Can Overtraining Help You Build Muscle?

If you've been working out for any length of time, you've probably been told that overtraining is bad. According to Nick Nilsson (from Mad Scientist Muscle) however, overtraining on purpose is actually the key to REAL results if you want to build muscle.

Nick Nilsson

In this article Nick explains his take on overtraining and why you should be doing it if you want to see results over the long-term. He gives some great insight into how the body works and how you can use overtraining to your advantage if you want to build muscle and strength fast!


First of all, what is overtraining? Simply put, overtraining is training to the extent that your body is unable to recover from the volume or frequency of this training. The result is that your body begins to break down and becomes more susceptible to injury and illness. You may even start to go backwards in your training, getting smaller and weaker and losing your motivation to train.

So... how can overtraining possibly be good for you?

This is how:

It all begins with your body's incredible adaptive power. If you've been training with weights for some time, you will probably have noticed that it is pretty much impossible to make consistent gains for a long period of time using just one training system. The reason for this is tha your body quickly adapts to whatever training system you're using and hits a plateau. In order to prevent this, it is generally recommended that you change your program every three to six weeks.

The question is: how can you use your body's adaptive ability to your advantage?

According to Nick, the answer is actually quite simple. The trick is to gradually build up to a state of temporary overtraining. Then, when you're overtrained and your body's adaptive processes are working to the max for recovery, you back off. This results in what is known as overcompensation.

How does overcompensation work?

Imagine you're driving a car and climbing a hill. The gas pedal is to the floor and you're giving it everything you've got. Still, the car is at its limit and you're just barely creeping up the hill. This is similar to overtraining. Once you reach the top, the going gets a lot easier. If you keep the gas pedal on the floor once you're over the top and start heading down, you're going to go gain speed very quickly. This is overcompensation and this is where the results are.

The way a normal program usually works is: you work one bodypart, making it temporarily weaker. Once it recovers, it then becomes stronger as it overcompensates, allowing you to lift more the next time you train it. What most normal programs do on a small, local basis, the Mad Scientist Muscle overtraining program does on a full body basis, using a very systematic approach.

Controlled overtraining

Now you know a about the us for overcomensation, it's time to harness the power of overtraining by using what Nick calls "Controlled Overtraining." This is what you are doing during the Accumulation and Intensification phases of the Mad Scientist Muscle program.

The overtraining or ramping phase lasts three weeks. This is about the time it takes your body to adapt to a training program. After these 3 weeks, it backs off to a relatively easy phase for three weeks.

Here's an example of how it works:

Let's say that, during the first week, you start out doing 3 sets for each bodypart. Then during the second week, you will do 4 sets and during the third week you will be doing 5 sets.

While you're increasing the volume (number of sets), you're also decreasing the rest period. For example, during week 1 you might use 90 seconds rest between sets. Week 2, you'll use 60 seconds and week 3 you'll use 45 seconds. This gradually builds you up to overtraining and THAT is where we back off.

During the next three weeks, you will be decreasing the sets and reps and increasing the rest periods. This allows your body to recover from the overtraining during the first 3 weeks. For example, you might reduce the number of sets back down to three per bodypart and increase rest periods between stes to two minutes. During this phase, you can also decrease your rep ranges using a heavier weight and focusing more on strength.

This takes advantage of the overcompensation that occurs when the body is still working at dealing with the hard work you put it through during the first stage and then suddenly cutting the hard work. During this phase it may feel like you're hardly doing anything at all, but you should see some great results.

Continue this lower-volume training for at least three weeks. If, after those three weeks, you are still making progress, just keep going! This phase can last for as long as 6 weeks or more, so don't cut yourself off from any potential results by reeturning to pahse one to quickly . When you start to slow down, however, it's time to ramp back up to overtraining. Keeping up this cycling of volume and intensity is a strategy that will help you break through plateaus and give consistent results over long periods of time.

For a sample program that puts these principles into action, try the day muscle and strength building program, which you will find here.

As you can see, when done properly and in a controlled way, overtraining is not always the bad thing it's made out to be. Training on the edge is where the real results are. Those who who embrace it will often progress much fasterthan those who shy away from it.

This type of "Controlled Overtraining" is an integral part of Nick Nilsson's Mad Scientist Muscle program. During each unique cycle of this program, he takes you through 3 weeks of ramping up, each time using a different volume-based training style.

After that, you'll go directly into a lower-volume, higher-intensity style of training that has been paired specifically with the training style you just finished. This delivers maximum gains and takes full advantage of the increased "revvs" your body is experiencing in metabolism.