by FGF Trainer Nicholas Falkenstein

Working out inherently stimulates your sympathetic nervous system, nicknamed the "fight or flight" system or "stress response". This is one of two parts of your autonomic nervous system, the other being parasympathetic or "rest and digest". These two systems teeter totter each other, meaning when one increases the other one decreases. 

Working out stimulates muscle growth through actively stressing your muscles, connective tissues and cardiovascular system. There is a balancing act that happens between adding more stress and recovering from that stress in order to achieve adaptations from your consistent excercising. 

In my own coaching experience, i have seen individuals work out five times or more a week with results of losing muscle mass and gaining fat mass. It creates confusion because we are taught that if we work out harder, we will achieve more muscle mass. Recovery becomes my biggest concern at that point since that is when muscles grow. 

What good recovery looks like is mildly different for everyone. Finding methods that work for you is ideal through trial and error. Major subjects that we talk about at the gym are water, nutrition, sleep, stress managment, screen time ingested and reading habits. All of these influence whether your body is healing efficiently from life's stresses and your workouts. 

Making sure you develop your habits outside of the gym just as much as inside the gym is important from achieving the changes we want from exercising. Your body needs the materials to rebuild and an optimal environment to actually build muscle and burn fat. Focusing more on stress, while not adding more recovery kills fitness goals. Being efficient at recovering from physical stresses is a skill worthy of being developed.