Fitman, owner of the Fitman Performance & Physique Center in Abington, says that overtraining is one of the most common mistakes in the iron game.
“You must regulate your intensity to keep your performance high and your body healthy,” Fitman said.
The Game Changes
“Muscle growth, speed, and performance all depend on proper training, smart recovery, and great nutrition,” Fitman said. “You can’t blindly push training volume or intensity to the maximum all the time, 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 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
Fitman said that some people on social media are deceptive with some of the claims they make about overtraining.
“Many of these same so-called influencers get away with overtraining because they are on steroids,” Fitman said. “Juiced up athletes can recover faster and train longer. As a natural lifter, you can’t follow the same program. I used to follow those 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.”
Bad Programming = Poor Results
Fitman said that lousy training programs will hinder even the best athletes. “My sophomore year at West Chester, we ran insane, high-volume sprint workouts all season,” Fitman said. “I thought I was killing the game. But I ran slower as the season progressed. Injuries piled up and my recovery was lousy. We had an incompatible bodybuilding style lifting plan and a 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 Hard And Smart
“Fatigue masks fitness,” Fitman said. “Don’t chase soreness or excess volume. Chase progression. Stimulate your muscles, recover fully, and live to train another day. If you want to grow and improve long term, follow these three rules below.”
1. Train 3–5 days per week
“Structure your training week to avoid overtraining, overlapping intensity, and excessive volume. 3 or 4 days of training is ideal for most people. 5 is for the advanced lifters.”
2. Fuel your body, especially around workouts
“Eat most of your carbs pre- and post-training for better performances and recovery.”
3. Prioritize recovery
“Ideally you want to 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 to 6.5 hours of sleep a night. I’ve tracked it since Covid started. On the days I get 7 to 9 hours of quality sleep I’m like Black Panther after he eats the heart-shaped herb. If you’re chronically under-recovered, you’re leaving gains and high quality performances on the table.”
“Bad training will cost you time and injuries. If you are sick and tired of using low-quality workout programs and getting lousy results, my 21-Day Fit program is your ideal starting point.”
For more on the Fitman Performance Center’s 21-Day Fit program, you can click here. For more on the Fademan Barbershop, you can click here.
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