Overtraining

valine128

I wanted to start a discussion regarding overtraining. I overtrained in 2011 to the point of ending up in a hospital. It took me two years to recover and workout fully again. The goal is to share my story and help others who may be experiencing this to not go down the road I did.

Has anyone else experienced overtraining? How did it happen and did you overcome it?

Wheelhouse15

What did you end up in the hospital? Rhabdo? What were you doing that caused your medical issues? It's really not easy to end up in the hospital from training too hard, although there have been incidents involving CrossFit, those still are very rare and usually involve a specific incident rather than chronic overtraining by the looks of it.

What are you doing now to prevent a reoccurrence?

valine128

I was doing HIIT 7 days a week. It took months before I ended up there. The docs thought I was having a heart attack. I had the chest pain and shortness of breath along with weakness. You are right, it is rare. But I also am the sort to keep pushing through stuff. Until my body went haywire. The doc who finally diagnosed the overtraining linked me to this article from Maffatone which described the stages.

Wheelhouse15

Those symptoms are pretty much the same as GAS (General Adaptive Syndrome) and deals with chronic stress upon the body. Exercise is a positive stressor, but a stressor none the less. You must have really ignored a lot to get to that point. How are your long-term outcomes regarding your heart?

Your case is something a lot of people should be aware of. The signs are there and you need to listen to your body. Thanks for posting this, and I wish you well in your recovery.

valine128

My health has been good. I was young enough not to do any permanent damage. I am recovered now, but I can tell you, it's never really gone. I am experiencing a setback today. Things got busy at work and after a few weeks, started to feel like I was overreaching. I skipped a hard workout today because I became winded on the treadmill this morning doing a normal walk. Looks like it started about a week ago.

TavistockToad

valine128 wrote: »

My health has been good. I was young enough not to do any permanent damage. I am recovered now, but I can tell you, it's never really gone. I am experiencing a setback today. Things got busy at work and after a few weeks, started to feel like I was overreaching. I skipped a hard workout today because I became winded on the treadmill this morning doing a normal walk. Looks like it started about a week ago.

how much do you currently exercise?

jjpptt2

I'm curious what role nutrition (both total cals and macro/micros) and rest/sleep play in overtraining. The little bit that I think I know about it... seems it would be much easier to get into trouble if you were also under nourished and/or under rested.

valine128

I now work out 5 days a week. I do a really hard day on Mondays (because I have time). I do yoga on Tuesday and Thursday as active rest. Then I do a 45 minute hard workout (with warm up and cool down) on Wednesday and Friday. I don't workout on the weekends. I walk 10,000 steps a day to keep active as I have a desk job. I do get at least 8 hours of solid sleep. I also make sure I keep up my macros.

Wheelhouse15

jjpptt2 wrote: »

I'm curious what role nutrition (both total cals and macro/micros) and rest/sleep play in overtraining. The little bit that I think I know about it... seems it would be much easier to get into trouble if you were also under nourished and/or under rested.

Rest, particularly sleep is the best way to clear fatigue from the CNS. Nutrition is also important in providing proper resistance to stressors so both of those factors are important in resisting overtraining, but the biggest factor is just taking some down time to clear the fatigue and stress.

Roadie2000

The worst injury I've had from overtraining was shin splints from trying to run too much too often and possibly bad form. It wasn't that bad, I just had to switch to low impact for a while.

The worst pain I've had was probably from undertraining when I threw my back out. I hadn't exercised much in a while and it seems to help if I keep my back and core strong.

DX2JX2

I never clinically overtrained like you, but I do often neglect to give myself enough rest time.

I never realized how cumulatively beat up I was until I was forced to take two weeks off. When I was finally able to resume exercising, my performance stats were off the charts and subsequent improvement totally accelerated. Little nagging problems I had been constantly fighting totally disappeared and haven't come back since.

I've since tried to modify my exercise schedule to give myself one easy recovery week per month or so. Whereas I'll normally target to workout 5 times per week, I'll only workout 3 times on the easy week with all of those at easy effort.

TavistockToad

I spent from May to November last year ignoring overuse injuries from running... learned my lesson now though.

gtm197

At 65 yrs of age I have to give my body rest days, some are active with brisk walking. I lift 3 days a week and try to get in 2 spin days. Lifting is an easy gage for me to determine when I’m getting fatigued and will it will force me to take 2-3 days off. Learning to listen to my body has really helped in preventing injuries or over-exertion. Sleep and nutrition are also very important especially sleep. Keeping my protein macros up helps with muscle mass preservation even while eating at a slight deficit.

Kryssy8140

I’m so thankful that you started this thread. I’ve been running for the past 4 weeks, and my last 3 runs have gotten progressively worse. I end up feeling winded, legs are heavy, and I’m huffing and panting halfway through the run. And I’m not even running the whole way, I’m using Jeff Galloway’s one run,walk,run method.

I only run about 4 times a week, and since I take walk breaks I thought there’s No Way I could be overtraining. But I took 5 days off and went back to running today and it was just as bad I absolutely love to run but I think I’m going to take a week or two off and focus on strength training, yoga, or something. I’m self-diagnosing but I’m pretty positive over-training is what I’m experiencing. Maybe I’ll do a week on, a week off moving forward. I’ll miss my running, but thanks again for sharing

BigGuy47

Monitoring your HRV on a daily basis can help with sending warning signs that you're pushing too hard. I use it as a second opinion. My inner voice is often unreliable. I'm likely to push through when I should take a rest day. Having additional data helps with decision making.

TavistockToad

Kryssy8140 wrote: »

I’m so thankful that you started this thread. I’ve been running for the past 4 weeks, and my last 3 runs have gotten progressively worse. I end up feeling winded, legs are heavy, and I’m huffing and panting halfway through the run. And I’m not even running the whole way, I’m using Jeff Galloway’s one run,walk,run method.

I only run about 4 times a week, and since I take walk breaks I thought there’s No Way I could be overtraining. But I took 5 days off and went back to running today and it was just as bad I absolutely love to run but I think I’m going to take a week or two off and focus on strength training, yoga, or something. I’m self-diagnosing but I’m pretty positive over-training is what I’m experiencing. Maybe I’ll do a week on, a week off moving forward. I’ll miss my running, but thanks again for sharing

Sounds like you could be running too fast. Try 3x a week, slower

MeanderingMammal

Kryssy8140 wrote: »

I’m so thankful that you started this thread. I’ve been running for the past 4 weeks, and my last 3 runs have gotten progressively worse. I end up feeling winded, legs are heavy, and I’m huffing and panting halfway through the run. And I’m not even running the whole way, I’m using Jeff Galloway’s one run,walk,run method.

Your run periods are too quick, what you're describing isn't overtraining.

valine128

Kryssy8140 wrote: »

I’m so thankful that you started this thread. I’ve been running for the past 4 weeks, and my last 3 runs have gotten progressively worse. I end up feeling winded, legs are heavy, and I’m huffing and panting halfway through the run. And I’m not even running the whole way, I’m using Jeff Galloway’s one run,walk,run method.

I only run about 4 times a week, and since I take walk breaks I thought there’s No Way I could be overtraining. But I took 5 days off and went back to running today and it was just as bad I absolutely love to run but I think I’m going to take a week or two off and focus on strength training, yoga, or something. I’m self-diagnosing but I’m pretty positive over-training is what I’m experiencing. Maybe I’ll do a week on, a week off moving forward. I’ll miss my running, but thanks again for sharing

That's why I started this thread. I knew there were others out there. I know I'm an extreme example. However, I think most of use are trying so hard to lose weight and prevent obesity that we push it too hard because we think we're supposed to.

Wheelhouse15

valine128 wrote: »

Kryssy8140 wrote: »

I’m so thankful that you started this thread. I’ve been running for the past 4 weeks, and my last 3 runs have gotten progressively worse. I end up feeling winded, legs are heavy, and I’m huffing and panting halfway through the run. And I’m not even running the whole way, I’m using Jeff Galloway’s one run,walk,run method.

I only run about 4 times a week, and since I take walk breaks I thought there’s No Way I could be overtraining. But I took 5 days off and went back to running today and it was just as bad I absolutely love to run but I think I’m going to take a week or two off and focus on strength training, yoga, or something. I’m self-diagnosing but I’m pretty positive over-training is what I’m experiencing. Maybe I’ll do a week on, a week off moving forward. I’ll miss my running, but thanks again for sharing

That's why I started this thread. I knew there were others out there. I know I'm an extreme example. However, I think most of use are trying so hard to lose weight and prevent obesity that we push it too hard because we think we're supposed to.

I think you might have a bias here. I don't think most people are pushing too hard to avoid obesity, and I'm wondering if there was something more here. Were you an exercise bulimic or just obsessive? Exercise addiction can exist apart from exercise bulimia but your wording makes me think you used excessive exercise strictly to avoid weight gain, which is not the same as exercise addiction. A heart attack is not uncommon in exercise bulimia either so were you diagnosed with an ED?

valine128

No, not an exercise bulimic. For me it was competitive. I was trying to get in better conditioning for a physical test. I was competing against men and was trying like hell to prove I could keep up. It wasn't a physical test where it was like weight lifting, it was me saying "If they can muscle this piece of equipment, so can I." When in reality, I needed to learn how to do the same thing with better technique for someone my size. I'll fully admit it was ridiculous.

Wheelhouse15

valine128 wrote: »

No, not an exercise bulimic. For me it was competitive. I was trying to get in better conditioning for a physical test. I was competing against men and was trying like hell to prove I could keep up. It wasn't a physical test where it was like weight lifting, it was me saying "If they can muscle this piece of equipment, so can I." When in reality, I needed to learn how to do the same thing with better technique for someone my size. I'll fully admit it was ridiculous.

OK, I was concerned because you seemed to fixate on exercise for weight control and that's the sign of an ED. How are you preventing yourself from becoming overly fixated on exercise now?

valine128

All I have to think about is the two years it took me to recover. When I left the hospital, I was a weak mess. I went from being very strong and powerful to someone who couldn't carry her groceries. My husband thought I was going to die. I picked up yoga during the recovery period and it keeps me active on my days off.

Wheelhouse15

valine128 wrote: »

All I have to think about is the two years it took me to recover. When I left the hospital, I was a weak mess. I went from being very strong and powerful to someone who couldn't carry her groceries. My husband thought I was going to die. I picked up yoga during the recovery period and it keeps me active on my days off.

Sounds like a great start. I hope you never have to go through that again. It's a very grave situation I wouldn't wish on anyone.