We've been taught that it takes 48-72 hours (or longer) for a muscle to recover properly after an intense resistance training session.
...but what happens if we challenge that notion?
What if we trained hard and hit the same muscle the following day?
We would probably have a tough time that following day.
We'd think to ourselves "Yep...the muscle has't recovered and now I'm on a direct route to becoming over-trained".
...but is that really the case?
Here's an analogy to possibly make you question this commonly held belief.
 |
Let's say you are going on a 3 day intense hike with a friend or yours who hikes each weekend.
...you plan on covering 15 miles each day over rough terrain.
On day 1 you keep up with your friend and think to yourself.
"This isn't so bad!"
...then you wake up the following morning and are so sore and stiff it is hard to even get up out of your tent.
Your friend is fine, hops up out of his tent and is full of energy.
You are so sore that you almost feel sick.
So...are you sore because you are overtrained?
Should you wait 48-72 hours to resume the next part of your hike?
Does your friend look overtrained?
Could it be that you are undertrained for this type of activity?
...but some may say that hiking isn't as intense as resistance training?
I disagree!
3 Years ago I hiked a steep 3 mile hike with my girlfriend at the time.
...the delayed onset muscle soreness was so intense I couldn't even workout for 4 days.
My legs were destroyed.
I felt like this...
 |
Anyway...I'm convinced that the reason we can't work a muscle group more than once ever 48-72 hours...is that because we only work them once every 48-72 hours.
20 years ago I was doing Mike Mentzer's Heavy Duty program and was hitting each muscle group once every 7-8 days.
My muscles were actually sore for 4-6 days after each workout.
I was creating a 7 day window for my muscles to recover.
...and my body responded by taking 7 days to recover.
---> My point is that your body will adapt to the recovery window that you create for it. <---
Read that sentence again.
This is why Olympic Athletes can train multiple times per day.
...but a typical gym-go'er can only hit the same muscle group 2 times per week.
I'm not saying that you should jump from what you are doing now to work right up to hitting the same muscle group 6 times per week.
...but to gradually shorten your recovery window down.
Your body will adapt.
This adaption phase isn't always comfortable.
 |
I ran track in Junior High and the first part of High School.
...preseason was training was a bitch (to put it lightly).
Each day we would work through sore muscles and push our bodies to the limit.
...but what happened over time?
Eventually the daily workouts became easier.
Not only was I NOT sore...my muscles could fire more efficiently over time.
The warm-ups didn't take as long.
I did the high jump and long jump.
...and my jumps would improve day to day.
In 8th grade I was the only kid in my class who could dunk a basketball.
I lost that ability once I quit track.
I'm convinced it was the daily explosive jumping that created the ability to jump high.
I'm also convinced that I wouldn't have been able to jump as high if I just trained these muscles 2 times per week.
 |
For some reason we put resistance training in a different category than training for a sport.
When someone gets in shape for basketball or soccer we tend to think more of the cardio conditioning vs the muscles being able to fire daily.
The leg muscles of an NBA player fire to the max when they are going up for a dunk, rebound, block, or jump shot.
Many of them do this 100+ times over the course of a game.
Day in, day out.
Shouldn't their CNS system be fried?
Obviously this isn't the case.
When a player gets injured and takes time off...it takes a while for them to get back into "playing shape".
Their CNS system eventually gains back the ability to do intense daily activity.
Their muscles not only handle this daily activity.
...their muscles thrive from getting worked each day.
