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The Importance of Recovery Time in Training
Taken from Variables for Weight Lifting and Exercise © 2003 Anthony Sell - All Rights Reserved
The fact is recovery will always precede growth, which means that in order for your muscle to grow, you must allow it to recover properly before you can expect it to respond in terms of increased performance. Consider the following structure.
Muscle growth is divided into three parts, first is the work phase, where the exercises bring the muscle to the point of fatigue, causing tears in the muscle fibers and surrounding tissue. Second is the rest and recuperation, where proper nutrition is most important, the muscle repairs itself to the previous level of strength. Last is the rest and growth (beyond previous limitations of size and performance).
The ideal then is to ensure that the recovery time is as short as possible, so that you can continue to work and grow and work harder.
If you are overtraining the muscle, the fuel and energy that you are using during the workout is energy that could be spent in healing and recovery. Be sure that the amount of work you are performing does not interfere with your body's ability to build muscle, otherwise you will not grow.