Is P90X & INSANITY Enough?

You love working out. The burning, the soreness, the exhaustion after your training. You feel so energized and alive that you want to keep going. You want to do more to accelerate your results. More is better, right? Adding more cardio and two-a-day training should incinerate fat faster and more efficiently shouldn't it? Well, in most cases with intense training, less is more. And when I say more, I mean more EFFECTIVE. Here are 5 reasons why:

1) Decreased recovery time - When you work out, your body is broken down. Small tears in the muscle fibers need to be repaired, and energy stores need to be replenished. With intense training this recovery period is essential and working out before healing will increase your risk of injury.

2) Dehydration: Simply drinking water does not mean your muscles are receiving all they need. Extra training increases body temperature which requires extra fluids. This takes time to absorb and can lead to dehydration in tissues that need water most for recovery. Chances are, you won't drink as much or as often as you should for perfect health. This may lead to prolonged soreness, muscle injury, or heat exhaustion/stroke.

3) Decreased progress - Over-stressing the nervous and physical systems of the body may lead to a decline in fat loss and strength. The last thing you want is to stop seeing results. Training too often will "scare" your body into holding onto extra energy for healing. This extra energy is the fat you are trying so hard to shed.

4) Muscle loss - Yes, you can lose muscle mass from exercising too much. During training, a hormone (cortisol) is released into the blood, designed to breakdown muscle sugar for energy. With exercise occurring more than once per day, or when training on days that SHOULD be for rest, cortisol levels in the blood stay elevated. This results in continued muscle breakdown and therefore less fat loss.

5) Overtraining - Physiological symptoms such as chronic fatigue, ongoing soreness, decreased performance, depression, loss of appetite are some of the outcomes of overtraining. Be aware of your body and recover as much as possible as this is when you improve and heal.

To ensure these set-backs do not happen, take the rest days in your P90X and INSANITY program seriously. Train once per day and push yourself hard during that time. Sometimes you FEEL like you can do more physically. Really, it is simply a mental benefit of exercise - increased blood flow and oxygen to the brain. Your P90X personal trainer is aware of these issues, which is why rest periods and a variety of workouts is present every week. Abide by the program, focus on nutrition, and enjoy your continued progress.