Recovering From An Injury

When Recovery Stalls What’s The Problem?
Arrggghhh! What's wrong now? Everything seemed to be going right at one point. And now its all gone horribly wrong. Right? It seems that when ever we don't see any obvious muscular growth or any new strength gains in some time we automatically run and search the message boards, read the magazines and just research the entire supplement and workout routine world in order to spark that new growth so we can get that next 5 or 10 pounds. With any luck you'll end up reading good advice but most of the time you end up reading some nonesense that encourages gains of thirty plus pounds of muscle in two months or something equally anatomically and physically impossible. Then when this new super supplement, un-faultable bleeding edge diet plan or the latest workout regime, that we thought was the next best thing, doesn't work we complain and groan about how either the supplement doesn't work or the workout is useless. Well maybe the problem doesn't rest on a new supplement or a completely revamped workout routine; maybe it all comes back to you. That's right. When we start thinking the whole world is mad apart from us, maybe we should reassess our own perception of reality. Maybe.

Throughout my career in bodybuilding, and my journey through life, I myself have encountered this very same problem numerous of times. Sometimes its just simply being burnt out, sometimes it could be due to much more. So let's take a look at all the things that must be in place with you before you start thinking about the next ultimate supplement stack or the next best workout routine. Once you have covered these fundamental basis - perhaps that is the time to advace your routine and stack yourself upto the eyeballs with wonder supplements - and all of that will take you to the next level of being a super athlete!

Take notice of your own self. When I am burnt out it's pretty easy to put my finger on it. I just become very bored with everything that has to do with bodybuilding. I get tired of eating, tired of supplementing, tired of training, I get just plain tired of bodybuilding. I feel that I just need some time from the everyday ritual of preparing my meals, eating, supplementing and training all on a timetable. For me to get through this it's best for me to take a step back and essentially quit bodybuilding for one week. You cannot rebel against your body or especially your mind. There will only be one winner - and it ain't gonna be you, o take note, bow out gradcefully and take some time off - or you'll essentially end up far worse.

During this week off I will cut my meals back to three to four daily, I will not use any supplements or even think about training. I steer clear of anything that has to do with bodybuilding, magazines, movies and message boards. I separate myself totally from the sport. Then after being off a week I am totally refreshed and ready to hit it hard again. Everyone will go through this at some point or another and I recommend that you don't try to force through these burn out days, just take a few days off and you will be set to start some new progress. This works like a reset button for your whole being. You can and should use this technique when it comes to any other sticking point in your life - emotional or physical or whatever. Some may call it gaining a fresh perspective.

Sometimes it's much more than just being burnt out. When you stop seeing gains really sit down and analyze your own self. Take into account every possible aspect of your life. I have broken them down into these categories: diet, personal problems, sleep, illness and over training. You will find one or more culprit maybe to blame for your stagnant progress and with this finding of the cause you can now research a solution - and maybe that is a new routine, new diet or the correct supplement. Once you're informed.

Illness
Hopefully this will never happen to you but on occasion I have seen and heard of it happening. I knew a guy once who had made some really great gains but after a few months he became very tired and worn down feeling. He had no energy and the gains all but stopped and after a while he started loosing lean muscle mass.

Finally he went to the doctor and he learned that he had developed some sort of intestinal problem, they treated it with medicine and everything eventually got back to normal. So if you have your diet in order, your training in line and no outside problems but you just don't feel 100% don't put it off, go see a doctor because there may be something serious there or maybe something simple. Either way, once you are informed and you know what, if anything, that you are dealing with, the remedy to resolve the issue may be very simple. This being the case, the not knowing and fearing what may be the cause, the puzzlement and the lack of gains can make you far more ill, mentally and physically than you can ever imagine.

One thing that I see as a common occurrence it is people training while sick. Look, it's hard enough for the body to recoup from training itself but then you throw in something like a sinus infection or even a common cold, it makes it even harder for the body to recoup, and also fight off sickness. So if you get sick just take the time off until you are well again. I have seen a guy who just had a cold, keep a cold for a month because he wouldn't stop training, that's just stupid. Its a no brainer for this one - stop it!

Diet
Nine times out of ten this is the number one problem for not seeing the results you are looking for. I see this all the time. Too many people are out for the best supplement that will pack on the mass but with the sorry diet they are on not even steroids would help them. A good diet is the most important thing you will do as a bodybuilder, fitness model, and weight trainer or power lifter. So when you sit down and look at your diet look at the foods you are consuming. Now, what types of food you are consuming depends on your goal.

One glaring thing that I always see is just lack of enough food consumed through out the day. I recommend eating every 3 hours whether you are bulking or dieting down. Of course when bulking you will be consuming for calories and dieting would be the opposite. If you are trying to add size and you are only eating 4 meals a day then you have just located your problem. So before you do anything always look at your diet, period. No matter how amazing your training routine is either - your body needs the fuel and the supplies to actually work with in the correct quantities and qualities...and so you must at all times think about your nutritional habits!

Not everybody wants to hear this but....Something that has to be touched on briefly is alcohol consumption. Now I am not saying you shouldn't go out and party but if you are doing just a little too much partying it will hinder your progress. Now a beer or six on a weekend here and there will be ok but if you are doing it 2-4 times a week you are really limiting yourself. My old workout partner would start partying on Thursday night and wouldn't stop until Sunday. I kept telling him and telling him that if he wants to make the gains he was wanting he needed to stop all of that. Finally he did and after a few weeks he had made more progress in that time than he had in a whole year. So if you are serious about making some progress just limit the drinking to a minimum.

Personal Problems
Probably one of the all time killers is when you are suffering from the 'human emotional punchbag' syndrome. If you are having personal problems you know too well how these can completely drain your metal focus when trying to train. If you are having personal problems with yourself, a loved one or a friend, having problems at work, the list can go on and on, I suggest that you solve these problems immediately if they are distracting your training efforts. Sometimes, you just have to acknowledge that this is the life that you are living and your training may have to be suspended for a short while until these more important issues are dealt with.

In order to get the most out of your workout you must have complete focus. This is not really a problem for me, when I step into the gym for that hour or so a day I am in my world and nothing outside of it has any effect on me what so ever. I know not everyone can separate them selves like this so that's why I think you must solve these personal issues and solve them as fast as possible so that your workout won't suffer. Being able to absolve yourself from the whole of the outside world and become completely absorbed inside your workout mode is one skill that you can persistantly master - but your emotionas are like warning signals - they're there to tell you something...and if you ignore them too often or too frequently, at some point you are going to explode.

Over the past few weeks I have had some issues my self that had to be dealt with. I have just split up from my partner, a particularily nasty and unconventional split, involving children. This has made it a little more difficult for me especially in the sleeping and training department but I just do what I have to do. Some people think that I am insane for getting up every day at 4:30 am and training but if that's what I have to do right now then so be it. I encountered a problem re-adjusted my training and bam, no more problem. Just learn to deal with personal issues and learn to make them a non-issue so that it won't affect your training. Either that or deal with the issues direct and resolve them as soon as possible.

Overtraining
Now I don't really believe that you can over train if you are consuming enough food and nutrients and following a sensible training and sleep regime. But there are those who will train like a mad man doing endless sets but at the same time only feeding their body 2-3 meals a day and wonder why they are not growing. I have seen it happen all the time but these fools still don't get it. It all comes down to eating, if you train intense you must eat enough food to grow...if not you will become over trained, so in a way this will fall under the proper diet category too. Simple. Very simple. Eat and train accordingly to what you are prepared to follow up with. If you train intensely three to four days of the week...you need to be just as prepared to eat intensely for six to seven meals a day of top quality nutrition. Period.

I hope that this article will help some of you out. May be it's sounds like a lot of rambling but I just can't express how important it is to just analyze yourself before you go out and spend a ton of money on the latest and greatest supplements. They will do you no good if all of the above topics aren't in line. It will be a huge waste of money and a waste of your time.

So if you are in a rut and haven't had any noticeable gains in some time then just take a step back and look at yourself, your life and I think you will find some area that you will need to change or adjust and the new growth will come