THE GHOST OF OVERTRAINING

Overtraining.

If you take a look at the modern era’s top notch fitness websites and magazines you will have really hard time to find splits that include training muscle group more than once a week.

The word overtraining is invariable part of over 90% of today’s articles and blogs.
In other words is all over the place in the fitness industry.

And . . .

I do believe it reached a point where things got beyond overexposed.
More and more often it makes me feel like . . .

Overtraining is more likely some form of really evil ghost,wraith or goon who is walking around the gyms.

The only one plan this spooky creature has is to interfere the progress and gains of today’s innocent trainees and gym goers.

Everybody runs and hides from it.
The whole situation seems to be really scary.
So scary often makes me think :

Nothing can really help if the Overtraining get someone in it’s clutch.

Nothing besides the cool programs based on training less, not visiting the gym more that 4/5 times a week and typically executing 4 sets with 10 to 12 reps on exercise.

A methodology which more or less reminds me something like

*A way to put less effort in what you do.
In other words searching and relying on the:

“Easy Way” . . .

Besides these exclusive protocols the only defenders of the average Joes are the:

Specialized Forces of Shortcut Gurus.

The way this Alliance of Extremely Knowledgable Super Humans strikes back the attacks of overtraining is by several common techniques.

The “Gurus” apply these techniques sincerely in order to teach the people of the fitness community how to defend themselves by using

Smart Tactics like :

#1. “Avoid Fats and Cholesterol.”

#2. “Don’t use whole foods. Replace them with egg whites, broccoli and gluten consisting low calorie oats.”

#3. “Avoid Free weights and use machines.”

#4. “Do more cardio in order to create caloric deficit.”

#5. “Avoid red meat, because it is bad.”

#6. “Use Supplements for Better Recovery.”

#7. Eat non stop almost every two hours in order to prevent the catabolic processes and the breakdown of the muscle tissue.

#7. If you don’t eat carb you will die.

As you can see we can go on and on, but I am pretty sure you know exactly what I mean.

I am pretty sure most of us are already familiar with if not all at least most of these wise recommendations.

I am also sure most of us notice the tiny detail that nowadays almost impossible to find programs or protocols based on twice a day training sessions.

Why?

Because the overtraining will come and bite the trainee’s face . . .

Okay.

Enough jokes.

Now . . .

Lets move on to some real facts and experience.

So please let me start with some information about me and the times when I stepped inside a gym for the first time . . .

When I started lifting years ago I use to buy, read and use all of the recommended by the magazines protocols, diets and splits too.
I desperately believed in most of that things.
I use to buy fitness and bodybuilding magazines too.
Buying and using protein powders BCAAS and others was big part of my lifestyle.

It might sounds really funny . . .

But . . .

I would like to be completely honest tell you that:

For around a good year and a half I use to think building muscle is almost impossible without whey protein shakes.
I was that heavy brain washed with all of the meal timing, complex carbs, post-workout window of opportunity.
I use to have periods when I stopped eating after 6pm.
Non of that crap is new to me.

Yeah.
That’s correct.

I know it all.
Why?

Because . . .

I’ve done it all . . .

It definitely lost me some time.
Precious time I was able to use in order to more make gains and stuff, but on another hand it also made me acquire experience.
Experience which I actually do value a lot.
Because to certain extend it helped me developed completely different approach not only for fitness, but for the life in general.

Now when I think about it
I even believe this is unavoidable part of the path of every

Gym Rat
or everyone who steps up in the gym for the first time . . .

This path is the individual’s journey to either quitting or becoming an Iron Addict and simply finding out what works and what not which can be done in only one way…

The Hard Way.

Some people prefer to call it the correct or even the Only way.

It is based on a lot of dedication, hard work and experimenting with the bodies we have . . .

I also believe relying on the signals your body sends you is superior to anything else out there.
As an addition I would like to mention that I personally believe this is the only way for building a truly aesthetic, symmetrical and pleasing physique.

A physique more likely inspired by the Golden Age of bodybuilding.
And in 2016 it seems like there is a huge comeback to these types of physiques.

So . . .

If you decide to spend some time and do a research on the training protocols most of those people used, you will definitely notice few things in common.

These things are really simple.
That simple that you might ask your self why people do not use them.

That simple most of today’s trainees and coaches deny to accept them and prefer to search for some form of

Magical pill, Secret or Shortcut . . .

When the things do not work this way in the real life, and often times this might set the individual for a major disappointment from the very beginning.

But I guess . . .

Nowadays it is more of term of interests type of thing.

#1. During the Old School Era Bodybuilders were not scared to hit a body part more frequently.

Here I would like to point out the fact :

*** Arnold Schwarzenegger has a very popular split based on hitting body part 3XTimes per week.

#2. They were not able to use all of the fancy pieces of gear available in today’s fitness centers.

*This is correct.
Mostly barbells, dumbbells and maybe some Iron master, Hack Squat or Leg Press here and there.

#3. They were not able to use all of the Supplements and PEDS current era has to offer.
*For the most part they relied on whole foods.

They did not shy away from high volume training or twice a day splits.

The used whole foods such as eggs, steaks, white rice, full fat dairy and others banned from the fitness industry of today.

They knew these foods can provide adequate amounts of high quality nutrients to feed the workloads they did back than.

Proponents and believers of really drastic forms of:

Intermittent Fasting and Ketogenesis.

Serge Nubret
One Meal A Day – OMAD.
(Mostly Red Meat and White rice.)

Vince Gironda.
Two meals a day – Steaks and Eggs.
(Mostly Red Meat, Whole Eggs, Butter and Cream..)

Both of them owners of iconic physiques.

Both lifestyles ditched by today’s fitness industry almost completely.

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My Experience:

As I mentioned when I started my fitness journey I was one of those guys who carefully try to avoid the overtraining by any means.

Even though I was dying to workout every single day I was really scared this will ruin the precious gains I even did not have.

Every day I was reading magazines with full of articles that basically repeats same useless things over and over again.

Sometimes I even feel like they are all the same.
“4 Sets- 10-12 reps
Complex Carbs
Protein shakes.
Plain chicken Breast
No fat and etc.
6 meals a day ”

But it happened that non of that worked for me.
Till this day I do not have any explication for it, but I can remember so vividly that after 2 years of applying the recommended on the magazines I stuff got really upset from the results I got.

Because there were almost no results . . .

I took a decision to try new things so I’ve started implementing training protocols and routines based on hitting body part a lot more frequently.

By doing these experiments with different set and rep ranges I finally found that I will never be able to build the physique I want if I even think about using methods similar to:

4Sets X 10-12 Rep.

I feel like . . .
This happened so naturally, because I reached a point when I simply started cutting out the things which do not work.

Plus on top of everything I always wanted to spend more at the gym.

I always wanted to do longer workouts.

Like something deep inside me was trying to make me understand this is the way to go from the very beginning.

A voice . . 

A voice which was telling me the truth clear and loud every single day from the start of my fitness journey.

Lately I discovered.

This is the voice of my body.

I was trying to suppress this voice for long time, because I was too brainwashed to be a meathead and rely on the nonsense in the magazines instead listening to the signals my body was sending me.

But things have changed . . .

Essentially started training with more and more volume and relatively heavy weights.
By any means not extra heavy, but enough to get proper muscle stimulation.

I started to do more and more sets.

Like around 6 per exercise minimum.
For the first time I understood what a real pump look like. 

As long as for nutrition . . .
Back than I did not know too much so I sticked with what I knew which was simply getting enough protein for the most part.

I trained 5 times per week.
Duration of every workout was between 01:30h and 02:00h.
On top of everything I was doing up to hour cardio 7 days a week.

This was the period of my life when I saw the gains for the first time.

For half year I made the progress I did not for too. 

When I did this drastic change . . .
Most of my surroundings back than were telling me things like:

“This was overtraining and I have to stop, because otherwise I am not going to be able to recover from my training sessions and etc.”

But I knew I was making progress which till this day is the only thing that actually matters.

So ever since than I am not interested in paying attention to the opinion of others.

Specially others who as long as I can remember never made progress in virtually anything . . .

Others who did not accomplished anything at least until I saw them for the last time which was long time ago . . .

That type of others who worship the habit of quitting when things got just a bit harder or tougher . . .

The type of others who easily give up on their dreams, because they are not willing to pay the price of the sacrificing the average and boring today for the better tomorrow . . .

Aw and by the way I was completely aware of the fact those exact others envy me . . .

Why?

I am glad You’ve asked.
Well, because . . .

I saw it in their eyes not once.

Yes!

It was not once, I have clearly noticed hidden reactions of anger on their faces when ladies on the street turn their heads to stare at my deltoids . . .

*But anyway it really does not matter, because . . . 

After this stage my body became a lot harder.
A lot of veins became visible.
I was not shredded to the bone, but for first time of my life I had v-taper, fuller quads, bigger pecs and relatively bigger arms.

Immediately I became extremely happy not only, because of the look I developed, but also because of the awesome sense of accomplishment.

Which for me tastes and feels like nothing else . . .

But even than . ..

I was still scared to take the next step and get even deeper with my relationship with the:
“overtraining.”

Scared or not it was different, because . . .

At this point I felt like I already had some kind of a hunch as
long as what I need to do in order to speed up my progress.

From that moment Google came into place and we became best friends.

Actually I became addicted to learning and absorbing new information every single day.
Another thing I got addicted to is applying everything I learn.
Till this day this is a 3 step process for me.

***First is learning.
Second is applying to my lifestyle by doing experiment and paying close attention to the produced results . . .

I reached the point when I trained 6 times a week while doing cardio on 7.
Lifting weights for hour and a half and riding stationary up to one hour.
I use to hit my weakest body parts 2 times a week.

For one summer 2013 I completely changed the way I look.
I’ve started seeing my abs and than even some veins and arteries around them.

Only by increasing the intensity of my sessions and adding one extra training day (6^th), even with relatively bro diet I was able to enjoy some major gains on each and every possible area of my body.

*Keep in mind that . . .
From the perspective based on the knowledge and experience I have now my diet was nowhere near close to what I see as A1 diet these days.

My diet back than was neither a based on the highest quality foods as long as for bodybuilding, nor one which has the ability to dramatically improve and enhance the one’s cognitive performance . . .

Back then I was more likely doing what food regular bodybuilding foods like rice and chicken.
During this period I use to also do some shakes and junk here and there.

Even satisfied for a while with the results I had when the summer are the 2013’s Fall I felt it was not enough for me.
I felt like missing something.
Felt like I do not need to eat that frequently.

I also felt I do not need to eat those types of foods because they give me zero inspiration and motivation as long as for composing and producing musical tracks, taking courses and getting certified, filming videos and being creative overall.

The type of individual I truly am.

I needed something else.
Something that will help me be more of ME.

Something that will lead me to becoming a better version of myself.

Somehow I felt like I need to train more while eating less and less meals.

I think I had a hunch again.
My subconscious mind was telling me I need to find a specific piece of information and apply it immediately in order to move on the next level.

To make the long story short . . . 

I did another huge research.
Yes . . .

This time for some unexplainable to this day reason I skipped all of the fitness or bodybuilding websites and blogs and I went straight to the podcasts and articles for:

Personal development 
also popular as 

Self Improvement. 

I did not take me so long until I have landed on a specific Underground blog Site/Blog.
On this blog I found two things that completely changed my life and will never forget this exact moment.

On the same exact website I found articles about two Men long forgotten form the fitness industry.

Two names:

Vince Gironda & Serge Nubret.

Here I would like to finish the article with few words which will describe the best what happened than.

In the period of one year and a half I applied the probably most of the keystone principles for success of both of those men.

Than came up with my own combinations of tactics of both.

This completely changed not only my physique, but it actually improved the quality of my life to a degree, I could not believe for a quite a long time.

This was the red pill that totally opened my eyes not only for bodybuilding but for the whole life in general.

It opened them and clearly showed me what exactly the human brains and bodies are capable of . . .

Thank you for Your reading.
Yours Truly:
PETEONTHEBEAT