It is recommended that you train hard and train often if you are a competitive athlete. However, recovery time is critical for muscle gains and performance improvement. Hitting the gym

too frequently will result in overtraining and all the side effects that come with it, including injury, mood changes, and a weakened immune system. You have to know when enough

is enough.

Longtime Denver Nuggets strength and conditioning coach Steve Hess said: “It’s a lot harder to come back from overtraining than it is to get back into shape from undertraining.” Invest in a fitness

tracker or maybe enlist the help of a personal trainer to get the results you want and the support you need.

Because of the limited blood flow to the tendons, these injuries take much longer to heal than muscle tears and strains. It is critical to keep them strong and as

flexible as possible. Jeremy Holsopple, athletic performance director for the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, explained to Muscle & Fitness, “It’s hard to do explosive things on an ankle that has zero

degrees of dorsal flexion...or a knee or hip that has some arthritic changes.” He recommends training tendons three times per week.

Failure to train your hips makes you more prone for injury. It is critical that you train them both vertically and horizontally. What's the difference? Vertical training travels up and down

like in squats, leg presses, and lunges. Horizontal training involves lateral movements like side-stepping, side-shuffles, and bridges. According to the Miami Heat's strength coach Bill Foran, "When you develop the hips,

they correct above and below," he explains in Muscle & Fitness. "When you have strong, mobile hips, you have stable knees and a stable back. When your hips are weak

and stiff, your back and knees become mobile, and that’s when injuries happen."

As we get older, our performance declines. There is only so much wear and tear that the human body can take, so it is critical to adjust your training regimen.

Rather than setting goals that are resistance-based, strive to move less weight faster. This builds force and power while protecting the joints. Johnny Parker, former NFL strength and conditioning coach from 1984 - 2007 who won Super

Bowls with both Bill Parcells’ New York Giants and Jon Gruden’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, explains in Muscle & Fitness, "I’d stop a player at or before he was

squatting double body weight. You don’t need to squat any more. And if you train ballistically—which is going down under control and then up as quickly as possible, really rattling the plates—you’ll maximize

the rate of force produced. That’s the best way to preserve your speed."

Free weights train the body's entire kinetic chain including the very essential muscles that stabilize and assist movement. "The reason traditional methods like free weights are tried and true is they prepare

those support structures," says L.A. Lakers strength coach Tim DiFrancesco. "There’s nothing you can substitute for that." He recommends sticking to the basics like squats, deadlifts, lunges, bench presses, pushups,

rows, and pullups.

Alex Orlof wrote for Daily Burn that there are nine reasons not to skip leg day: 1) becoming a better athlete, 2) lower risk of injury, 3) higher calorie

burn, 4) better balance, 5) faster running speed and better endurance, 6) boost metabolism, 7) relieve lower back pain, 8) increased range of motion, 9) exceptional efficiency at performing daily

activities. Long story short is that as you age, you'll thank yourself if you give that extra attention to your lower body. 

Memphis Grizzlies' Vince Carter is now 40 years old and

sees the value in leg day telling Muscle & Fitness, "I’m not as fast today, I don’t jump as high, but I just do more work now," he says. "I lift more,

I lift heavier. I was never a big squatter, but now I’m doing box squats, lunges, leg presses. You’re going to lose your lower body first. Everything I do is to make sure

my lower body can sustain the season. I didn’t have to do that before."