I would first make sure that your getting a least 8 hours of sleep a day.

Other then that, play around with your nutrition. High carbs, low carbs, medium protein, and whatever is comfortable with you.

Also drink 1 gallon of water a day.

Overtraining will lead to you actually feeling tired and unmotivated.

hi dan you said that a person should get at least 8 hours of sleep i get from between 5 to7 hours a sleep sometimes only 5 next night 7 as id be working at 2 jobs doing martial arts and going to pubs and clubs how important is sleep to ones body

Sleep is of major importance. Too little sleep and you're body won't be able to recover and you will be affected physically, emotionally, and mentally.

Since you do have other responsibilities, getting 8 hours of sleep is difficult. Including me.

Preferably, getting 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep is the best option but that might not be realistic for everyone. Include naps into your day.

If you can get 6 hours of sleep a night, and get 2 hours worth of naps then you'll be good.

Whenever possible, opt for the going 8 hours uninterrupted. I usually can only have 6-7 hours of sleep a night. So what I do is later in the day go work out, when im done i drink water and then i take a 1-2 hour nap. It allows me to have more than enough energy to get through most of the day and d nap just revitalizes me. Almost like if i took another 6 hour sleep.

Find what works for your schedule and if it really is something that's needed. Make a priority out of it until you find a habit that works.

Sllep is important you know whats more important not training until youve fully recovered!

Otherwise you might make progress.

I get about 5-6 a day and maybe 30 min worth of naps. Sleeping less is supposed to increase more cortisone levels which thus make you gain weight/become fatter.

And drinking 8 glasses of water a day is crap. There's no scientific evidence to support that it's beneficial and quite a few studies show it's actually harmful.

http://calorielab.com/news/2006/05/28/8 ... an-legend/

I like this -
2nd paragraph is crap, but first shows actual problems with drinking too much water. I've read more issues but that's a basic synopsis.

ya i took your advice i had a few early nights and drinking more water and i feel better ok i have not hit any pubs or clubs or gone training the lart few days and i feel that more sleep will help my game thanks man

You need to know what your own body actually needs for recovery, not what someone else thinks. I did weightlifting in my early 20s. I am an ectomorph. I found through trial and error, that even though others said people needed "2 days rest" between working major muscle groups, I needed 4. Maybe some mesomorph with the genetics to get really big only needs 2 days, but there's no question that my strength improved when I gave it 4.

With a routine that has you lifting more weight for less volume, and adequate diet and sleep, I think your strength could have improved even more with a program that had you resting for one day.

I agree, you should try and get 8 hours sleep, I have read a few articles about it ages ago and also remember that the body does work on a sort of schedule... getting to bed by 10pm is the best, You get your most recovery between 10pm and 12am...

In regards to water, your body is 70% water.....so many body functions require water, to say you don’t need to drink 8 glasses (2ltrs) of water just doesn't make sense. And I think you'll find there are heaps of scientific articles that support that, just do a search on pubmed.com...I would bet you would find something there...

Yes, too much of anything is bad, but I will drink a minimum of 2 liters of water a day, if it's hot then it can easily up to 4ltrs..and even more if I’m working out...

In regards to recovery from working out (i.e doing weights) there is a theory in sports science, yes it is only a theory but there are studies that support it. It's called Supercompensation, look it up on wikipedia, it's actually not a bad description, and the graph is good too. It pretty much says with the right amount of recovery you will be stronger then you last were...very simple explanation, I could write a whole post on it!

The fact is...you DO NOT get bigger in the gym...SIMPLE! Whether you believe this or not it doesn’t matter..Your muscles do not get bigger while you work out!

The process of resistance training is to provide increased stress to your muscles, this causes microscopic tears in your muscles....when the body is able to recover, it will repair these tears, making the muscles bigger (hypertrophy) They also repair them so they can cope with more stress (you get stronger) If you do not allow enough recovery time this process cannot take place, therefore your progress will be slower than if you had enough recovery...

If someone came to me and said there main goal was to increase muscle mass, then i would get them to go to the gym no more than twice a week, even maybe once every 10 days....A full body program that works all the muscles will need a lot more time to recover, especially if it is of a high intensity...higher intensity in your lifts, heavier weights lifted, more stress on your muscle means more damage (tears) to the muscles mean you need more time for those muscle to repair (recovery time) So the harder you work the more recovery you muscles will need. Yes I know many people will go to the gym a lot more than twice a week, this goes into the subject of scientific split programs that are designed to work certain muscles while other muscles are recovering…I’m not going to talk about that here, could go on forever. Also just to add, a good supplement should be focused on reducing recovery time..not performance, as a result of less recovery time you can work harder more often, therefore quicker and bigger gains…steroids do this!

Just so you know I am a qualified Personal Trainer..also studied Human Anatomy and some sport science...Hope that all makes sense..

To be honest Dan im not sure i agree with your statement - I get on average 6 hours a night sleep and i have made serious gains within a year