The mortal sin of strength training is overtraining.  There are many areas of your lifting where you can make mistakes and overcome them and continue to make improvements but if you put yourself in an over trained state, your finished, period.
 

I am the kind of person who always wants to hit the gym and go all out for an hour or hour and a half.  For some reason I find it extremely difficult to hold anything back even when I have planned a light or medium day into my routine.  Even when I am feeling lazy and have to force myself to workout, I still give it my all once I get going with my routine.
 

How can giving it your all during your workout be a bad thing?  Because going all out each and every time you workout very quickly causes you to enter a state over overtraining.  It’s also entirely unnecessary to go all out most of the time in order to see progress.
 

So what is overtraining and why is so detrimental to your progress?  Overtraining occurs when the workload of a persons exercise routine exceeds their capacity to recover.  It can happen to any kind of athlete but most often occurs in weight trainers.  Once you are over trained, all progress ceases and you very often actually lose strength and muscle mass. 
 

Today I am mature and experienced enough to push myself just enough to get results but stop short of training too much or too long.  In my early days of working out, I was not so fortunate.
 

If you have followed my long enough, you probably know my story.  If you haven’t, here you go.  I first started weight training seriously in the mid 1980’s when I was in my mid teens.  My introduction into the world of weight training came when I picked up an issue of Muscle & Fitness.  It was the August 1983 issue featuring Bob Paris on the cover.  I read that sucker front to back about 10 times.  I was hooked.
 

Each and every month I picked up the latest issue and devoured its contents over and over until the next months issue was available.  My favorite feature was the two workout spreads.  Each month, M&F would profile two bodybuilders and their routines targeting a specific body part.  My workouts back then were pretty much derived from what I had read in those magazines.
 

I had big plans back then to become a champion bodybuilder.  This was not just some childhood fantasy either.  I seriously was going to become a professional bodybuilder.  So I was off to my mom’s basement with my buddy Kevin to start making my dream a reality.
 

Needless to say, I never became a pro bodybuilder, not even close but it wasn’t for lack of effort.  I busted my butt in the gym for hours, 3 on and 1 off. 3 or 4 lifts per body part for 10 – 12 reps.  I split my body up and did back and biceps on one day, chest, triceps and shoulders the next and legs and abs the next.  Rest and repeat.  I tweaked it a little here and there but that was pretty much the routine I stuck to for many years.  I would finish my workouts and be wasted the rest of the day.  I remember when I actually got a gym membership and had to drive to the gym, on my leg days, I hardly had the strength to push the pedals to drive home.
 

My progress was sporadic at best and I could never seem to sustain any strength or muscle gains for very long.  Looking back on it, I was over trained most of the time.  The thing was, my body let me know it but I never picked up on it because I really didn’t know what I was doing. 
 

To complete my workout, I was in the gym at least an hour and a half.  Many times I would push myself to the limit and beyond by doing forced sets, cheats, and negatives after my initial set went to failure.  I thought by working out harder and longer, I would get bigger faster. NOT!
 

After about a month of doing this, my body would start letting me know that I needed to back off.  My strength gains stopped and I found it very hard to motivate myself to get into the gym.  My body was holding my back in an effort to prevent any further damage but I would have none of it.
 

Eventually I would stop going to the gym for a week or two and I would start feeling better.  I actually on more then one occasion could see in the mirror that my muscles got bigger after a short lay off.  I never put two and two together so it was back to the gym and my old over training ways. 
 

Today I lift smarter and not necessarily longer and harder.  My workouts never exceed 45 minutes and rarely go more then 35.  I have never been stronger in my life and I feel refreshed and rejuvenated after my workouts. In my youth, I trained to failure every day, now I NEVER do. 
 

I lost years of valuable training progress because I was ignorant to the fact that I was over trained.  If you are new to weight training, learn from my mistakes.  Avoid overtraining like the plague that it is.  Never go to failure and cycle your training volume and intensity.  Your goal is to feel refreshed after your workouts, not so tired that you are useless the rest of the day. 
 

Error on the side of not training enough and you will all but guarantee a lifetime of progress coupled with the joy and happiness the goes along with becoming the very best you can be. 

Yours in Health,

Dennis

P.S. – Have a question about anything I’m doing, email me and I’ll be more then happy to answer it.  ironkettlebellfitness@gmail.com

Before entering into a fitness routine, especially one that incorporates kettlebells, be sure to consult with your physician or medical professional to be sure you are healthy enough to begin a strength and conditioning regimen.  Be sure to learn the proper way to perform each lift and complete each exercises in strict form employing a spotter when applicable.  In other words, if you hurt yourself, it’s your fault.