Stop Beating Up Your Body. Rest & Recover!

Stop Beating Up Your Body!

• Dave Gluhareff

Never work the same body part everyday, it doesn’t make sense. It leads to injury and weakness.

In the past few months these are a few questions I’ve been asked by prospective athletes, potential clients, and everyday readers of my many articles, interviews, and posts out there:

I got asked by a D1 collegiate football player about squatting everyday.

I got asked by a top high school runner about running everyday.

I got asked by a stay-at-home, Obese Mom about planking everyday.

I got asked by a single Mom and busy corporate professional about doing push-ups and crunches everyday.

I got asked by a College basketball player about bench pressing and speed drills everyday.

I got asked by a female high school volleyball player about doing sit-ups everyday. (FIY, old school sit-ups aren’t safe anyways. Dangerous for your low back & hip flexors.)

I got asked by a collegiate soccer player about doing lunges and sprints daily.

NO!

Please understand, Muscles grow when they rest, get nourishment (proper nutrition), and adequate recovery time. Most of the time we should let each
muscle group we work take at least a day or two off. If we’ve really blasted that body part then 3 days off for that part is cool. Healing and growth happen when we rest, eat, sleep, and recover. Go spend some time on other muscles groups you’ve neglected or need to rotate-in.

When a muscle, joint, ligament, tendon, or bone is sore then take more time off to avoid injury. Listen to your body. Each time we workout a certain muscle group we tear, strain, and stress that muscle and the joints, ligaments, and tendons, around that area.

Running, planking, crunches, pushups, bench presses, squats, lunges, sprints, box jumps, or any exercise other than mild walking can NOT be done daily.

It’s like picking at a cut or scab that hasn’t had a few days to heal…Just don’t! Leave it alone to heal and grow.

Also Say No to monthly challenges like running a 5k a day, 30 day plank challenges, daily pushups challenges, squat everyday for 30 day challenges, lunge daily for 30 days challenge, and more ridiculous challenges. These spread like wild fire in social media. These do more harm than good. It’s not practical or sensible.

Muscles can’t grow when you constantly beat them up and stress them out.

I’ve been in the fitness & sports training business for 30 yrs and I’ve never seen muscles grow and develop the right way when worked and stressed daily, not at youth, collegiate, or pro levels. I can tell you I’ve had hundreds of people come to me with injuries and lacking development from doing the same workouts or exercises daily.