The Best Form of Bodybuilding, Part Eight - Dennis Weis

Notes on Training Staleness 

Signs that may accompany staleness or overwork in an exercise program are: 

1) Impatience - Your body can only grow at a certain rate and you cannot hurry this. but it is this impatience that sometimes causes a bodybuilder to perform more work than his system can properly recuperate from.

2) Laziness - Not willing to put forth the effort in the training program; not working to failure, or not increasing the poundages when it is apparent that you could easily use more weight, resting too long between sets. Remember the training log, loose leaf notebook mentioned earlier. If you have been using one to record your workouts, analyze this and see if you aren't at fault in these areas. 

3) Not changing your existing exercise program frequently enough. Usually most any program will be effective for about two months at most, then it is necessary to make some slight adjustments within the structure of your program.

ACTUAL PHYSICAL SIGNS

1) Actual physical strain when going through a routine that had once been just a pleasant challenge. 

2) No enthusiasm for training. (poor mental attitude).

3) A drop in overall body measurements.

4) No increase in training poundages regardless of the alterations you have made in your existing training program. 

SOME SOLUTIONS

1) Take a total layoff from training for one or two weeks. Remember that there is a difference between taking a layoff for the purpose of overcoming staleness and that of taking too frequent layoffs of a long duration which is nothing more than another form of laziness. Assuming that your layoff is for breaking out of a training rut, let's continue with some more guidelines. 

After you have concluded your two week layoff, GRADUALLY work back into a training program. To avoid injury and severe muscular soreness, never go directly back into a previous maximum effort workout. Begin your training with ligher poundages and add reps and sets, very, very slowly till you are back to your previously established training levels. 

REMEMBER AT THIS POINT THAT YOUR MENTAL ATTITIDE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT CONSIDERATION AND NOT JUST THE AMOUNT OF WEIGHT ON THE BAR. The weight must feel light until your enthusiasm builds up again. 

2) Check your sleep habits. (Ref: The Importance of Sleep).

30 Reorganize to a diet of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, etc. 

Next: How the Older Man Adjusts, Training the Teen, and Steroids. 

Enjoy Your lifting!