Thread by @Rob_NBF

5 ways you're f*cking up your recovery from your workouts and building less muscle than you could.

Always remember:

Training is a STRESS.

It's something your body perceives as negative.

Biologically, we're still the same as humans 10,000 years ago.

Your body is adapted to survive in a harsh world. It thinks everything is trying to kill you.

A barbell on your back? That's a boulder trying to crush you.

Pullups? If you don't climb up those rocks, the tiger will catch you and eat you.

In order to survive, your body must adapt to these stresses and get stronger.

These training stresses cause physical damage to your body on a cellular level.

When you take a set near failure, you create microtears in your muscle fibres.

You leave the gym weaker.

You recover and get stronger when you're not in the gym.

Let's get into it 👇

1. Too many sets.

Provided you're actually working hard enough to create an adaptation (working close to failure), there isn't an endless linear relationship between number of sets and growth.

Past a certain point, you're just creating more stress and damage to recover from.

And this point doesn't take long to reach.

After the first set, the returns you're getting are diminishing - rapidly.

After 3-4 sets for a muscle group, anything extra may not be worth it.

In this study 10 sets resulted in worse gains than 5 sets:

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27941492/

2. Training again too soon.

You need to allow TIME for recovery to take place. It's not just an overnight process.

If you train your chest hard, taking your sets close to failure, you're not going to be fully recovered to do it again the next day.

You're probably not even fully recovered the day after that.

Recovery takes a bit longer than you think.

In fact, this study showed that only 20% of people were fully recovered 48 hours after a chest session comprising of 12 sets.

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28195973/

This study also tested older men (50-65) and found that after 72 hours 70% of these men weren't recovered.

This suggests that as you get older, training volume probably needs to reduce and fewer sets should be taken to failure.

3. Not eating enough, or well enough.

Muscles need nutrients. If you're not taking in quality nutrition, your body is going to struggle to adequately repair itself.

The number one thing you need is protein.

Most people think 1g per lb of their bodyweight is optimal....

But you actually don't need this much.

This study found that 1.62g of protein per kg of bodyweight per day was the maximum amount - beyond which their was no improvement to muscle hypertrophy.

That's about 0.73g per lb.

bjsm.bmj.com/content/52/6/3…

You also need to ensure you're taking in adequate calories for hypertrophy.

You can gain muscle and lose fat at the same time, but this becomes more and more difficult the more advanced you get at training.

To figure out how much you should be eating, see this blog post:

nothingbarredfitness.com/how-big-calori…

4. Not getting enough sleep.

Sleep is the PRIME time when your body recovers.

Most of this recovery happens during stages 3 and 4, the deepest stages of sleep.

You'll cycle through all 4 stages throughout the night - so it's important you don't get broken sleep.

You should be targeting at least 7 hours of unbroken sleep.

This study found that hypertrophy was worse for those getting 6 hours or less than those getting 7-8 hours:

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

5. Alcohol.

Heavy alcohol intake should be avoided to optimise recovery.

You can probably get away with light to moderate consumption, but proceed with caution.

It can dehydrate you and mess with your sleep. Neither of which are helpful for growing muscle.

This study found no reduction in performance between two groups, one drinking alcohol after training, and one not, at 24 and 48 hours post exercise.

Moderate alcohol consumption can therefore probably be enjoyed - occasionally.

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29385007/

But I wouldn't be on it too regularly - and definitely don't get piss drunk.

It DOES impact testosterone and HGH secretion the following day, which will affect your muscle building results in the long run.

@Martinberkhan states:

A low dose of alcohol for three weeks straight causes only a negligible drop in testosterone, about 6.8 percent."

@Martinberkhan “On the other hand, if you’re fixing to get piss drunk with a high dose, you can expect a twenty to forty percent drop in testosterone over the following day.

This article has more information.

barbend.com/alcohol-affect…

@Martinberkhan There you go, 5 ways you're f*cking up your recovery!

Remember, gaining muscle is ALL about recovery.

@Martinberkhan When my kids were born, my recovery suffered BIG TIME (when I could even find time for workouts).

I had two problems:

1. I couldn't find time for workouts.

2. I couldn't recover because sleep was so bad.

@Martinberkhan I had to learn how to optimise my recovery despite the poor sleep, and I had to learn how to get results with incredibly short workouts (just 15-20 minutes!)

Everything I did is in my program 20 Minute Muscle.

You can get 45% off here!

learn.nothingbarredfitness.com/20-minute-musc…

@Martinberkhan If you found this thread useful, please consider giving it a retweet, and follow me for more!

I'm running a free kickstart in January aimed at people who want to get some sustainable healthy habits in place with nutrition and working out.

By the end of the 7 days you'll be on your way to making it a lifestyle!

Sign up here 👇

learn.nothingbarredfitness.com/7-day-kickstart