Beating Burnout

Luis Hernandez

How many times during your workout career have you experienced quick recovery from soreness of a bodypart following a particular workout? Then, after the next workout of that same bodypart, your recovery was'nt nearly as quick.

If you're like most bodybuilders, that has happened quite a few times. The reason is because of the many factors that can affect your recovery time. 

Here are a few

• Your larger muscles tend to take longer to recover than your smaller muscles.
• Fast-twitch muscle fibers take longer to recover than slow-twitch muscle fibers.
• Doing high intensity workouts and using eccentric movements (resisting the weight as you lower it) require longer periods of recuperation.
• Older individuals require more time to recuperate from the same type of exercise and workouts than younger athletes.
• Stress, poor diet, drugs, alcohol, and less than optimal health can each increase recovery time.

As you can see, there are a number of factors that can affect your workout recovery time. Lets look at some of the ways that you can decrease your recovery time by beating burnout.

• Try to minimize the stress in your life. 
• Don't spend time worrying. The word "worry" actually means "to choke" or "cut off." That's exactly what you do when you worry. People who worry tend to "cut themselves off" from experiencing the joy and happiness in life. Worry can also make you hide from a problem rather than tackling it head on and solving it. 
• Always remember that you are in control of your life. Not anyone else. Your physical and emotional strength is controled by you. 
• You must believe in yourself and have tremendous faith in God, and in your God given ability to accomplish whatever it is in life that you want. If you want a great looking body, you can have it! 
• Develop the capacity for spiritual growth. Remember that we are physical-emotional-spiritual. If one of these elements is missing, the other two will be affected.
• Establish short-term goals. Start by setting goals that are easily attainable. When you achieve that goal, set another and another. Success breads success.
• Develop a training program based on your goals and ability-not on someone else's expectation of you.
• Listen to your body! Know what works best for you and don't overtrain.
• In order to ensure continued training success and avoid injuries, safety must be a priority.
• Never be afraid to change anything in your life at anytime. This means your workouts and your lifestyle. Variety is a great way to stay motivated in whatever you do.
• Always try to maintain harmonious relationships with the people you know and meet. People remember those who treat them well. It's been shown that the real cause of job stress is the difficulty we sometimes have in working with certain people, not the difficulty in doing our jobs.
• Find a gym ( if you have'nt already done so) that fits your needs. Forget about the gym that everyone else goes to. Find the best one for you.
• Always listen to your body. Don't ignore the signals, physical and emotional, that your body is giving you. Your body will tell you what is best for you.
• Practice mental relaxation. 
• Get the sleep you need. 
• Diet and supplement correctly.
•  Learn all you can about the physical and psychological ways to enhance your recovery. Apply the things you are learning to your training and your life. It will really make a difference.

Till next time,