 By David Otto
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Lose More Fat And Break Through Plateaus With Less Exercise
The Risks of Overtraining
Have you ever worked so hard towards a particular goal, yet you felt like you were wasting your time? I can empathize with you; I've been there. I remember when I began to cross the line of insanity to working out like a maniac. It was about 3 years ago. Forced reps, rest pauses and then more forced reps; anything to "go beyond." I could barely walk upstairs and if the hand rail wasn't there, I don't know how I would have made it up to the locker room. There was a point where all my workouts were like this; 4-5 days a week of pure agony and I loved it...but, not for long.
A funny thing happened after a few months of training like this; I dreaded the next workout. I would ask myself "Why on earth am I doing this?" I would get tired, sometimes irritable and I was loosing strength. Then one day, I felt sick and rundown. My lymph nodes were swollen and I though I had come down with mononucleosis again. The simple fact was that I was overtraining…BIG TIME!
Overtraining is one of the major mistakes people make whether they are trying to lose weight or even gain weight. Believe it or not, those seeking fat loss fall victim to this more often. Why? Because conventional wisdom makes us think that we have to continually do more and more exercise to see the payoff. I got to tell you. It's far from the truth
In my experience, I see about 3 types of over trainers:
- The individual looking to "get big" who tries to emulate a professional bodybuilder's routine he got from magazines like Muscle and Fitness.
- The former athlete who thinks he's still in the shape he was.
And for the third and most common version yet most subtle:
- The individual looking to loose weight and performs excessive amounts of cardio along with weight training.
There are many symptoms associated with overtraining depending on how far you take it with some of them being the ones I mentioned that I experienced. As for the symptoms that primarily apply to the 3rd group…they're just a tad bit different I'll say.
- The scale keeps saying "hey, you're doing great" when the mirror is really saying "geez, have you even been working out?"
- They continually believe they must do more and more exercise with a morbid fear that they'll move in a negative direction if they don't.
- They do at least one hour of cardio a day.
It's NOT THEIR FAULT! Its bad information. I'm quite sure many of you reading this are tired of putting in lot's of hours in the gym without seeing a payoff; I've been there. Stop beating your head against the wall and utilize these tips to prevent overtraining.
- Limit your exercise session to NO MORE than 75 minutes and that's including warmup, strength training, cardio and a cooldown. The average exerciser usually won't even need that much but keep it at 75 min. Once you start going to 90 minutes or more, cortisol production begins to increase and for you guys, androgen levels begin to decrease.
- Make it brief but intense. Too many people make their exercise sessions a social hour…or two, or three. If you are in the gym for longer than what I said in the previous point you're making friends not results. If you go to the gym strictly to meet the opposite sex then so be it but if your goal is to change some aspect of the way you look and feel then train brief but intense. This is what gets results.
- REST! Strive to get 8 hours of sleep per night. I know this is tough for some of you but do the best you can. Rest isn't just sleep either. Find time to do the things you love doing that aren't related to work or the gym. Down time is vital.
- Strive to Eat a Supportive Meal of lean protein, starchy carb and fibrous carb every 3-3 ˝ hours 5-6 times per day.
- Don't train the same muscle group if it is overly sore from a previous workout. Allow at least another day to rest.
- Cycle your workouts. Switch up the routine or focus every 3-4 weeks because by then your body has already adapted to the stimulus.
Also, pay close attention to these signs of overtraining.
- Loss of motivation/ Dreading the next workout when you otherwise look forward to it.
- Irritability
- Elevated resting heart rate
- Loss of strength during workouts
- Loss of appetite
- Insomnia
- Weakened immune system/ getting sick fairly easily
- Injury
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