As a quarterback, if you are looking to improve the accuracy and consistency of your passes it may seem logical to work on it every day.

In the offseason athletes try to capitalize on having time to improve their weaknesses and become stronger, sometimes going overboard. Unlike specific football skills like passing, when it comes to strength development what would happen if you did the same exercise daily?

Athletes may view doing the same exercise every day as a fast track to improvement, because if you’re benching every day why wouldn’t you get stronger? According to Stack.com athletes who perform the same strength training exercises daily can experience unwanted consequences.

Stack.com talked with Dan Hutchinson, exercise physiologist and performance coach for D2K Training, John Mikula, exercise physiologist for the U.S. Department of Defense, and Dr. Mike T. Nelson, exercise physiologist and member of the American College of Sports Medicine, to learn what happens to athletes’ bodies if they undergo the same strength training exercises daily.

Three unintended consequences that can be traced to overuse in strength training are:

1. Overtraining. Whenever an athlete does strength training, the exercises create little tears in the muscles and these tears allow for growth in strength and ability, only with proper recovery time. The body repairs these muscle tears with help from protein-rich diets to make the muscles stronger and in return gains are made. An athlete doing the same exercise every day is not allowing muscle groups to recover, resulting in overtraining.

"Each time you strength train, you create micro trauma to the muscle tissue itself. The body then works to repair this muscle and build it up so it’s just a bit stronger. This process takes time – research states from anywhere as short as 24 hours to as long as 72 hours, depending on intensity. If you're hitting the same muscle group day in and day out, you’re causing more damage before the previous damage can be completely repaired. So, you’re working really hard and gradually getting less and less results,” Nelson told Stack.com.

2. Becoming more prone to injuries. By doing the same exercise daily athletes exhaust their muscles, so much so that they become more susceptible to injuries. Injuries as a result from performing the same exercise every day vary, but most of these are common over-use injuries.

“Repeating exercises such as Bench Press or Power Clean every day can be a pathway to the No. 1 cause for fitness injuries, and that is creating 'over-use,'" Mikula told Stack.com. "The body does not have ample time to recover from the training stimulus or is unable to deal with the amount of localized stress being placed on an isolated part of the body.”

3. Wasting time and plateauing. Athletes who put in the time to work out every day possess the positive attributes of dedication and commitment, but if they are doing the same daily exercise they aren’t necessarily exercising smarter.

“The facts are, if we continually break down the same muscle fibers, or supporting muscle fibers, eventually the individual will plateau, become injured or notice a decline in performance – at least that’s what the research and practical experience has shown,” Hutchinson told Stack.com.

Stack.com recommends creating a workout plan that includes split days so that an athlete’s body has time to rest and recover from their previous workout. This keeps athletes healthier and adds to their strength development. 

“If your goal is to get bigger arms, for example, I would recommend doing some compound and isolation exercises three days a week with at least one day of rest in between,” Nelson told Stack.com.