Q: I keep detailed records of all of my workouts in a nice little diary. I am now on Book 2 in my first year of training. The only time I missed a workout this year was due to a bad ankle sprain. I made up for it the next day by going extra heavy on upper body exercises. My question has to do with progress. I felt that I was seeing much more improvement in my lifts about seven weeks ago and now it seems to have plateaued off. What can I do to jumpstart my workouts and get stronger? - E.Y., Frazer, PA

A: Some people never miss a day's training; you seem to be cut from that cloth. A daily exercise schedule like yours has its good points and its not-so-good ones. For a world-class athlete, daily training might make some sense. But most people need a break once in a while.

You're probably familiar with the overload principle: overload the muscles with stress and follow that with enough rest and they'll build up stronger. But far too many people skip the rest part of the formula; they don't realize that rest is just as important as stress, if not more so. It's during this resting phase that muscles actually grow. Skip the rest phase and over time, you can see the lack of gains you seem to be experiencing now.

Like everyone else, you undoubtedly have stress and pressure in your life: money or family problems, increased responsibility, job pressure. Adding obsessive training to these everyday worries creates additional stress and can lead to injuries. Also, you may push yourself so hard that you become physically tired all of the time and lose all interest in weight training. This is what's known as burnout.

There are early warning signs. If you're tired, run down, on edge, if you're not sleeping well, it's time to back off from your training. DON'T FEEL GUILTY. Be smart and listen to your body. Use common sense. You are not looking for an excuse to miss a workout, but you are showing wisdom in knowing that you need to rest. When you get enough rest, you will see improvements in your workouts. Work with your body, not against it.

Source: fitlinxx.com

Hi, Ive been bodybuilding for the last year now but my interest are in strength and power training, my strength and power is very weak, could you please send me information of how to train and how often for both strength and power for a novice and also what I should eat? any further information about technique or other advice, would be very much appreciated. In need of your help and advice, Thank you.

use pyramids and aim to train in the 8>6 rep range, include singles every other week, and concentrate on your big lifts and getting the numbers up.......for power, use lighter weights and get your form down, explode through the lift, eventually through combining your hypertrophy and strength training you will be able to generate more force under bigger loads....

here are some exercises i see as power movements, and i tend to train to increase the numbers on these lifts......for my secondary muscles i use a rep range geared more towards hypertrophy training and asthetics........ ie. 8-12 reps, for strength 8>1 reps.....

clean and presses, romanian deadlifts, back/front squats, lunges, flat bench, military presses, upright rows, pull-overs...........you could include some polymetric training for sport specific power, i go with lifts i enjoy......remember to train your core ( abs ) to help with your big lifts, a fav of mine is hanging crunch and leg raises, and russian twists to build roational power to help with boxing etc......

here's some helpful links:

http://www.exrx.net/Exercise.html

http://www.abcbodybuilding.com/exercise1.htm

http://www.bodybuildbid.com/articles.html

hope this helps.....

Thanks for the info I realy appreciate it Im waiting for train Wiser to reply to me as well so I can mix the two routines every few months, once again thanks.