Overtraining - Slow Muscle Recovery (3 SECOND TEST!!)

Maximize your recovery and see your fastest muscle gains here…
Overtraining is a very real thing and can show up in the form of under recovery, particularly over the course of a training cycle. The ironic thing about it is that most people who do succumb to it are doing what they think they should be doing to get results, only to find that by not allowing for maximum muscle recovery they are compromising their gains.
In this video, I show you a quick simple test that you can do at home using a bathroom scale to get a better idea of how you are recovering from your workouts and whether or not you are heading down the road to overtraining. Grip strength has been shown to be reflective of the status of your central nervous system as it relates to muscle output. When you are tapped out and overdrawn, you will find that your grip strength weakens.
You have likely experienced this first hand. Ever wake up in the middle of the night and try to make a fist? If not, try it. You’ll see that you just don’t have enough strength to make a very tightly clenched fist. This is due mostly to the diminished excitement of the nervous system compared to when you are in a wakened state. That said, if you were to test your grip strength during a similar time of the waking day you would start to get some insight into your CNS health over the course of time.
If you combine these findings with an honest assessment of your performance in the gym, you could have a great deal of information to help you determine your status of recovery. For instance, if you find that you are not hitting any new personal records in the gym or your lifts are simply just stagnating, combined with the fact that your grip strength is testing worse…you are likely not recovering.
So to do this simply grab your bathroom scale as I demonstrate in the video and squeeze. Take the measurement that you max out at. If you’d like you can take 3 measurements and take your best one. Alternatively, you can measure with one hand at a time. If you were to do this however you would still want to hold onto the scale with both hands, just be sure only to squeeze with the one you are testing.
Most of the time, you would have to rely on a fancy and expensive piece of equipment called a hand grip dynamometer to gauge your grip strength. The option shown here is much more affordable and practical since many of us watching will have a bathroom scale that we can try this on.
Regardless of your findings you want to be sure that you are doing everything you can to maximize recovery if you are a drug free lifter. The ATHLEAN-X Training System at is geared expressly for those guys wanting to look like professional athletes without having to be one. Put the latest training principles and workouts to work for you while avoiding the pitfall of overtraining that bites the average gym goer and holds back their gains.
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