Over training.

AnnPT77

Niki_Fitz wrote: »

maureenseel1984 wrote: »

Can speak from experience as someone who over-trained, under-ate and wound up with an eating disorder AND stress fractures....

+1, add some tendonitis. Thanks for this post, I hope it raises awareness. I’m still paying for my years of mistakes and frustration. More folks need to take it slow and steady. Go hard like an athlete if that’s your thing, but remember that most athletes aren’t in a constant deficit, and that they build in time for rest and recovery.

I'd put a sharper point on it than that. "Athletes" are not a different thing from "people". Everyone is on a continuum (maybe several continuums) of fitness. There is always some level of activity (duration, frequency, intensity, etc.) that is not enough to progress, some levels that will result in progress at varied rates, some level that will result in fatigue and even regress, some (low) level that will let decline happen by default.

Challenging physical activity is a stressor (whether beneficial or not). In our lives, it exists in a context of other factors that may also be stressors (calorie deficit/surfeit, emotional upheaval, nutritional issues, sleep quality and duration, and many more).

The totality of stress needs to stay in some manageable range in order to make progress (on nearly anything, not just fitness). Different people have different tolerances and capabilities for many reasons. Insightful people (or their coaches) pay attention to that.

Personally, I think anyone who works to improve their physical capabilities is "an athlete". Elite athlets tend to systematically reduce or eliminate stressors extraneous to achieving the maximum performance consistent with their (usually high) genetic potential.

For all of us, consciously managing stressors is a smart idea.

Motorsheen

AnnPT77 wrote: »

Niki_Fitz wrote: »

maureenseel1984 wrote: »

Can speak from experience as someone who over-trained, under-ate and wound up with an eating disorder AND stress fractures....

+1, add some tendonitis. Thanks for this post, I hope it raises awareness. I’m still paying for my years of mistakes and frustration. More folks need to take it slow and steady. Go hard like an athlete if that’s your thing, but remember that most athletes aren’t in a constant deficit, and that they build in time for rest and recovery.

I'd put a sharper point on it than that. "Athletes" are not a different thing from "people". Everyone is on a continuum (maybe several continuums) of fitness. There is always some level of activity (duration, frequency, intensity, etc.) that is not enough to progress, some levels that will result in progress at varied rates, some level that will result in fatigue and even regress, some (low) level that will let decline happen by default.

Challenging physical activity is a stressor (whether beneficial or not). In our lives, it exists in a context of other factors that may also be stressors (calorie deficit/surfeit, emotional upheaval, nutritional issues, sleep quality and duration, and many more).

The totality of stress needs to stay in some manageable range in order to make progress (on nearly anything, not just fitness). Different people have different tolerances and capabilities for many reasons. Insightful people (or their coaches) pay attention to that.

Personally, I think anyone who works to improve their physical capabilities is "an athlete". Elite athlets tend to systematically reduce or eliminate stressors extraneous to achieving the maximum performance consistent with their (usually high) genetic potential.

For all of us, consciously managing stressors is a smart idea.