DOMS or Overtraining?

justinkimcentral

So i train 5-6 times a week for 2 hours a session and lately its been a real struggle, well its been taking more effort to just do normal things like walking down the stairs and up, drycleaning dishes, and etc...

Is this overtraining and if so how long should i deload?

If its not, how can i help it?

mkculs

Sounds like overtraining to me. Rest until you feel like you are itching to get back to it, because from your description, you have overdone it by quite a bit and need to let your body recover. I think you are smart for asking now and stopping before the overtraining leads to an injury.

In my personal experience, DOMS always feels better while I'm working out. The first few paces of my run might be painful, but then it just seems to disappear--until later that day or the next morning. What you describe doesn't sound like DOMS at all. Just my 2 cents worth!

peaceout_aly

Definitely overtraining. I just did this to myself not too long ago too. I kept catching myself sleeping in on the daily and literally struggling to get out of bed because my muscles were too sore. Drink more water, eat a little more protein (like 100-200 cals worth) and make sure you take those rest days. I always struggle with rest days - but I realize how important they are too.

kshama2001

Sounds like over-training to me too.

Also, what percent of your exercise calories are you eating back? Not fueling your workouts can lead to fatigue as well.

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AnnPT77

I don't know about overtraining (which is sort of a technical term for a particular set of symptoms), but overdoing is a very real possibility. If your workout schedule leaves you dragging through the rest of your life, something is wrong . . . and it's likely to sap daily activity energy thus reduce your NEAT/TDEE, so you don't get out of it what you think you're getting. Back it off for a while, would be my suggestion. If you want to do more in the long run, phase it in more gradually, get enough rest, and don't try for too high a calorie deficit - fuel your activity.

chunkytfg

Think about training as part of the load you put your body through for the entire day. Over the course of a day you have only so much load you can put on it.

if you have a really gentle relaxed low stress life away from the gym then you will find you have more capacity for training but if you have a busy job, 5 kids, a demanding wife/husband and generally massive stress levels you haven got so much room for the training before you exceed your daily load limit.

Short term you can get away with the odd overloaded day but eventually it all comes back to bite!

You train 12 hours a week roughly. for me thats a pretty normal week and coming up on peak race season would be a recovery week. But outside of the training my life is easy. The GF is low stress/mtce, my job has me sat watching netflix 70% of the time and my life is simple. I have the room for the extra training load. Do you?

What do you do during those 2hour sessions? All weights, all cardio? Mix it up? Run, Cycle, swim, cross trainer, stair master?

Maybe look at your training and think about how you could change it up a bit of move the stresses on your body away from the last bit of worked on? Or maybe if you dont like the idea of not doing anything maybe try relaxed swimming to still burn the energy but take some of the strain off the joints.

erickirb

justinkimcentral wrote: »

kshama2001 wrote: »

Sounds like over-training to me too.

Also, what percent of your exercise calories are you eating back? Not fueling your workouts can lead to fatigue as well.

I dont use the term eat back. My daily caloric intake is decent. I do IF so i only drink a whey shake before the workout. Thats probably why i felt so weak in the morning. But after my postworkout meals i felt rejuvenated

Maybe IF is not the best method for your training goals, from the sounds of it!

I suggest cutting back a little on the amount of exercise, and experiment with different eating times/regimen

CowboySar

Just my two cents, 2 hrs is a long session in the gym especially 5-6 days a week. I try to keep my time as close to 1 hr as possible. Sometimes a little less and sometimes a little more.

When I first started out the DOMS was long lasting and I too had the difficulty with day to day, but as the body adapted the DOMS either shortened or altogether disappeared. To me it sounds like some overtraining though, cut back on the time spent in the gym and see what that does for you.

TavistockToad

justinkimcentral wrote: »

kshama2001 wrote: »

Sounds like over-training to me too.

Also, what percent of your exercise calories are you eating back? Not fueling your workouts can lead to fatigue as well.

I dont use the term eat back. My daily caloric intake is decent. I do IF so i only drink a whey shake before the workout. Thats probably why i felt so weak in the morning. But after my postworkout meals i felt rejuvenated

the fact that you are posting because you have burnt out suggests that your caloric intake is not decent.

stanmann571

Overtraining, underrecovering, and Underfuelling are all possibilities.

The differences are fairly easy to identify. If it's underfueling, it will clear up in a couple days of rest and appropriate feeding. If it's underrecovering, it will clear up with a couple weeks of consistent rest patterns and appropriate feeding. if it's overtraining, it could take months to clear up and may require medical intervention.

sardelsa

More is not always better. You don't have to go crazy and spend hours in the gym to see results. Recovery is important for progress and overtraining will cause injury and diminished returns.

You are trying to gain right? Are you actually gaining? If not you need to eat more. If IF isn't allowing you to get enough food in, expand your eating window or forget it altogether.

kshama2001

justinkimcentral wrote: »

kshama2001 wrote: »

Sounds like over-training to me too.

Also, what percent of your exercise calories are you eating back? Not fueling your workouts can lead to fatigue as well.

I dont use the term eat back. My daily caloric intake is decent. I do IF so i only drink a whey shake before the workout. Thats probably why i felt so weak in the morning. But after my postworkout meals i felt rejuvenated

If you use MFP to set your calorie goal and don't add in any exercise calories, you are not using MFP the way it was designed, and are therefore both over-training and under-fueling.

MFP uses the NEAT method (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis), and as such this system is designed for exercise calories to be eaten back. However, many consider the burns given by MFP to be inflated and only eat a percentage, such as 50%, back. Others, however, are able to lose weight while eating 100% of their exercise calories.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818082/exercise-calories-again-wtf/p1

quiksylver296

Rest more. Eat more.

rheddmobile

Think of exercise as something like making bread... you can knead the dough all day long, but it won't rise until you leave it alone. Your muscles grow when they repair themselves during rest. If you never rest, you never get stronger.

Take at least one day a week when you don't do anything but low impact recovery work, and at least a day between training the same muscle group hard. Personally I feel much better if I get two days of rest in a row so there's at least one day a week when nothing is sore or tired.

mmapags

quiksylver296 wrote: »

Rest more. Eat more.

This^^ 2 hours per day 5 to 6 days per week doesn't allow enough muscle and CNS recovery. And it sounds like you are not fueling properly.

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peaceout_aly

justinkimcentral wrote: »

peaceout_aly wrote: »

Definitely overtraining. I just did this to myself not too long ago too. I kept catching myself sleeping in on the daily and literally struggling to get out of bed because my muscles were too sore. Drink more water, eat a little more protein (like 100-200 cals worth) and make sure you take those rest days. I always struggle with rest days - but I realize how important they are too.

How many per week?

For me, only one...at most. It's always the hardest day of my week and usually *forced* like today

hjgordon14

I workout about the same amount, it depends on if you’re used to the constant exercise or not. Make sure you’re doing light cals as a warm up, and static stretching after your workouts. Also make sure you have proper form for whatever you’re doing. Bad form leads to bad injuries. If needed, give yourself one or two extra rest days a week, then slowly get back in to your old schedule.

snemberton

DOMS for me is just soreness and some light cardio or stretching makes it feel a lot better. I don't feel super craggy and I have the desire to go do something light to help warm up the muscles to let them feel better.

If I've overdone it one day, it feels more heavy and achy like flu. I have no desire to even think about a light workout. That sounds like your issue.

Do you have a specific goal or reason to push so hard right now? I have mini goals, but nothing with a deadline that pushes me so hard I feel I need a two hour a day workout. By all means, if you enjoy it and it isn't causing you to be super tired, good on you! But if it causes you to struggle to do daily things regularly, you might want to look and see the why part making you push so hard. Determine if it is realistic for you to have this routine and still have an enjoyable life.

I do something daily at this point for about an hour, either cardio or strength. I do a 30 minute stretching routine while watching tv at night. This fits into my day well and I enjoy it AND feel good for the most part. (Some DOMS if I up my weights, but usually nothing awful.) I'm not training for anything specific, so this is mostly to become overall more fit and lose weight at a safe rate. (without starving!) I probably could do more, but do I need to? Nah, not yet.