Overtraining?

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rshouse87
rshouse87 Posts: 25 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
How can I tell if I'm overtraining?

I'll provide a little background. I go to the gym 5 days a week in the morning. I work out for three hours Monday Wednesday and Friday. Those days I do about an hour and a half of weight lifting, I don't rush through my sets. Then I hit the treadmill for an hour and a half to two hours. I spend about 30 minutes of that running. The rest at a brisk walk, 3.7 miles an hour. Tuesday and Thursday I just do the cardio. My goal is weight loss. I'm just not sure if I'm overdoing it and therefore impeding my progress.
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  • rshouse87
    rshouse87 Posts: 25 Member
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    Oh yeah, I forgot, I also do about 16 to 17,000 steps on Saturdays. Monday through Friday I get between 22,000 and 25,000 steps.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,871 Member
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    What you're doing is excessive and unnecessary. Establish some fitness goals that are independent of weight management and let those goals guide your training. There's no reason to train hours daily unless you're an athlete or training to some specific purpose.

    I lift 2-3x per week for about an hour following a solid program...it really shouldn't take you more than an hour unless you're into body building or something...again, that would be a very specific goal. I ride 5-6 days per week...most of my rides are between 30 minutes (threshold and interval work) and 60 minutes. I usually have one longer ride weekly.

    More is not always better.
  • zahra59
    zahra59 Posts: 55 Member
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    Wtf you are killing your self for what? Weight loss is a journey and instinct
  • sunnybeaches105
    sunnybeaches105 Posts: 2,831 Member
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    You're not overtraining. If you enjoy what you're doing then keep it up. If you hit a wall and start having motivational issues, sleeping problems, or general fatigue then either (1) take a week off and just walk or do other active recovery work, and/or (2) adjust your training program to reduce the load.

    From what I understand, most people are probably best off with no more than 4 intense weight training days per week, but that is going to vary among individuals based on their goals and recovery ability, and there are a variety of programs that reduce the intensity and call for lifting more often. When it comes to cardio, that also depends on your goals and your own ability to recover, but the most successful runners I know train almost every day of the year.
  • rshouse87
    rshouse87 Posts: 25 Member
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    I started losing last December and am down 65 pounds. It's definitely a journey, it's just only within the last month and a half that I've made the gym a daily thing. But I've been getting my step goal 6 days a week for the past 4 or 5 months now.
  • vickymessmann
    vickymessmann Posts: 8 Member
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    Wow, that's allot of training. They say not to overdo it or you could get burned out or injure yourself. To lose weight they say work out just over 3 hours PER WEEK of medium to high intensity cardio. And if you cut calories too you would only need about 2 1/2 hours of medium to high intensity cardio PER WEEK.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,871 Member
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    Overtraining is also a matter of fitness level. A lot of people think I train like a crazy person but that's because they don't do much and what I do would probably kill them. I've been doing this stuff for years now so I'm pretty fit.

    That said, spending hours and hours daily in the gym really seems like overkill and unnecessary.
  • AmandaHugginkiss
    AmandaHugginkiss Posts: 486 Member
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    "Overtraining" is a specific term, and technically, you may not be overtraining. Are your lifting sessions high weight to max? High rep to near failure? Low weight and mid-rep? Whether you're overtraining depends entirely on how hard you're pushing yourself. You don't need to do as much as you are doing if your goal is to lose weight. But if you're just moving around low weights for 90 minutes, running for 30, then going for a walk, you're not overdoing it. You would be merely expending too much time to do something that could take way less of it.

    Do be mindful, though. This level of training, if intense, can leave you open to injury. Particularly if you are relatively new to fitness.
  • rshouse87
    rshouse87 Posts: 25 Member
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    Should I only do 5 days a week and then have two recovery days? I like what I'm doing and I feel bad when I miss days, which I very rarely do because I always beat myself up over missing a day. I would say that I do feel fatigued fairly often. I always feel great when I'm at the gym but then I have a general sense of fatigue the rest of the day.
  • Vegplotter
    Vegplotter Posts: 265 Member
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    You are doing too much. What about a social life?
    10,000 steps a day is plenty. Perhaps a longer walk on a Saturday or a Sunday, especially if you walk and talk with a friend.
    If you enjoy the gym, by all means go. But consider sports, dancing, yoga instead. I am truly worried about your social life!
    Also what about cleaning your room/house/flat?
    If you feel you've got loads of pent up energy why not give something back to society? Consider volunteering. Pushing a wheelchair, gardening for the elderly or helping disabled kids find fun in sports activities might just be good for your soul as well as your body.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    Are you having increasing fatigue, plateaued or declining performance, soreness, poor recovery, possibly increased resting HR?

    But just step back a minute and think about trying to train like a professional athlete while in a calorie deficit - doesn't really make sense does it?

    Yes it sounds like you are overdoing it. Reduce the volume, concentrate on intensity and quality of training to get to your fitness goals.

    By progress do you mean health, fitness, strength or weight loss?
    If weight loss then yes, over-training can stall weight loss (stress, cortisol, fluid retention....).

    Weight loss comes from a sustainable calorie deficit not flogging yourself to exhaustion in the gym.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,871 Member
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    rshouse87 wrote: »
    Should I only do 5 days a week and then have two recovery days? I like what I'm doing and I feel bad when I miss days, which I very rarely do because I always beat myself up over missing a day. I would say that I do feel fatigued fairly often. I always feel great when I'm at the gym but then I have a general sense of fatigue the rest of the day.

    Recovery days should be part of your overall training program...it should be viewed as part of your program just like the work is.

    Again, establish some independent fitness goals and follow established programs to achieve those goals...disassociate your training with weight management and start looking at fitness for fitness sake.
  • AmandaHugginkiss
    AmandaHugginkiss Posts: 486 Member
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    rshouse87 wrote: »
    Should I only do 5 days a week and then have two recovery days? I like what I'm doing and I feel bad when I miss days, which I very rarely do because I always beat myself up over missing a day. I would say that I do feel fatigued fairly often. I always feel great when I'm at the gym but then I have a general sense of fatigue the rest of the day.

    Fatigue is normal. This is pretty much expected with a calorie deficit. What you should be looking for with overtraining is mental breakdown, stalling, injury.

    But it would serve you better to up the intensity and cut the time in the gym quite a bit.

    I work out up to 4 hours a day on weekends, but I've been at this a while. You just have to listen to your body and work within your goals and abilities.
  • GerardCornielje
    GerardCornielje Posts: 19 Member
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    If you are feeling good and happy, if you don't have any pains or other issues: you are not overtraining. It's is perfectly fine what you are doing and makes sense if you want to lose weight. It is almost impossible to overtrain if you are not going to the edge every single day of the week. Sitting around and resting is an excuse for the lazy, they will never reach their goals but keep trying and complaining about their weight and size. You are doing great and can be proud of yourself!
  • rshouse87
    rshouse87 Posts: 25 Member
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    Thank you everyone for replying with advice. My primary goal is weight loss and I've lost 85 pounds since I was at my heaviest. I'm down to 263 now and I suppose I'm being a little too obsessive at this point. First I'm going to try just taking Saturday and Sunday off of working out just to recover. I don't know if I'll ever be able to cut my time down at the gym when I go but I'll try. I think I may be getting addicted to working out. 20,000 steps a day is potentially excessive. I don't know for sure.
  • sunnybeaches105
    sunnybeaches105 Posts: 2,831 Member
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    rshouse87 wrote: »
    Thank you everyone for replying with advice. My primary goal is weight loss and I've lost 85 pounds since I was at my heaviest. I'm down to 263 now and I suppose I'm being a little too obsessive at this point. First I'm going to try just taking Saturday and Sunday off of working out just to recover. I don't know if I'll ever be able to cut my time down at the gym when I go but I'll try. I think I may be getting addicted to working out. 20,000 steps a day is potentially excessive. I don't know for sure.

    I'm sorry, but I'm going to disagree with everyone and say keep doing what you're doing. It's working and while you may change over time I'd hate to discourage you to stop being successful. I did what you're doing for about 3-4 years and loved every minute of it. I even did some pretty extreme mountain races. I eventually settled into a 4-5 day a week lifting program with some light running, but I absolutely don't regret the 50+ mile weekends from a few years ago. You have to find your own path and doing too much, doing too little, changing your mind, etc. is all part of it.
  • rshouse87
    rshouse87 Posts: 25 Member
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    And Amanda, I have actually been upping my intensity lately. Just within the last two months I started running. I eventually was able to run a mile without stopping for the first time in my life. Just this last Wednesday I ran 2.75 miles straight and could have gone for 3 miles easily. That's the most satisfying thing I've ever experienced in fitness. But I have this bug in my head about having at least 15,000 steps a day. That is the goal I set and I usually tend to get 22,000 steps a day for some reason. I feel like if I don't get those steps then I've failed for that day.
  • VintageFeline
    VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
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    I think the injury risks are greater with your size. The stress on your joints and body in general are much much higher than in a healthy weight individual. Your body probably needs more time to recover.

    I would also ask why it takes you 1.5 hours to do your weight training? What are you doing in that time and with what sort of weight?
  • rshouse87
    rshouse87 Posts: 25 Member
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    It seems like there are multiple paths to take and that I should explore and find what works best for me. I've been mulling over giving myself an extra rest day on the weekends for a month or so now. I might start there. It could very well not stick but I think I should at least try.

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