By Elena Voropay

Back in your high school years all you wanted was to get big. Now you want symmetry, definition and separations and striations over freaky huge size. Now you are a bodybuilder. You check your form and muscle size in the mirror, record every rep and weight you lift, try to make sure that your training is variable to prevent stagnation.

So, you hit that muscle every time you train, you stimulate it from every angle imaginable, but it is still smaller and weaker. And if you think that you just don't do enough - that is a red signal that you are doing too much. And that is the reason the muscle is not growing.

Building muscle.

This is the reason you go to the gym - become stronger, leaner and bigger. But while you are working out it's the opposite process that takes place in your body - you are becoming weaker and weaker with every rep. The ultimate 'building' phase starts the minute you put the weights down after a super-intense workout. If you could zoom down to the microscopic level of your muscles, you'll be surprised, astonished and maybe frightened. You probably didn't realize what a tremendous damage you've done to your muscles by torturing yourself on the threshold to perfect physique.

Every time you lift a dumbbell, the tiny structures of your muscle fibers are tearing apart. During the next 24 to 48 hours the life-saving route to recovery will break down muscle protein using all available glycogen from the lean tissue cells. While you rest and relax after the hard work, your body is not. In fact, the inside of your body is undergoing the most necessary part of building muscle - "recovery", the repair of torn muscle fibers and growth of tissue cells. In order to protect against future trauma, muscle fibers need to become stronger and bigger during recovery. The greater muscle tears, the stronger they might become. But only if you give your body sufficient time for recovery and enough energy for growth from the right sources of proteins, carbohydrates and fats.

 While lifting weights and working out is necessary to initiate the building process, recovery is the most paramount factor. This is when you actually grow. The harder your hit your muscle - the longer recovery you will need. No recovery - no growth. Simple as that. But so many of us just can't get it straight.

 You count the number of protein grams you've taken in and number of hours you rested from the last workout - then you hit the iron again. Same muscle groups, same exercises. Ok, you may change a little here and there, say, from 12 reps of hammer curls to a the burns of 21s with a barbell to give your biceps a kick. But the point in focus is still more muscle damage resulting in over-training - a state where your body has been repeatedly stressed by training to the point where rest is no longer adequate to allow for recovery.

 Medically, the over-training syndrome is classified as a neuro-endocrine disorder. The normal fine balance in the interaction between nervous and hormonal systems is disturbed and the body now has a decreased ability to repair itself during rest. Note, that being over-trained is not the same feeling of tiredness you feel after the workout. Over-training is marked by cumulative exhaustion that persists even after recovery periods. Most research on over-training has been done in endurance-type activities like running, cycling and swimming. But more recent discoveries are tapping more into weight training to find where to draw that fine line between training too much and not enough.

 There Are Two Main Types Of Over-training:

 Both types occur as a result of too much exercise/stress without enough recovery and proper nutrition. Systemic overtraining refers to excessive physiological, mental and psychological stress on your entire body. Localized overtraining impacts a specific muscle or muscle group when you push it to the limits for a long period of time. This is specifically what happens when you train your under-developed or weak muscle above and beyond its capabilities because you think it needs more stimulus for greater growth.

 When you start a new exercise the brain has to learn how to utilize the nerve cells that are attached to your muscle cells thus improving neuro-muscular facilitation. Your brain activates the nerve cell, your muscle cells or fibers contract. During the first 8-12 weeks of training brain's quick learning process adapts to the impact of training and becomes more efficient at integrating pathways of neurons and muscles. If you continue challenging your muscle-brain connection without giving it time to adapt, your system gets tired and fails to recognize the stress of pumping iron properly. Whether it comes to a your total body or to a particular muscle, the brain, specifically nervous system, becomes exhausted demanding time for proper rest, nutrition and supplementation.

Two hormones often impacted by over-training are testosterone and cortisol.

Cortisol is a corticosteroid naturally produced by the adrenal cortex in response to all kinds of stress, including psychological, physical, and emotional stresses. This hormone is responsible for may metabolic function, but the primary role is to help mobilize energy for the body by attacking muscle tissues directly. Cortisol increases the rate of protein breakdown in the muscles and impedes the entry of amino acids into muscle cells. Instead, cortisol breaks down lean tissue and transports amino acids to the liver to be used for energy. When cortisol increases are mild, the overall impact on the body is minimal and can even be positive. Cortisol's catabolic functions help mobilize the fat stored in your body and use it for energy. But continuous overtraining, be it systemic or localized, changes the picture. An overtrained person becomes a cortisol "secreter," constantly releasing high levels of cortisol which stay up regardless of physical activity or rest. In turn, elevated cortisol continuously breaks down muscle tissue and organs for valuable amino acids. The result - less muscle, less energy, less strength. And alterations in the level of cortisol is only half of the picture.

Typical symptoms include decreased performance and motor coordination, increased recovery time and muscle soreness and damage. Over-training also causes impaired immune function, fatigue, headaches and sleep disturbances, altered resting heart rate, blood pressure and respiration. Add to that hypothalamic dysfunction, decreased muscle glycogen and negative N2 balance, and you are almost guaranteed to lose all the hard-earned muscle tissue.

To make any gains in muscle growth, you have to walk a fine line between pushing yourself and pushing yourself too far. Recognizing when you are in danger of crossing that fine line and slowing down before it's too late may save your valuable energy, time and your muscle potential. The combination of active rest, adequate sleep and proper diet is the best treatment. Active rest does not mean stopping all activity. Modify your training schedule by decreasing frequency, intensity, duration and type of exercises. Or better yet, do some kind of light aerobic activity using low intensity level.

• The first thing you are going to do to stimulate growth is take some rest - no training for one week. No excuses. Just 7 days. You can do some light cardio, but no pumping iron.

• The next week do a split routine training Upper Body on Day 1, and Lower Body on Day 2 giving it two days of rest in between. Even if your previous training involved concentrating on a particular muscle, don't train it any differently than any other muscle group. Just make sure you hit every muscle once during this week.

• On week three you should notice that your body is well-rested and is capable of doing more than it was used to. So, now is a good time of building a routine that you will stick to for the next month. If you have a history of weight lifting for a number of years, you may try advancing your routine using periodization program and targeting weak and underdeveloped muscles.
  
  

Try to pay particular attention to getting enough nutrients after every exercise session. The first two hours after exercise are a period of maximum insulin sensitivity, when glycogen synthesis occurs at a faster-than-normal rate to give your body a "jump start" in replenishing glycogen. From all the nutrients essential for muscle growth most talk has been around protein. Indeed, it is an essential tool to building stronger, bigger and denser body. But amino acids are of little value if don't get enough carbohydrates in your diet. In order to be propertly utilized and transported to muscle cells, protein needs a transport hormone – namely insulin.

Carbohydrates are potent in increasing the levels of insulin and help replenish muscle glycogen stores depleted with training. If you ingest protein without carbs, those aminos float thought the blood stream until ultimately being converted into energy via deamination or transamination to remove the nitrogen. This is a complex process which puts additional stress on your already overworked system. Carbohydrates spare amino acids and prevent the breakdown of lean tissue which can occur when cortisol levels are elevated. Protein, on the other hand, stimulates a substance called cholecystokinin, CCK, which slows the rate at which the food in your stomach empties into intestines. This slows down the digestion and absorption and decreases insulin response initiated by carbohydrates.

A combination of protein and carbs seem to be the best post-exercise supplement as it provides a slow steady nutrient absorption and utilization. Studies have shown that protein, when combined with carbohydrate, almost doubles the insulin response and increases the rate of glycogen synthesis by 30 percent.

As a matter of fact, if you are keeping yourself on a low-carb diet in pursuit to lose weight, you most definitely will find yourself weak, tired, over-trained and sick. Carbohydrates are the primary energy source your muscles cry for, and not getting enough of them after an exercise session will disturb your mineral balance, impair immune function, and may cause havoc on your digestive system. Even when watching your weight can be a good thing, chronically depleted muscle and liver glycogen stores from insufficient carbohydrate consumption is something you want to stay away from. As a consequence, the most heavily recruited muscle fibers are not able to generate the energy needed for exercise. Research has shown that one common supplement, the carbohydrate+protein drink, can lessen the harmful effects of exhaustive exercise on immune system.

But just like with training, you have to be carefullwith knowing your limits. Taking in too many carbs on a regular basis may give you more calories than you need, elevate your insulin levels higher than necessary and ultimately lead to another spare tire around your waist. Sugars and complex carbohydrates you consume must first be hydrolyzed into fructose, galactose, maltose and finally glucose. Glucose circulates in the blood stream and can be used by all cells as a source of energy. What is not burned immediately can be stored as glycogen in the liver and muscles. When these tissues become full, excess glucose is then converted to fat.

On average, the body can store enough glycogen to support exercise for 1.5 hours, and enough liver glycogen for 6 minutes. Specifically, you muscles hold anywhere from 125 to 300 grams of usable sugars, while liver has around 50 grams. Say you had an exhaustive training session and almost depleted all of your available glycogen. Taking in 300 grams of sugar may not be the best solution – it will increase a rapid spike of insulin, cause gastrointestinal distress, may lead to rapid onset of fatigue and nausea.

Last but not least, not all of the sugars will end up in you liver and muscles only – some will go straight to your fat cells making them bigger and hungrier. It is better to spread out these 125-300 grams over the 24-hour period. Try to eat 5 times a day with most carbohydrates ingested after training.

Protein. And what about protein? While the precise amount is a subject of a different debate, for recovery purposes anywhere from 20-45 grams is sufficient, depending on your body composition, weight, overall diet, training regimen and individual dietary preferences. One word of caution – too much protein, just as too much fat or carbs, can make you fat. Moderation should be your motto for all approaches in life – be it training, eating, sleeping or working.