8. Prioritize Recovery… BUT?
Workout recovery is so important. I can’t stress this enough, but I’ll try: Workout recovery is so important.
If you keep beating your muscles down without giving them a chance to rest and rebuild, they won’t grow — and you’ll wind up battling symptoms of overtraining syndrome. The reason so many bodybuilders use workout “splits” is so they can work out multiple times per week without overtaxing a certain muscle group.
For instance, a common split is push-pull-legs. It looks like this:
- Upper body pushing movements (focus on the chest, shoulders and triceps)
- Upper body pulling movements (focus on back muscles and biceps)
- Legs (focus on quads, hamstrings, calves and glutes)
- Rest
- Repeat