Sports

Overtraining is Overtraining

I get this so often that I thought it was important to reiterate it again. If you are at an impasse, if you feel tired, lethargic or your metabolism is slow… your body is trying to tell you something and that something is that it is very possible that you are in a state of overtraining, a deep overtrained state or approaching an overtrained state! It may require a layoff, a prolonged layoff, a change in volume and frequency, or all of the above. Overtraining is overtraining people! Try to get this as this is the deadliest mistake a bodybuilder or athlete who trains at high intensity can make.

High intensity training theory was proposed by Mike Mentzer, Olympic champion, bodybuilder and trainer. Mike was the thinking man’s bodybuilder… who spent much of his career and his life testing and researching the theory of high intensity training. He did it both in the gym, his phone clients, and in person. Mike’s contributions to bodybuilding and understanding of anaerobic training were excellent, but the most valuable thing he taught me was how to think!

I was recently on a High Intensity Training forum and a member had questions about training with a technique called Rest Pause. This technique is the one that allows a maximum contraction in each repetition, while resting for seven to ten seconds between each repetition. Repetitions are usually no more than four or five and only one set is used. The only thing about the post was that after doing a rest break workout, this athlete felt tired for many days and wanted to train more often for the experience of training…he liked it and had an emotional bond with it! He reasoned that if he waited longer between reps where he could do each rep without using assistance or dropping the weight and not training to failure, it would be easier on his system and he wouldn’t feel as tired. This was just a byproduct of a very important point that I will discuss below, which was my response to the HIT athlete.

Mike Mentzer said…

When Mike Mentzer said that overtraining isn’t just a bad thing and that sometimes it takes weeks to recover, you better believe it’s true…I’ve seen it in the gym and with my phone clients…although I don’t like to hear it and usually not until we’ve gone through an exhaustive phone training session. Your negative results so far can generally be related to overtraining, not a high intensity stimulus… but not resting long enough to allow the surge to occur after a high intensive training.

You have to check your logic here…emotionally detach…because if you think about it, you said RIGHT NOW…you’re the strongest and most muscular you’ve ever been and you’ve been training high. intense fashion. IF you continue to train within a specific rest spectrum, and I find this quite often… you are going to lose the battle. WHY? Because his strength can increase by 300% while his recovery ability can only increase by 50%! If you do the numbers you will see that the seesaw tilts to one side. The only way you can offset the effect of growing bigger and stronger is by taking more time off.

It takes time for the body to recover. I can’t begin to tell you how important it is. If the body doesn’t recover… it can’t move on to the next step of building muscle. I have trainees who train every 10-14 days and not until then…compensate let alone overcompensate for exhaustive effects of training. it’s genetics. There are those who can train every other day and recover… (although not forever….) and those, and I’ve had clients like that… who have had to take six consecutive months off before starting . back to training because it took them a long time to fill the ditch… that’s true guys! High Intensity, Heavy Duty (trademark of Mike Mentzer), UK Serious, call it what you want is extremely demanding and therefore extremely productive. If you have a deep understanding of the theory, there are no doubts.

This is the way to think about it…

Okay, you’re training intensely, with intense contraction to stimulate muscle growth, to activate the growth mechanism.

You’re training briefly, not using recovery too much and leaving as much as possible there… being mindful not to dig too deep a trench…

***Question… Are you really training short or do you need to cut back more? Remember, training is always negative, we are talking about VOLUME….

If you’re still tired after a week or two or three, your body hasn’t compensated for the exhausting effects of exercise, let alone overcompensated…more rest is required. Not everyone is using recovery enhancing drugs etc so it will take time but the wait is well worth it…we are talking about FREQUENCY

Read about Lethargic…

Lethargy or Lethargic- deficient in alertness or activity; “bullfrogs became lethargic with the first cold nights” [ant: energetic] … it’s a lack of energy… energy is something we are, everything is energy… when we spend it… we have to replace it. The body systematically recovers and replenishes energy as such.

Have you ever noticed how when you’re sick or too tired, you don’t even feel like eating? Animals are the smartest… when they are sick, they don’t spend energy on eating, their body saves all its energy to fight STRESS, and illness is a stress… Look… everything is related to stress. .. the body doesn’t know the difference…

So if your metabolism seems sluggish, you feel lethargic, etc., chances are you’ve allowed yourself to go into a state of overtraining and carry on, so just dig a deeper hole. A slow or lethargic metabolism are the first symptoms I use, along with slow progress, to analyze the onset of the overtraining condition. If you are active and healthy and not overtrained… you should feel energetic. If done correctly, you should never get into an overtraining condition.

If we realize that there is a valid theory of high intensity training, if we really understand anaerobic exercise, then the answer is not to change routines, not to go volume approach, not to decrease intensity, the answer can be found by problem or question. in one of the two elements of this training … which is in volume or frequency or both …. who says you have to train every few days? Who says your training has to be one, two, three or five sets? Who says those abbreviated workouts have to all be big compound movements? Continue with the theory and you will find the answers to the question.

This really has to do with being 100% for your next workout. Personally, I couldn’t imagine at this point, another rest-pause leg workout, which is my next workout. I am scheduled to return to training tomorrow and I have news for you, I will re-evaluate where I am next Monday… I have already taken eight days off since my last training, tomorrow it will be nine. I’ll add five days and if I’m 100%, I’ll be there, 14 days later… if not, no problem. I look for the result, not the experience, so I am less in the gym; better since it gives me more time to live, play and enjoy the result, a strong, muscular and energetic body…

Always use logic to solve these similar problems and you will find the answers accurately.