I admit it I was wrong.
I'm actually an advocate of overtraining.
I'm going to tell you guys all about, my about fact today.
What's up guys, Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX.COM
Overtraining by far, one of the issues that I've talked about most responsible for undercutting
the gains of our natural drug for your lifters.
Alright, because never allowing your body enough time to rest and recover certainly
can undercut your bodys ability to grow muscle
as you tap into resources that are more survival in nature rather than they are about embellishing
or gaining.
That being said guys I have to change my mind on this.
Matter of fact, I've been wrong all along.
I'm actually an advocate of overtraining.
I am.
And what sparked that was an actual comment that I got on one of our other videos related
to the overtraining video I did before.
In that video if you guys haven't seen it, I'll link it over here.
I show you some of the real world correlations between crossing that fine line, right.
Where stimulus becomes something negative after a certain point.
The point of showing all those different examples guys was to be able to show you that there
is this fine line.
If you have a suntan or a sunburn, there's obviously this line that you cross from which
one becomes the next.
The same thing when it's medication.
If you're dosing yourself, there's a point where that dosage is proper for treating your
condition
to the point where it can put you in the hospital or in the ground.
Well this is the comment I got on the video.
It says, I'll read it here.
"People today look at overtraining as a negative thing.
However that's not the case at all.
If you're looking to build some muscle on those guns you have to go above and beyond.
If you just workout this hard or so many hours, you'll just maintain what you have.
However if you overtrain your muscles, they'll work more than they're used to and then they're
forced to grow."
Guys, anybody familiar with ATHLEANX or from my recommendations on training, if this is
the definition, then I'm an advocate of overtraining.
Overtraining meaning putting in more effort than you're used to or than you have in the
previous workouts, is a prerequisite for change.
Remember our bodies are resilient to change.
Going back to our ancestors, the idea of adding muscle, energy consuming muscle mass and muscle
tissue at a point where you didn't know where your next meal was coming
and you were fighting for survival everyday was a completely inefficient use of your body's
resources.
Nothing has changed genetically guys.
Adding muscle is still a challenge.
As, many people watch in this video or searching youTube for these types of videos, could attest
to.
But that being said, if you're going to do it, you're going to have to give your body,
your resilient body a reason to grow.
A reason to change.
And that means you're going to have to lay out an effort in that gym, in that workout,
that you're not comfortable with.
You're going to have to push above and beyond to cause your body, to force your body to
change.
And if that's what overtraining is, then I am an advocate for that.
Right, I've said it all along guys, you can either train hard or you can train long but
you can't do both.
So that presents a little bit of a problem.
Guys that say that they train for two hours, and three hours and four hours and it's necessary.
And it's how a real man trains.
And I said, Guys That's Not True.
It's not necessary.
You are crossing that line or you're not training hard enough or you're taking something or
you have won the genetic lottery.
And what I always say about the guys that have won the genetic lottery is this, if you
have you should know it by now.
Right you should know it probably by the time you're twelve and you were shaving, that you
won the genetic lottery.
And when you were twice as big as every kid in your class, you won the genetic lottery.
When you could dunk by the age of thirteen, you won the genetic lottery.
Right.
But most guys are not in that category.
So there are some people fit that mold, very very very few.
And if you think that listening to that definition of overtraining is going to help you in your
cause, I can tell you it's not.
You can't just arbitrarily throw words around and say this is overtraining because unfortunately,
you get guys that believe that overtraining is what it's not.
Overtraining guys, where I come from, comes in a completely different form.
Overtraining, where I come from, is a physiological, neurological condition that's backed by thousands
and thousands of research studies.
That analyze blood chemistry, analyze blood hormones, analyze neuromuscular changes,
Decreases in strength, grip strength because you just can't create that line of muscle
connection any more.
Neurotransmitter burnout, these are all real conditions that relate to real overtraining.
Which is what I DO NOT advocate.
And which is where I believe we sort of tend to, cross that line the longer those workouts
become.
In my world guys, if I were to walk into the general manager's office of an NFL team and
say, guess what, I've got you covered this year.
Right Coach, I've got you, we're going to overtrain everybody this year, We're going
to be great.
I'd be fired within 5 minutes.
Right because we know that, that is not what people want to hear.
Overtraining in this sense of the word, the real sense of the word is a negative thing.
It will always be a negative thing.
It's a negative medical condition.
It's not make believe, it doesn't exist in fairy tale land.
It's actually true.
And I can tell you, if you're somebody that has felt an apathy for working out.
If you haven't put on any size in the last year of your training.
Haven't added any significant strength, have felt tired in any of your workouts to the
point where, I'm saying tired where you just don't have the desire to be there.
You should definitely be tired by the time you're done with the damn workout, definitely
be tired.
I'm not talking about fatigue, I'm talking about going into a workout with no energy.
Going in there feeling like you're dragging ass from rep one.
If you find that you're aching, joints, pains, aching with no discernable reason.
Not muscle aches, muscle aches are good guys,
that means you've trained and you've caused the damage necessary to cause that growth.
I'm saying generic muscle aches, muscle pains.
Things that you cannot describe, things that have no reason or cause.
You're probably overtraining.
And if you're that guy that's been going to the gym for an hour or more, or two hours
or three hours or some of this other nonsense,
four, five, six hours people write on these comments.
You're not training hard enough.
And you're overtraining or you hit that genetic lottery, or you're taking something, alright.
But the fact of the matter is overtraining is this, if you want to try something guys,
you're all about advocating trying stuff.
If you want to try something, do me a favor.
Try to do less and see if it's more for you.
I'm pretty much willing to bet that 9 out of 10 times, it will be more for you.
You will see a better response to your training by cutting back.
Giving yourself another rest day.
Shortening that workout a little bit, upping the intensity like never before, upping the
intensity.
Remember here's one little analogy for you.
If I had a gun to your head and said, let's do a set of 10 squats, your max weight for
10 reps.
When you got to 10, I said I need you to do 2 more or I'm pulling this trigger.
You'd probably be able to get 2 more reps out, right.
And when you were done with those, I said I've got one more for you or I'm pulling this
trigger.
You'd get that other one out.
How many of those sets do you think you could do?
Because those are the types of sets that are required to really cause change.
To give your body a reason to change.
If you think you could do that for the next six hours, or three hours or two hours, you're
kidding yourselves.
You're not training that way.
You're training submaximally.
And you can do that, you can make gain submaximally but it takes a lot more time.
A lot more time in the gym that a lot of guys don't have.
And we're talking about getting an efficient workout in.
Again, with athletes, we need to stimulate and then recover, stimulate and recover.
They've got other things to do too you know.
They've got to work on their skill work.
They have to do other things, responsibilities even with the media.
They've got to do a lot of things in a given day.
They don't pound away at just their weight training.
They would never perform well on the field.
So what I'm telling you guys is, if overtraining is defined by working out hard and pushing
harder than you did the last time.
Then by all means, I'm an advocate for overtraining.
But if overtraining exists the way we define it, right in a sports medicine world, a real
physiological condition that we want to avoid at all costs.
Guys you want to avoid that, ok.
So what I'm advocating is, try to cut back.
If you want a program guys,
ATHLEANX has been founded on manipulating volumes to help you to get the most out of
your workouts without crossing into the realm of overtraining.
To allow your body the rest and recovery it needs.
Through proper supplementation, through proper nutrition, through proper approach
to rest, respect for rest, right.
While still training hard, real hard, harder than ever before.
Then I would say, come over the TEAM ATHLEAN, guys.
Join me, let me coach you and I'll show you just how effective it can be by following
my program.
You can do that guys by heading to ATHLEAMX.COM.
In the meantime, there are plenty of videos up here for you guys to peruse and see and
view and see what you can obtain from them.
To at least start seeing how you can change your workouts to promote a change in a positive
way without overtraining.
That's what this whole channel is about and I invite you guys to look through those.
Again if you want to come on our program, head to ATHLEAMX.COM right now.
Guys, I wanted to get this off of my chest, I got that comment, I had to respond.
You know that last video definitely caused a lot of reaction.
I think that's a good thing.
People should discuss the issue in it's entirety.
Because a lot of people feel a lot of different ways but I feel very strongly based on a medical
background that this is something very real.
And something we can't underestimate.
Especially if you want to see some serious gains from your hard work.
Alright, so leave your comments below.
I'm sure this is a very big topic these days.
And we'll see where it goes you know.
In the meantime, I'll be back here guys with another video in just a few days.