When to Take A Break

A lot can be learned from asking the right questions. People always ask me how do I know when and how modifications should be made to someone's diet/training plan.  I have been working with a bodybuilder for a show and he’s at the point where his body seems a bit dead. By that, I mean he’s no longer changing even when I try to push his body a bit by changing up his diet. So today, I called him and asked if his body was responding to the diet changes. He asked, “what do you mean?” I asked him, “when you are in the gym do you feel like a bodybuilder? Do you feel like your body is responding to the training? His reply made it clear what the problem has been. “ Well yea I get a pump and all after a few sets.” Right there and then, I realized either he’s over trained or eating too little or a combo of the two. This is evident simply because the real answer should be, “ Yes I get a killer pump!” or at a minimum he should reply “I get a really good pump but towards the end I get tired.”


These are indicators that his body is responding to the training and diet. If a bodybuilder is hesitant in answering that question or uses a qualifier like, “well yea I get a good pump but…” then I know the diets just too much for his body to handle. That’s when I know it’s time to back off and chill out and let his body “come back” a bit until he can give me a definitive answer. The bigger problem here is that many bodybuilders who have no guidance or coaching will be simply way too insecure to back off their diet and training fearing they may look worse as a result. Or, they may lack the knowledge and experience to even understand you can’t gas it all the time day after day and not expect to set yourself up for failure.

Anyways, today my client gave me one of those qualifiers where yea he gets a good pump but he has to really work at it and the pump only lasts for a few sets. That means it’s time to take a couple days off mildly increase the carbs, then get back to the gym in three days time to a body that responds to training from set #1.