Are You Doing Too Much…

…Or not enough?

There is no magic number of hours that you should be training in a day to achieve results but there are minimums and maximums. If you work too little you don’t stress your body enough to make a change. If you work to hard your body won’t be able to recover before the next session. But how can you tell?

Here are some general guidelines (this applies to both strength or cardio training):

1. You should be able to continue about your day normally after a training session

2. It should feel like your muscles have been worked (same day following your session). They may feel tight, tired, or a bit sore if you perform a loaded movement.

3. The next day or so you should experience some DOMS (delayed muscle soreness). It shouldn’t be anything debilitating but there may be some tenderness to touch or heaviness with movement.

4. You should be able to perform like your usual self 48 hours after your last training bout.

If you aren’t experiencing any soreness then your body has adapted to what you are doing. That’s not a bad thing if you are just looking to maintain your fitness level. There is merit in lower intensity workouts for maintenance, recovery or just to keep the body moving.

Exceeding these guidelines will start a downward spiral and can lead to burnout and / or injury. That said, if you are training for performance there will be times that you exceed these thresholds and be REALLY sore. It shouldn’t happen that often, but when it does be sure to allow yourself the time to recover.

Most of your training should be done at a moderate intensity with select bouts during a month with higher intensities. The goal of training for improvement is to adapt your program so that by the end of your training cycle you are no longer experiencing the soreness you had when your first started.

I’ve definitely been guilty of training too hard too often. It feels good to train hard, but in time you will pay the price. The older you get the smarter you need to train. Use these guidelines and you will be moving in the right direction in your health or fitness goals.

Steve