Overtraining

ErinMarie25

How much do you have to workout to get to this point?

For the past 3 days, I have been sluggish, my legs are heavy, and my muscles feel blah. Even laying in bed, 2 nights ago, it hurt and felt weird. LOL I have just been following TurboFire. I also started including ChaLEAN Extreme on my own (not following the schedule). Today I did HIIT 15 and my legs just felt so heavy and I had to push really hard to complete it, which is unusual 'cus usually that is a piece of cake for me. Then I did strength training and that was harder than usual with the same weights. Tomorrow is a scheduled rest day, so I definitely won't do anything. Then I start the advanced months of TurboFire. I have been super excited, but hate how I am feeling lately. I decided not to include any ChaLEAN Extreme in those 2 advanced months.

Also, I used to be able to wake up at 5 AM every day, so motivated to get up and workout before my daughter wakes up. Lately I just can't get up. I feel weak and end up shutting my alarm off and going back to sleep and doing it when she takes a nap. Yesterday I was able to get up, but it was hard to workout, my legs were heavy then, too.

Sigh, I just don't know.

TateFTW

Your describing typical symptoms of overtraining; lethargy and lack of motivation. Take a few days off. If after 3 days you aren't ready and raring to get back to it, take a couple more off. Don't try to push through it. You'll just be hindering your progress.

After a few days I bet you'll be chomping at the bit to get back to work.

Tuckersn

I'm no expert but my first thought was making sure you're fueling your body enough, eating enough. The other thing is making sure you're getting recovery time . . . injury is so not worth it. Speaking from recent experience. Listen to your body.

eillamarie

Check your diet and what you are giving your body to work with. It takes a lot to overtrain. And by a lot I mean my breaking point was 20 hours of elite competitive swimming (10 practices) plus 5 hours (3 practices) of volleyball a week.

james3302

What are you eating? Are you getting enough carbs and protein? Sounds like your are over your soreness right? Legs Etc just geel weak? Depending on how many calories you burn doing those workouts you may need to eat more. I don't think I have ever overtrained. But then again I only workout 3 days a week. I thought when you overtrained you developed an injury such as tendonitis or inflammation.

ErinMarie25

My diet is the same as it's always been. Got plenty of fruits, veggies, grains, protein etc. I don't eat junk.

FemininGuns

I went through the same thing the past few weeks... Finally gave in to my 'overtraining', which is what you are describing here. On top of that, I had killer cravings. I didn't completely take out exercise - just changed my routine like instead of 40min cardio sessions with 45-65 weight training sessions 5 times per week and a long run on sundays, am now doing the Body For Life thing this month: 45 minutes lifting 3 times per week and cardio 3 times per week. I had a low-carb diet, so I upped my carbs throughout the day and am a little more lenient with my meals (still adhering to sensible meal portions and eating 6 times a day). This is day 2 and can already feel that my energy and my legs are thanking me I will continue this for December and then get back to my routine in January. Hope your days off go well!

edorice

You may not be eating enough. Also, it does sound like you're burnt out. You may need a new routine or just take a week off. You could do a week of yoga or something. Most of all, check your calories intake.

ErinMarie25

Thanks for all your tips. I lowered my calorie intake to 1200, but I have also started eating my exorcise calories this past week and I never used to.

mlb929

Runner's magazine had an article that in short said, muscle soreness generally lasted a day, you could continue your same activities but had tenderness. Overtraining was when you were achy in the night, when laying down and it was disrupting your sleep and other daily activities. Obviously the article had it more indepth, but the basics was when it starts to drag you down more than pump you up, it's too much.

Azdak

You are overtrained. It sounds like you have fallen into the current trap of HIIT, HIIT, HIIT. It's easy to do and it happens to everybody. The workouts feel good, you are motivated and getting stronger, and then it feels like someone pulled the plug.

I realize that HIIT type training is the current fad in fitness and the hype is making everyone believe that anything else is useless, but the human body hasn't changed. Even elite athletes don't push hard every workout. If you want to follow a high-volume workout schedule, then you have to build in not only recovery days, but recovery cycles. Recovery doesn't always mean "rest" -- it just means that you need to include those good old fashioned LSD workouts in your routine and go though cycles where you limit the frequency/duration of your higher-intensity workouts.

I don't make "absolute" rules, esp for people I am not working with personally, but I recommend keeping HIIT type workouts to 2x per week, 3 at the absolute max.

If you want to keep pushing hard, then you just have to accept that you are going to hit this wall on a regular basis and have a plan to deal with it.

Right now, I would take 2 days off completely, then a reduced regimen for several days after than. You don't have to avoid the higher-intensity workouts completely, just cut down on the duration and frequency. Consider restructuring your routine a little to build in more "active rest".

ErinMarie25

You are overtrained. It sounds like you have fallen into the current trap of HIIT, HIIT, HIIT. It's easy to do and it happens to everybody. The workouts feel good, you are motivated and getting stronger, and then it feels like someone pulled the plug.

I realize that HIIT type training is the current fad in fitness and the hype is making everyone believe that anything else is useless, but the human body hasn't changed. Even elite athletes don't push hard every workout. If you want to follow a high-volume workout schedule, then you have to build in not only recovery days, but recovery cycles. Recovery doesn't always mean "rest" -- it just means that you need to include those good old fashioned LSD workouts in your routine and go though cycles where you limit the frequency/duration of your higher-intensity workouts.

I don't make "absolute" rules, esp for people I am not working with personally, but I recommend keeping HIIT type workouts to 2x per week, 3 at the absolute max.

If you want to keep pushing hard, then you just have to accept that you are going to hit this wall on a regular basis and have a plan to deal with it.

Right now, I would take 2 days off completely, then a reduced regimen for several days after than. You don't have to avoid the higher-intensity workouts completely, just cut down on the duration and frequency. Consider restructuring your routine a little to build in more "active rest".

I see what you mean with the HIIT's. Funny you mention it though because this month of TurboFire was mainly HIIT workouts considering it was the HIIT month. There were 3 HIIT workouts a week and 3 regular cardio workouts, and 1 rest day. I definitely think the HIIT got to me. Thankfully the next 2 months aren't mainly HIIT workouts. There are some, but it's mainly regular cardio classes, just longer ones. So I think that will definitely help.

Azdak

You are overtrained. It sounds like you have fallen into the current trap of HIIT, HIIT, HIIT. It's easy to do and it happens to everybody. The workouts feel good, you are motivated and getting stronger, and then it feels like someone pulled the plug.

I realize that HIIT type training is the current fad in fitness and the hype is making everyone believe that anything else is useless, but the human body hasn't changed. Even elite athletes don't push hard every workout. If you want to follow a high-volume workout schedule, then you have to build in not only recovery days, but recovery cycles. Recovery doesn't always mean "rest" -- it just means that you need to include those good old fashioned LSD workouts in your routine and go though cycles where you limit the frequency/duration of your higher-intensity workouts.

I don't make "absolute" rules, esp for people I am not working with personally, but I recommend keeping HIIT type workouts to 2x per week, 3 at the absolute max.

If you want to keep pushing hard, then you just have to accept that you are going to hit this wall on a regular basis and have a plan to deal with it.

Right now, I would take 2 days off completely, then a reduced regimen for several days after than. You don't have to avoid the higher-intensity workouts completely, just cut down on the duration and frequency. Consider restructuring your routine a little to build in more "active rest".

I see what you mean with the HIIT's. Funny you mention it though because this month of TurboFire was mainly HIIT workouts considering it was the HIIT month. There were 3 HIIT workouts a week and 3 regular cardio workouts, and 1 rest day. I definitely think the HIIT got to me. Thankfully the next 2 months aren't mainly HIIT workouts. There are some, but it's mainly regular cardio classes, just longer ones. So I think that will definitely help.

As carefully as I try to plan my workout schedules, I go through these periods at least twice a year. As I said earlier, I think the biggest seduction is that, leading up to the crash, you are usually hitting some new "peaks" and it feels so good it makes you want to push even harder.

Then, one day, it's "wha' happened?"

edorice

I'm actually glad you brought this topic up. My husband has to practically force me to take a rest day. I had weeks that i didn't take a rest day at all. I went and did cardio. This Sunday I finally took one.

GiGi76

Bump

rose1617

The way I deal with overtraining is this:
listen to your body.

If you are honestly dead tired and your body is hurting (not sore - hurting - difference) and you can tell it's not lack of motivation, but rather your body really just not wanting you to go (again big difference), then your body is telling you to take a rest day!

If it's just lack of motivation and sore -- don't be a baby :laugh: and go work out.

musclebuilder

You are overtrained. It sounds like you have fallen into the current trap of HIIT, HIIT, HIIT. It's easy to do and it happens to everybody. The workouts feel good, you are motivated and getting stronger, and then it feels like someone pulled the plug.

I realize that HIIT type training is the current fad in fitness and the hype is making everyone believe that anything else is useless, but the human body hasn't changed. Even elite athletes don't push hard every workout. If you want to follow a high-volume workout schedule, then you have to build in not only recovery days, but recovery cycles. Recovery doesn't always mean "rest" -- it just means that you need to include those good old fashioned LSD workouts in your routine and go though cycles where you limit the frequency/duration of your higher-intensity workouts.

I don't make "absolute" rules, esp for people I am not working with personally, but I recommend keeping HIIT type workouts to 2x per week, 3 at the absolute max.

If you want to keep pushing hard, then you just have to accept that you are going to hit this wall on a regular basis and have a plan to deal with it.

Right now, I would take 2 days off completely, then a reduced regimen for several days after than. You don't have to avoid the higher-intensity workouts completely, just cut down on the duration and frequency. Consider restructuring your routine a little to build in more "active rest".

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