Cycle Training - Pushing to a Peak

There's an old saying "Make haste slowly", the ironic thing is that if you push, push, push your workouts each and every session, you will drive yourself into a sticking point. There is a subtle difference between going all out in your training every time and cycling your efforts to complement your physical and nervous systems. With cycling, you build up intensity to peak, and then you taper off and consolidate your gains by demanding somewhat less from your workouts. All athletes do this. It's a kind of controlled progress.
Any condition that you can maintain year in, year out is not a peak condition. Your body can not be pushed to peak condition, but then it must rest. The edge will inevitably go, but it can be recalled and superseded with a new thrust. Making haste slowly applies very much to bodybuilding. In fact, it is the fastest way of building good quality muscle.
Cycle training is usually practised by the older or more experienced bodybuilder, who may have an all-consuming, fanatical approach to workouts. Day after day of blitzing muscles just doesn't fit their temperament.
Gains in muscular size and strength can only be forced temporarily. Long-term gains must be coaxed, induced in an agreeable manner, by gentle persuasion. Few athletes or bodybuilder, are willing or able to strain to the limit continuously. I doubt that anyone really wants to do curls, or any other exercise, until they are blue in the face, not in a regular basis anyway. The mind rebels. It will not face such effort day after day. Bodybuilding progress, like progress in any other activity is irregular; it's full of peaks and troughs. Don't expect to make continuous progress. A bodybuilder should push for a while, back off, and then push again.
One thing everyone seems to agree upon is that you can't run your body at full throttle all the time. You either have to cycle your training intensity or take occasional lay-offs.
Some bodybuilders cycle their training from one day to another. In other words, they perform a light (less intense) workout every once in a while. With some, this method involves two heavy workouts and two light workouts every seven to eight days. Others may choose to "go light" once every two weeks or so. The number of light (active rest) workouts you allot yourself will depend on your metabolism, your rate of recuperation, and your tolerance for vigorous exercise.
The most common form of cycling your training, however, is to gradually build up your training poundages, number of exercises, and duration of workouts to peak for a particular contest, and then to rest up by changing your exercise habits and down-grading your training intensity.
Also, there is evidence to show that those who push their muscles to failure and beyond for long periods of time and without interruption may overstimulate their adrenal glands, which then respond to the unrelenting stress by dumping excessive amounts of hormone into the bloodstream. It's nice to have a huge flow of adrenaline to help you in an emergency where you may have run or fight for your life, but when this response is triggered too frequently, the adrenal glands become overtaxed and exhausted, with a resulting reduction in output. In short, you become lethargic, lose interest, and show all signs of what is known as the "over training syndrome".

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9335973