Every bodybuilder, weightlifter and coach knows that during intense physical training, fatigue develops faster than an athlete can possibly recover. As a result, after a bout of training an athlete needs a period of rest.
We also know, however, that the time needed for recovery is shortened as an athlete becomes better conditioned.
We have also learned that properly planned training, with proper rest, massage, and nutrition, can speed up the recovery time even more than it would be sped up, haphazardly, as the athlete became "tougher."
Studies by Russian physiologists - I.V. Folbert, V.S. Farfel, M.E. Marchak, N.N. Yakovlev and others - have shown that there is a phase or cycle that can be timed to reestablish the capacity for training after a bout of training has been completed. After exertion, either training or for a contest, the different bodily functions return to normal in various stages.
Grip strength, endurance, and neuromuscular responses are restored much more quickly than the cardiovascular and pulmonary functions.
Studies of oxygen consumption in hard-training weightlifters have shown that these athletes metabolism remains elevated as long as three or four days after a maximum training period.
The physiologists also learned that there is a stage of the recuperation period in which over-compensation takes place. In other words, sometime during the recovery process, the athlete is capable of greater performance than he was before the exercise session. The time that this over-compensation period occurs, and its duration, depends on the amount and intensity of the exercise.
The relationship between fatigue and recovery is complex. If an athlete trains too hard too often, with insufficient recovery, his performance will suffer. On the other hand, if he rests so long after exertion that all his organic functions recover completely, he will perform repeatedly at the same level.
Yes, a weightlifter or bodybuilder has to push himself to make progress; but if he pushes himself too hard over too long a period of time he will not only fail to make progress - he will actually slip backward.
We made detailed physiologic studies of a group of athletes as they prepared for important contests. We studied their cardiovascular systems, their reflexes, their metabolisms, and their strength levels. We repeated these studies not only daily, but several times a day, at two-to-five-hour intervals.
We found that when the athletes trained with light and medium weights their recovery was complete the morning after the training session. This indicated that daily training might be more effective than every-other-day training for men training with light and medium loads. With this routine, the effects of training were well established in the athletes and they were able to continue their regular jobs comfortably.
After heavy training, however, we found that the athletes' physiological functions did not recover the morning after the training session. Often they did not recover until two full days later or even longer.
Contrary to generally held opinions, we found that training before recovery was complete was beneficial to the athletes and did not result in harmful "over-training." We did find, however, that training without complete recovery could only be continued for a limited time without full recuperation. For well-conditioned athletes, the time limit varied from four to six weeks. After this, the athlete needed a complete rest of sufficient duration for all their physiologic responses to return to pre-training normal.
As a result of our studies, we recommend a cyclic approach to training for best results in competition - and to permit the athlete to carry out his non-sporting activities without being overly fatigued.
For a period of a month to six weeks, an athlete can push himself without ill effect. In fact, if he does not he will not make significant progress. After a cycle of several weeks training, however, he should "lay off" from training for three days to a week before resuming training for another cycle.
Within a training cycle, a well-trained weightlifter or bodybuilder can train on successive days with light and medium loads. After a heavy day, however, he will need a full day of rest from training - and even then he will not have had complete physiologic recuperation. His progress will continue, however, within the overall four-to-six-week training period.
In other words, a weightlifter can work out with less than maximal poundages on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Then he can take either a very light Friday workout and a limit workout on Saturday, followed by rest on Sunday. Or he can take two rest days - Friday and Sunday.
Only by personal experiment can a weightlifter determine what is "light" - perhaps to 70% of maximum - and what is "medium" - perhaps to 80% maximum. A "heavy" day, however, would involve practice lifts and power exercises with from 90% to a new personal record. Some men will find they can produce this type of effort after a day's rest, some may prefer some very light "form" training on the preceding day. Anyone will need a day's rest to at least partially recuperate after an all-out effort.
Further personal experiment will be required to determine how long the over-all training cycle will be. For leading Russian lifters it is four to six weeks. For less experienced lifters it perhaps will be less time. When the end of the cycle is reached, it will take three days to a week for recovery before another cycle is begun. Obviously, timing the cycle is important in order to be in peak condition when the date for a contest rolls around.
Note to the bodybuilder:
Train away 5-6 times (even 8-10) weekly - hitting it hard - for a period of 5-6 weeks, but then a 3-5 day layoff is recommended before going back again to hard training.
"De-loading" and "over-reaching" are far from being "new" ideas or methods; if you look into the training history material you'll see mention of it under many names pretty much throughout that history's entirety throughout "time."
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Soon to be known as the world's finest electronic ass-wiper.
Call a plumber, she's all goin' down the shitter and
a handful of folks are gettin' rich off your tax dollars . . .
This is fun . . .
How much the Trumps have pocketed off the presidency to date:
I tell ya, if I was the President of Canada
this blog sure in hell wouldn't be free, Buster.
Prime Minister El Presidente Dale!
I has a swimming pool and lotsa monies.
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*price may change after pre-order
** not necessarily as described
*** not really a phone
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Out today, May 19th, 2026.
Well, welcome to Translink
your psych ward on wheels.
An endless line of assholes, and Oh
they're all so much like me.
I knew a fella for a few decades who was one-a them Weathermen in New York City. The name I knew him by was not his given name, and he managed to elude authorities hunting him all along until that lockbox he hid was discovered when he died. No one knew his true identity all along, not his wife, not his kids, not his closest friends. That takes some control and he loved to drink the beer he made and smoke the dope he grew and sold for a living. He had some real interesting off-the-tax-grid workers and they were a treat to have known. Turns out he had constructed a bomb that accidentally blew up three of his fellow revolutionaries, painted the place blood red/bone white. Oops. He was good to know
no matter.
Also out today . . .
It's a Fox News Book!
With a foreword by Erika Kirk!
Humor . . .
it's where you find it and
always subjective.
Also out online today.
Tickets?
We don't need no damn tickets.
Stars Bob Odenkirk, directed by Ben Wheatley.
Stars Bob Odenkirk, directed by Ben Wheatley.
A delightfully messy satire on the tiresome
small town cop fends off bad guys plotline, eh.
small town cop fends off bad guys plotline, eh.
Real fun violence in this one!
Latest issue, July 2026
"Project Monster: Exploring Projects of Monstrification in Bodybuilding Communities (2024)
From the journal "Body & Society"
I found it a fun read filled with absurd weirdness:
Golly, this blog crap here is approaching the massive importance of a monetized YouTube channel and I already has the required bald head!
Best be careful that it never does. Okay . . .
none of this is of any real import.
It's just lifting, you idiot, nothing serious at all.
Please buy my phone!
