I don’t know about you, but lifting weights makes me feel powerful. It allows me to be both physically and mentally strong. During 75 Hard, I was lifting 7 days a week. This may seem like too much to some people. I cannot even tell you how many people reacted to me doing this with things like “Don’t you need a rest day?” “That cannot be good for you” “You need to give your body time to recover.”

While proper rest/recovery is a small part of muscle growth, it is more about the adaptation process. I worked my lifting schedule around to make sure that muscle groups were getting ample resting time before they were worked out again.

We were taught that muscle growth happens during recovery. But that isn’t the whole story. Think of recovery like healing. When you get a cut, your body’s first response is to heal that wound. That is what happens when you train a muscle group hard. Your body’s first line of defense is to heal the tears in the muscle that you have created.

Adaptation, however, allows your body to become resilient so that it doesn’t suffer from the same damage again. It protects itself from a potential future insult. Like when you break or damage a bone, first it heals and then it gets stronger. It is harder to break a bone in the same spot a second time, ask your doctor.

It is the same scenario for your muscles. First, they heal and then they build. Adaptation typically peaks at 48-72 hours post workout. Which is why you want to train those same muscles multiple times per week. But you don’t want to overdue your workouts either. Break up your normal lifting load to maximize your adaptation to allow your muscles to grow a little easier rather than focusing so much on the recovery part.

Personally, I like to switch up the number of reps and sets I do. If I want to challenge myself with weight, I will do 4-6 reps. If I want to use a slightly challenging but comfortable weight, I will do 8-10 reps. On days when my muscles are slightly more fatigued, I will do lighter weight for 12-15 reps.

Focus less on overworking the muscles with “until failure” movements and focus more on the mind/muscle connection, form and range of motion with your movements.