I wouldn't be surprised if you haven't heard too much about the recovery phase in bodybuilding. After all, if you were to visit your local bookstore and browse through the bodybuilding magazines, you would most likely find little mention about recovery. Sure, there'd be plenty of ads to try and sell you the latest supplements and maybe even some useful advice on improving your training techniques. If you're having trouble making progress despite spending all of your time in the gym, however, you should take a moment to learn the importance of a recovery plan.

Are you wondering what the recovery phase is? Well, let's review how muscle is built in the first place. In order for your body to build muscle, you first have to give your body a reason to build it. You see, on a basic biological level muscle is an expensive asset to have, and the body would rather not have to maintain it. The only way to stimulate new muscle growth is to give the body a reason to build it, and the way to do this is to take advantage of our basic biological need to survive.

Muscle fibers are damaged when we lift a heavier weight than we're used to. As long as there are enough nutrients, the muscle will be rebuilt bigger and stronger so the body can prevent a similar stress in the future. So how does this tie in to the importance of resting during the recovery phase? Simply put, the muscles must be given time to rebuild before they are put under heavy stress again. This means that we must limit the frequency of our workouts in order to maximize their effect, and this is why many bodybuilding experts recommend only a few hours of training per week. A simple way to remember this is Less is More.

Aside from avoiding over training by carefully planning your workouts, you definitely need to make sure you get plenty of sleep. Sleep is when your body repairs itself, and, as you learned above, the body has to repair and enlarge your muscle after a heavy workout. If you choose to ignore this advice, you may find yourself limiting your muscle growth potential.