One thing that can really help your progress in the gym, is not working out more. Progress can be made when we are actually taking adequate rest to recover from your workouts. If you are pushing the intensity of your workouts and working until fatigue, than your body requires rest to recover stronger than your pre- workout state.
In order to see results (muscle growth, weight loss, increased performance etc.) you must be using heavy enough weights, or a great enough effort to create a stimulus to the muscle and the nervous system to create change. This stimulus requires recovery. Without the recovery, your nervous system and muscles are not ready for another day of training resulting in decreased weights, performance, or increased injury potential.
If you are able to hit multiple training sessions back to back, you liking are not going heavy enough or eliciting enough of a stimulus to create change.
When you do start to train heavy or with high intensity work, you will feel the need to recover.
Ways to recover are eating enough calories- especially protein, getting enough sleep every night, walking, and taking rest days from the gym. In the gym, we want to create a stress response. Once finished in the gym, we want to get out of that stress response as quickly as possible.
Especially for woman, the need to decrease your stress and cortisol levels is important to see results. Remember, working out is another stressor to your body. We need to account for this stress by eating and recovering enough.
Something simple can be having a little snack with carbs and protein before your workout, then hitting a post workout protein shake and carb snack right after. This can help bring down your stress response. If you are fasting or waiting hours after training to eat, your body stays in a stressed stake longer - delaying recover and halting progress.
There is no replacement for getting enough sleep, protein, calories, and rest between workouts. If you are trying to go as hard as possible 5-7 days a week- your body will not be able to fully recover from the previous workouts which leads to a decrease in performance the following training days.
Need help finding the right balance? Book your free consult and we can start you on your fitness journey!
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