Over-training is a hot topic these days. Some say you shouldn’t lift weights more than 3-4 times per week. Some say you don’t need more than 20 minutes a day to achieve your goals. Then there are some who are on the complete opposite end of the spectrum. They believe there is no such thing as Over-training. CT Fletcher uploaded a video not too long ago saying that “Over-training is a myth!”.
I am going to say that there is no such thing as Over-training, however, UNDER-RECOVERY is very real. If you want to lift 6 days a week for 6 hours per day, go right ahead. But you better be sleeping for 10 hours a day and eating 8,000 calories each day. Your supplementation had better be spot-on. You’d better quit your job, move back in with your mom to avoid having to pay Rent, get rid of any bills, and eliminate anything in your life that may add stress to it.
Balancing training and Over-training is a dance, it’s give and take. As your training goes up, it becomes more difficult to recover; as your training decreases, recovery comes easier.
Your ability to recover is determined by your stress levels. Working out/training is a form of stress (you’re breaking the body down in order to stimulate a response). Your body does not decipher between training stress and the stress from other areas of your life. Stress is stress. Imagine a 5-gallon bucket. This bucket is a holding tank for all of the “cups” of stress in your life. You’ve hit the gym pretty hard this week so let’s pour a cup of training stress into that bucket. Now let’s add a cup stress from that job that drives you crazy. Rent is due and you don’t have the money, there’s another cup of stress. Next, let’s add another cup of stress from your nagging girlfriend that has been cheating on you. Another cup for Saturday night when you ate that entire pizza and drank two pitchers of beer. Pour in some more stress because you were stuck in traffic for over an hour on your way to the gym. Let’s throw a tall glass of stress in there because your back has been killing you all day and you are starting to get a headache. Don’t forget, you are starting to come down with a nasty flu so let’s just fill the rest of the bucket up with that stress…..
Your Stress bucket is over flowing. Anything you do in the gym from here on out is going to do more harm than good. I am not discouraging you from putting everything you have into training, just monitor every other aspect of your life. Are you working manual labor for 10 hours a day? Cut down your training time, or get a new job. Is your girlfriend stressing you out? Dump her and move on. Did you and your wife just have a baby and now you only sleep 2 hours a night? Cut down your training time.
Just remember, training breaks you down, recovery builds you up. Balance both.
-Train Untamed
