What are your thoughts on overtraining?

trysha1231

So I've been doing my best to eat more and eat the right foods...some days its more of a struggle than others.

I've been working out since March 2012 and I've become stronger and fitter than I ever have before and I want to keep going and do more, more more. BUT I've hit a plateau now for months! In fact I've even gained 4 pounds.
I am starting to question if I am trying to push my body too much? Or not enough.
The list of programs have been:
Chalean Extreme/Turbo Fire
Insanity
P90X/Insanity
Asylum
Les Mills Combat
and I am now doing a Les Mills Pump / Combat Combo

Could I be putting my body through too much stress and it doesn't want to let go of the weight? Or am I making excuses for myself?
Help!
Trysh

heybales

Yes, no.

As you get closer to goal, you have a more narrow margin for error for still seeing good results.
At the start you can do a bunch wrong and still see progress. Not as much as could be had doing it right of course.
But now, that won't fly.

You may have reached that point, now the stress of too much exercise, the diet, and life, is too much.

Within 10 lbs of a reasonable goal weight, you should only have 10% deficit for one thing.

And depending on how you figured out your TDEE, you may be creating more than you that.

Do you take your HR couple mornings a week after a rest day? May be too late now to compare, but when that starts going up, you are going the wrong direction.

Those are all high aerobic/anaerobic programs, training the carb burning system, and that is very stressful for body to deal with lactic acid that much. You always produce it, and body clears it out fast enough until constant anaerobic point, but it is an acid in the blood floating around, and constant high levels of it just below where the body can't deal with the quantity - bad thing.

Are you at least only doing a few times a week as recommended for Pump with a rest day, or you do Combat on what should be the rest day.

Exercise creates the load the body must improve from - rest, recovery, repair is when it actually improves.

trysha1231

Right now I have been doing Pump along with 30 min of cardio, 3 days a week, then about 60 minutes of cardio the other three days, with one rest day a week. Should I concentrate more on the strength training?

heybales

Yes, but you can still do cardio, you just don't want it to interfere with the strength.

Day after lifting should be in the Active Recovery HR zone (aka fat-burning zone) as that should add no load to already worked muscles. That way the workout is just for blood flow to the muscles, aiding repair. To intense, it hinders repair. In which case, why do the strength training.

trysha1231

This is great information, thank you so much. I am going to figure out my numbers and only do cardio on my non-lifting days.