how best to explain overtraining?

[Pitysister]

younger dude i work with is wondering why his biceps are not growing....

he's fairly new to lifting...and he's doing no lower body work...so i explained about "why use less than half of your body's muscles in your workouts" and sending a larger growth signal to your body...but he don't get it.

and his biceps....on bicep day....he is doing 5 different bicep exercises....because the personal trainer at SNAP fitness told him five was best.

so i tried explaining overtraining....but i don't have the knowledge...how would you guys go about this...i shot him a link to this site....but i dunno if he'll check it out...cuz...the guy at snap...is teh smartz.

and this snap....has no free weights that i know of.

[Cradler]

I guess you wouldn't wanna get too technical with the explanation, then, if he's real new. I'd just tell him that the body has a certain rate of muscular recovery, and currently he's stressing the muscle faster than it can be rebuilt. I mean, you could quote Rippetoe at him all day, but it might be best to just lay it down in real simple terms.

[Ross86]

About the lower body...

I always tell people that working lower body and upper body boosts growth hormone production. Then I ask if they know what HGH is... And tell them that their body produces it naturally, but if they do lower body, then their body will increase production of GH.

[Riddick2112]

first you could explain to him that anyone that makes a blanket statment like "X amount of sets is best for such and such" doesnt know shit and should be shot at sunrise for giving out such dickhead training advice!

then you could explain that mucle grows during rest not during training and that overdoing it especially at the beginner stage is a sure-fire prescription for ZERO results.
i feel that is probably the single biggest misconception among people working out. many think there is a direct relationship to the amount of time spent in the gym and their results.
(the other big misconception is that all people into weight training should sport 3% b/f all year long and look like Arnold did in his best Olympia condition, lol)

you could also explain that the body grows best as a unit, which is why doing only curls all day wont do shit for your bi's past a marginal point.
if he scoffs at this, ask him to point out anyone in the gym with huge arms, a shallow chest and no back.

another point that merits explanation to a beginner is the fact that the bi's are some of the smallest muscles of the body and do NOT need a ton of exercises to get 'em to respond. If he wants to use guys like Arnold, etc as a rebutal just point out that yes they did a lot of arm exercises but they also did a lot of exercises period and they never neglected the major muscle groups. And they took roids. and they were genetic freaks. and their beginner routines were much simpler, shorter and composed mostly compound free-weight movements.

lastly you could prod him by simply stating that he's afraid to train legs, back and chest because training them is seriously fucking hard work as opposed to a bunch of pussy arm exercises

[Pitysister]

i did call him a puss for never doing a deadlift or a squat in his life and i did mention that biceps and triceps are among the smallest muscles in the body...so why worry about them so much...get the big shit and everything else will follow...but that was a couple months ago...and he hasn't made any progress since then...so i wrote down my routine...said do this...and add five pounds to everything every week...he figured that was damn near impossible

[Riddick2112]

i'd say you covered all the bases, so it's probably not worth wasting anymore of your time with him. he doesnt seem to want to try anything other than what that dipshit trainer is telling him!

[Pitysister]

i just could not begin to fathom doing 75 reps of different curls in one day...what's the f'ing point...but....oh well

[hrdgain81]

^^ tell him to come back and see you in 4 months. After 4 months of not growing by doing what some dbag at a shitty gym (with a retarted name btw) told him to do, maybe he will be frustrated enough to listen.

[Start Now]

Originally Posted by Pitysister

younger dude i work with is wondering why his biceps are not growing....

Sometimes people only want to hear what they want to hear... (sigh)