The Truth About Training a Muscle Group Twice in a Row

Perhaps Not So Terrible After All

This is the traditional model of muscle recovery from exercise:

This is in probably every exercise science book in the world.

But is it correct?

Sort of.

The trouble is, it’s too damn simple-it treats all training stress as the same, when there is a lot going on “under the hood” as a result of working out.

Sometimes simplicity is golden; other times you need to dig into the nitty gritty details.

WHAT GETS STRESSED WHEN YOU LIFT HEAVY THINGS?

Muscular recovery

Recovery takes anywhere from a few hours for a minor workout to a few weeks for a major muscle tear. How much volume, how heavy, what exercise, what muscle group and the presence or absence of an eccentric (lowering) part of the range of motion determine how much muscle damage you get. The bigger the muscle group, and the more of a stretch on the muscle, the longer the recovery.

Hard sets of RDLs take my hamstrings four or five days to recover from.