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  • So you're working out. That's a good thing. However too much of this good thing can be

  • the absolute worst thing you do if you're trying to build muscle.

  • What's up guy's? Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX.COM

  • Too much of a good thing can certainly be a bad thing. And when it comes to weight training

  • it can be the worst thing. Especially if you're trying to build muscle.

  • Guys I've gone on record here and told you that, keeping your workout short but intense

  • is the biggest key to getting results.

  • Why? Because most guys who train, think that more is better and by doing that, overtrain.

  • Now some of you are probably sitting there going, oh wait, I heard overtraining doesn't

  • exist. Or there's a guy on youtube, or there's a guy in my gym, that says that overtraining

  • is BS.

  • That's the biggest BS you've heard because I will tell you, it is the biggest problem

  • that guys face today who are lifting naturally.

  • What I mean is, guys that are lifting without the assistance of something else, and we know

  • what that is. Ok.

  • Guys taking steroids, guys taking, you know, drugs. That's not what we're talking about.

  • Those guys have unlimited potential to train.

  • But if you're going to do this naturally.

  • You want to make sure that you're not tapping into your limited recuperative ability to

  • get back from your workout. To be able to come back stronger than you were the last

  • time.

  • To do that guys, you have to stimulate and not annihilate. Ok. Stimulate and not annihilate.

  • And I will tell you, to stimulate, there is a minimum effective dose.

  • So I'll date myself a little bit, there was a guy by the name of Mike Mincer, who was

  • into something called heavy duty training, a long time ago.

  • He went so far as to say, one set is all you need. One set with the right intensity, taken

  • to failure, is enough to stimulate muscle growth. And then you've got to get out of

  • the gym.

  • You've got to get out into your non gym environment, so that you can allow your body to recover

  • and recuperate and rebuild.

  • And that's why we've been talking a lot lately, about sleep and all this stuff outside of

  • the gym. Because it's equally important to what you're doing here.

  • Now if you don't believe me, I understand. This is going to be a little bit of a pattern

  • interrupt here for the guys that have been told that you have to train for an hour, an

  • hour and a half or two hours.

  • At least let's take this guys, as the opening step to start to at least explore the possibility.

  • Explore that what I'm saying is true.

  • Because I will tell you absolutely, it is something that will change the way that you

  • train. It will change the results that you see.

  • So what I wanted to do here in this video was, cover some other areas. Explain to you

  • that, overtraining exists.

  • This minimum effective dose exists in everything we do. And I thought, why don't I show you

  • some examples of that to at least help to formulate the thought that yes, this does

  • apply here in the gym as well.

  • And then at the end we'll wrap it up with some of the ways that you can insure that

  • you're doing enough stimulation.

  • But you're not under doing it but at the same time you're certainly not overdoing it.

  • So let's take a look at one example here. I talked about things that are, sort of, all

  • around us every day.

  • Sun Exposure. Right, there is a minimum effective dose. If you go out in the sun and you're

  • trying to get a tan.

  • There is an amount of sun exposure, right, you're getting more and more activity of the

  • melanin in our skin to change the color.

  • Right, and as we get the color change, there is a point where we reach optimal exposure.

  • That's our tan.

  • But every single second, literally every single second thereafter, all we're doing is crossing

  • further and further into sun damage, sunburn, which is not a good thing.

  • So you went from a desirable stimulus to an undesirable result. So again, burn, tan, there's

  • a fine line here guys you're going to find, between what's good and what's bad.

  • Ok, example number two. I'm not going to make you stare at my hand for too long here guys.

  • But right here, you can see callus, callus, little bit on the inside here of the pinkie.

  • That comes from grabbing those gnarled bars that we all lift with. Why do they form?

  • Because they try to help our skin become a little bit more resistant to the rough bars

  • that we're grabbing, so that we don't get skin breakdown.

  • Do too much and what do you get? You get a Blister. So guys, again, minimum effective

  • dose caused a good response by the body.

  • Too much of a good thing turns into a blister. In this case, again, damage

  • Alright, now in case you're a visual learner, let's start with another example. Right here

  • in front of me guys, three pieces of meat.

  • Ok, we have one that's inedible, completely raw. We've got one that's cooked fairly nice,

  • depends on how you guys like your steak but it's cooked.

  • And then here we've got one that's charred, ok, overdone. This is a great representation

  • of what happens with our muscles when we train.

  • Again, undertraining, you're not working hard enough, you're not working out at all. You're

  • a raw piece of meat. Ok, you're not edible and you're not going to see any results.

  • On the other side of the spectrum here, you overtrain, you do too much, this raw piece

  • of meat becomes inedible once again. Why?

  • Because it's completely burned, you can't even bite into it, This has got damage, this

  • is basically muscle damage, this is muscle anyway, ok and it's damaged.

  • But if you train optimally, this piece of steak, you could actually eat, it actually

  • tastes good and it serves a purpose.

  • Alright, last one for you visual learners out there. Let's say you have a headache.

  • What are you going to do? Most likely you're going to run to the medicine cabinet, grab

  • something for it.

  • Ok, so you take out whatever brand you like, two should probably be enough to get the job

  • done, right. But what happens if two becomes sixty two or so.

  • What happens then? I can tell you, that headache will probably go away. But you're going to

  • have a lot worst problems on your hands.

  • Because you're going to be in the emergency room. If you're lucky enough not to die.

  • Right, there's certainly, when it comes to medication, a dose that is effective and beyond

  • which becomes damaging to you. We know that.

  • It's no different guys when we're talking about training. You have that minimum effective

  • dose, you go beyond that and you start to do damage.

  • So what I want to do now is tell you there are ways that you can sort of, focus on, making

  • sure that you are getting enough of that stimulus.

  • But making sure that you're also not overdoing it to the point where you're crossing that

  • line and harming the results that you're actually trying to get in the first place.

  • Ok, so now what do we have to do to fix this? How do we make sure that we're doing enough

  • and we're not doing too much?

  • Guys, it comes down to trading in workout intensity for length. Now if you're training

  • for muscle endurance, if you're training for an endurance sport.

  • That's a different type of training guys, we're talking about building muscle. And when

  • you're trying to build muscle, it's the minimum effective dose. That's what we're going after.

  • So we need to increase our workout intensity. Decrease our workout length.

  • Now some guys are sitting there again, I can't believe he's saying 40 minutes is enough.

  • 40 minutes is plenty because you have to be training hard.

  • Ok, now how do we illustrate that. Let's say you're the average guy out in the gym, there's

  • 45 seconds in a set.

  • We've already covered this before too, most likely you're no where near that. If you time

  • yourself during your average set, you're somewhere around 22 - 23 seconds.

  • You should be up more like this by slowing down you're eccentric on you're reps. Then

  • let's say you've got a 60 second rest period.

  • And we'll even give you 15 seconds of time to transition. Although you should be setting

  • up for your next set in your 60 second rest period. That's 2 minutes per set, ok two minutes

  • per set.

  • That's means, if we were to do 20 sets, 20 sets across a workout, that we still would

  • be at 40 minutes. What are you guys doing that are training for 90 minutes?

  • How could you possible be training, you're not doing this? And as I said, you're already

  • at 23 seconds in a set. So if you're at 23 seconds in a set, what are you doing?

  • I could tell you what you're probably doing. Because I see it all the time in the gym.

  • You're on your cell phone in between sets.

  • Your texting, your playing apps, you're trying to kill some time, you might be trying to

  • pick up the girl in the gym . Whatever you're doing guys, is not effective at trying to

  • build muscle guys.

  • So when we talk about this dose, you have to do one thing for me. Start buying into

  • the concept of increasing your workout intensity. make those eccentrics harder.

  • Give it all you've got here. Train to failure. Rest and recuperate in between sets. Come

  • back and do it again.

  • Guys, you can either train hard or you can train long but you can't do both. If you train

  • hard, you won't have to train long. That's what ATHLEANX is all about.

  • Ok, it's about integrating muscle groups together. Getting you to use the muscles the way they're

  • supposed to.

  • So that we're cutting down, making the workouts much more efficient, cutting down on the excess.

  • Training muscle groups, as I said, together.

  • And then doing so, in an intense way so that we can get in, get the work done, get out,

  • recuperate, come back bigger and stronger and see results a lot faster.

  • Guys this is what training like an athlete is all about. And again, you might be uncomfortable

  • with the concept, try it.

  • Because I can tell you one thing, if you keep doing too much, you're going to keep getting

  • the results that you've been getting which is what you're probably not happy with.

  • So what you want to do is start cutting back and start seeing the results. Because again,

  • aim for that minimum effective dose. You're going to start to see what it's like to not

  • be overtrained.

  • Guys we'll cover this more in depth in another upcoming video. But if you found this helpful

  • or at least a little eye opening, make sure you leave your comment below and let me know.

  • In the meantime, if you're looking for a program to train you effectively, but not train you

  • into that realm of overtraining that unfortunately is rampant out there.

  • Then head to ATHLEANX.COM and start to see what it's like.

  • Guys I'll be back here again in just a few day.

So you're working out. That's a good thing. However too much of this good thing can be

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