curls and tricep pressdowns. Strong, muscular arms are mostly a product of heavy chest and back training. If you are able to accept this basic truth and place the majority of your focus on building up the muscle size and strength in your major muscle groups, you will prevent yourself from overtraining your arms and will therefore yield greater overall gains in bicep and tricep size.

This is not to say that no direct arm training is necessary, just not very much. Here is a sample arm routine that you can use as a part of your program:

Barbell Curls – 2 sets of 5-7 reps

Standing Dumbbell Curls – 1 set of 5-7 reps

Close-Grip Bench Press – 2 sets of 5-7 reps

Standing Cable Pushdowns – 1 set of 5-7 reps

Take all sets to complete muscular failure and focus on progressing each week by using slightly more weight or performing an extra rep or 2.

If you can incorporate this way of thinking into your arm training, you will achieve arm size beyond anything you previously thought possible!

http://www.moneybizhome.com/health

 

You have been training on a good exercise program regularly at your local gym for a couple of months now. At the beginning, you may have lost some weight, gain some muscle tone, strength and feeling wonderful after every exercise session, but you do not experience those wonderful moments anymore. Your results are now dismal at best or worse, you are not getting the results that you wanted anymore.

You stayed on a healthy diet, supplemented with vitamins and minerals, but somehow you always feel tired and exhausted nowadays. Your enthusiasm for your workout sessions seemed to have waned. You even feel irritable and all stressed up. What is happening?

You know something? If you find yourself dreading your exercise sessions or dragging yourself through the day, you may be pushing yourself too hard. This is how overtraining affects your exercise program. Training plateau is your body’s way of crying out for rest. It is time to now take a rest and recharge your body.

When it comes to getting a good physical shape, most people expect too much too soon. They would usually push themselves too hard at the beginning in order to get faster results. But what happens then? They feel tired, exhausted, easily irritated and so become depressed and lose the desire and enthusiasm for the activities they used to enjoy. Isn’t that such a waste?

Overtraining happens when the physical stress of training is not balanced by adequate rest and nutrition to allow the body recuperate and repair itself. Overtraining is defined as “untreated overreaching that result in chronic decreases in performance and impaired ability to train” by the The Unites States Olympic Committee (USOC) and the American College of Sports Medicine.

In medical term, the overtraining syndrome is classified as a neuro-endocrine disorder where the normal fine balance in the interaction between nervous and hormonal systems is disturbed and the body is so tired that it now has a decreased ability to repair itself during rest.

So if you are consistently push your limits without giving your body a chance to recover, your entire engine may just suffer a major break down. This is because most of us think that if a little exercise can do wonders for your body, more exercise must be even better. That is why we tend to put all the energy into every workout and push ourselves expecting to reach the set goals sooner. Some of us will even hit the gym almost everyday for hours at a time. This is wrong! More is not better in this game.

It is true that in order to make improvements, you will need to challenge yourself out of your comfort zone. That means that you may want to squat heavier or run more miles than you did the month before. Progression is the way you can make improvements towards your cherished goals. The only problem is that your body adapts to the same routine and stops responding. This is the dreaded plateau every athletic fear. Hence there should be a delicate balance between exercise and rest.

Exercising is great for your body, mind and soul, however if you start feeling tired, fatigued and irritated, then you may be creating a very unfavorable physical internal environment. Physiologically, repetitive training alters your hormone levels, weakens immunity and triggers emotional instability wreaking havoc on your mind and body.

Insomnia, elevated resting heart rate, lack of appetite, feeling unmotivated, low libido and a lack of progress are all symptoms of overtraining.

The first thing most people do which leads to overtraining is performing too many sets of different exercises in their workouts. From what I have observed in the gym, most people do between 20 -30 sets per workout.

Have you asked yourself is it necessary to do so many sets? Did you find out how many sets you must do to get the optimum results? What are you trying to accomplish by doing so many sets? Do the extra sets make your muscle stronger and bigger? Are they getting you leaner and more muscular? Are they helping you to recruit more motor units? Are you stretching the fascia and inducing hyperplasia?

If you are really training hard, it is very difficult for most people to perform so many sets and still be able to recover. So reduce you sets.

The next mistake is that people train too long and too often in the gym. Intensive workouts should never exceed an hour. When you begin training, your anabolic hormones are immediately elevated. After a while they will reach a peak and then start to decline.

They eventually return to normal baseline and if you keep training beyond that point, they will dip down to below normal levels. This is when cortisol, which is a stress hormone that eats muscle and stores body fat is produced more abundantly. This is bad news if you want to gain bigger muscles and lose body fat.

You also get over trained by training too often. You must know that training does not stress just the muscles but the entire body including your nervous system. If your nervous system has not recovered, you cannot train again. You can try, but you will not make any progress at all and will just dig yourself deeper into the overtraining phenomenon. If you are training five or six days per week, you are probably overtraining.

So if you are not seeing results and is suffering from overtraining symptoms, give yourself a 2 to 4 week break from exercising and let your body recover fully before you hit the gym again. Don’t be surprised that when you are back, your muscles will be shocked into new growth and the fat starts melting away again.

Further research examining the influence of diet on testosterone has been performed by Volek et al., who simultaneously studied the effects of nutrients on cortisol, a catabolic hormone. According to their research, results indicate that specific nutrients may have the potential to alter the regulation and metabolism of testosterone, whereas effects on cortisol remain unclear. Their evidence verifies that testosterone levels positively correlate with percentages of dietary fat and negatively correlate with percentages of energy that is protein. Likewise, it appears that the protein-to-carbohydrate ratio is negatively correlated with testosterone levels Regarding fat, a previous investigation has also observed a significant positive correlation between percent energy fat and testosterone in young athletic men, and preliminary evidence also suggests a positive relationship between monounsaturated and saturated fatty acids on resting testosterone concentrations In contrast, a negative correlation between the polyunsaturated-to-saturated fatty acid ratio and testosterone was reported.

A study by Raben et al also found similar results when studying the hormonal responses to a meat-rich diet versus a vegetarian diet. In a study of male endurance athletes, the investigators reported a significant decrease in testosterone concentrations and an attenuation of the exercise-induced increase in testosterone when the subjects switched to vegetarian diets. These results may be explained by the likelihood that vegetarians consume less fat, saturated fatty acids, and a higher polyunsaturated-to­saturated fatty acid ratio than meat-eaters, and therefore exhibit lower concentrations of testosterone Interestingly, both diets in this study derived equal amounts of energy from protein, carbohydrates, and fat, indicating that the supply of energy from the macronutrients was not responsible for the effect on testosterone. Thus, the composition (in this case, vegetarian versus animal sources) of the energy-providing macronutrients may also modify testosterone concentrations.

The findings of these studies are particularly important for athletes and exercise enthusiasts who are attempting to increase or maintain strength and muscle mass, especially during periods of intense training, which can elevate levels of cortisol. Overtraining may also be responsible for a decline in resting testosterone concentrations, further signifying the need for appropriate dietary habits. Accordingly, such debilitating effects of overtraining may be exacerbated by a diet low in fat, which many athletes (i.e., wrestlers, gymnasts) consume

Further studies have examined the ratio of carbohydrate to fat in the diet and its effect on nitrogen retention. Such an investigation was performed by McCargar et al who also studied this ratio’s effects on substrate use and hormone response in healthy males. The researchers found that the high-fat diet (45% of total calories) increased nitrogen retention, especially when maintenance energy intakes were consumed. The authors also stated that their findings indicated a potentially increased fat oxidation in those subjects consuming a high-fat diet, and that the nitrogen-sparing effect of such a diet was likely substrate mediated (as opposed to being hormonally mediated). The results also indicated that the high­carbohydrate diet (60% of energy) induced elevated triglyceride levels, which may be a reflection of additional fat synthesis in the liver owing to the presence of excess glucose. The significance here is that once energy and glycogen needs are met, surplus carbohydrates may lead to hypertriglyceridemia.

Studies examining the impact of caloric intake on resting testosterone levels have discovered a depressive effect on such concentrations. For instance, one study showed that fasting for 5 days can lower testosterone levels by as much as 30_50%. It also appears that severe caloric restriction, even if induced by excessive exercise, lowers testosterone levels. Combine these revelations with the possibility that increased fat intake may enhance testosterone levels, and the importance of adequate fat, as in the overtrained state, becomes paramount.

Yost and colleagues investigated the effects of macronutrient composition on the activities of adipose tissue lipoprotein lipase (an enzyme that breaks down fat) and insulin sensitivity. The researchers studied the reaction of these compounds to both a high-carbohydrate (55% of total kcal) and high-fat (50%) diet. They concluded that after 16 days of the high-carbohydrate diet only the responsiveness of adipose tissue lipoprotein lipase was increased. There was no effect on insulin sensitivity, although other researchers have found that diets containing a higher percentage of energy from fat produce insulin resistance. Of course, if such findings are conclusive, the development of type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease are possible adverse consequences.