It doesn’t matter how much intensity you put into your workouts, it is only momentary effort. Say you are grinding out a set of curls and when you hit ten reps. You stop because you can’t do anymore.

Silly barbell won’t budge an inch, no matter how hard you try. However, in most cases, within three seconds or less, your biceps will recover almost half of their original strength. Hey presto, you can do another set. If you want.

Now this may be true. However, complete and total recovery of your biceps will not have happened within ten seconds or even ten minutes. The total recovery of any and all muscles can take more than twenty-four hours.

More often than not, you are looking at forty-eight to seventy-two hours. Despite the fact that your muscle “feels” like it is ready to go, your body’s overall recovery is nowhere near ready for another workout.

To gain muscle mass, you must train at a level of intensity that will act like a “wake-up” call to your body. But after you have done that, you need to give your body a solid rest period. This includes all the various elements inside your body that supply the nutrients and resources for muscle growth.

More often than not, when the average individual isn’t making any muscle gains, he or she confuses the body’s overall need for adequate recovery, with a poor diet. But it’s not the diet that needs fixing. Your body just needs extra time to recover from the “intense” workouts that he has been hitting it with all week.