subject: Undertraining Vs Overtraining [print this page] It is vitally important to know the difference between the two as overtraining is something that will actually break the hard earned muscle down quickly. It is important to know that training with weights is all about getting your body to adapt positively to the physical stress that you are giving it.
When you have the balance correct you will build strong tissue which is created by the breakdown of existing tissue during your workout, but when you over-train you are breaking down more tissue than you are building up. Usually the problem is not enough rest between workouts.
But there can be other causes of this over-training and they could range from lack of sleep to not enough hydration. If you want to add muscle to your body you got to drink at least 8 glasses of water a day. Muscle is 80% water and it needs to be kept clean and functional all the time.
Obviously over-training occurs very quickly when you are not eating correctly as not having enough protein will mean the body simply does not have the necessary nutrients available to repair correctly. Be careful not to fall into the trap of thinking if 20 sets per body part is good then 40 sets must be better.
The art of putting on good quality muscle on a regular basis is acheieving balance and that balance can only be achieved when you are aware of what you are doing. For example when you reach a plateau in your workouts it means something needs to be changed.
Undertraining is very different to over training simply because under training is not life threatening whereas over training certainly can be life threatening and that is why you need to be aware of it constantly. The best way to make sure that you are not undertraining is to measure your progress.
Going through the motions and doing the same workout with the same weights every day will usually not result in under training as we are suggesting here. The true definition of under training could simply mean that you are no longer improving.
For someone who joins a gym to gain muscle and to be told by a stranger three years later that they would never have said that you lift weights can be gut-wrenching. Because when you reflect back on all the hard work that you have done in the gym with nothing to show for it usually means that you are doing something wrong.
