I’ve heard it time and time again. From future clients, friends and even acquaintances in the gym. THAT person that will tell me that they have trained every single day for the past week. Even worse, some that actually tell me that they have trained twice a day for the past week! If that’s what works for you, great. BUT, if you are finding that even if you are training every day, or even twice a day and you’re still not seeing results, or you feel like you are aching all the time, then this post is certainly for you. The fact is, you’re over-training. Doing this, you are actually hindering your progress, rather than pushing yourself closer to your performance or aesthetic goals. Read on….
WHY DO PEOPLE OVERTRAIN?
It is funny when I get asked the number of times that I train in a week. People still raise their eyebrows in surprise when I say just x4. Even when I was competing, I never trained more than that, what would be the need? Rest is just as important for my body and ensures that by the time it comes to my next training session, I will be guaranteed to perform my best. Bear in mind, even training x4 a week still, I’m never repeating exercises or training the same muscle groups back to back. For example, I’d never deadlift more than once a week. Programming is meticulously planned to make it more effective.
It seems we still live in an age where people think quantity is more important than quality when it comes to the gym. Also, there is this mindset that if you train 7/7 days, you’ll get quicker results. WRONG. But why do people still do it? Here are some reasons:
· They don’t see the importance of the quality of their sessions eg unless they are dying and sweating to near fainting, they think that’s how they should feel all the time
· They have time constraints eg work, family, social events
· They think they can out-train a bad diet
· They use training to punish themselves for bad habits eg binging on doughnuts and then wanting to go for a run to undo the ‘bad’
· People don’t really know what they are doing eg how to programme for effective weight training
· They may have body image disorders/disordered eating
· They may have eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia etc
· They may be an obsessive person or have addictive like personality or tendencies
WHY YOU SHOULD NOT OVERTRAIN:
· Your performance may plateau, or not improve at all
· You’ll feel like you have less strength, agility and endurance
· You may feel more soreness, stress and pain
· You may either worsen a current injury, or create a new one
· Your fatigue levels may be unbearable
· May affect hormone imbalances and even affect your hunger and satiety levels
· It can affect your stress hormone and therefore affect your enthusiasm and general mood
· It may affect your sleep-especially as it could affect your stress hormone
· It could lower your immunity
· Decreased motivation
· Reduced sex drive
· In females-you may experience Amenorrhea (loss of period)
· Change in toilet habits eg constipation/diarrhoea
INSTEAD OF OVER-TRAINING:
· Take more rest: therefore plan out a realistic amount of sessions you will get in weekly and spread them out as much as possible, avoiding things like 2 leg days back to back, and instead, focusing on different muscle groups
· Look at your nutrition again: are you eating enough? Are you having enough carbs and proteins in particular? Are you thinking about eating windows around your workouts so you are properly fuelled to perform your best?
· Do other things for your mental health: take a walk, listen to a podcast, read, spend time with a loved one
· Listen to your body more. Even me, I have on occasions moved a training session simply because my body was telling me no. Don’t think it’s procrastination just because you are having to move a session. ESPECIALLY if you are a female, think about lowering the intensity of your sessions near when you’re due your period, as your fatigue and strength levels will be greatly affected.
· Ensure you have a good split, especially for weight training. Eg I will only train 2 days back to back if one of those days is legs and the other is upper body. I will never train leg days 2 days back to back, my performance would undoubtedly be terrible!
· Have long enough rest periods in between sets when training
· Watch your hydration, as dehydration contributes to muscle fatigue. Tip: every time you have caffeine, drink a glass of water.
· Reduce stress as much as you can
· Prioritise sleep
· If you are a regular and experienced lifter, take a week off breaks throughout the year, especially if it is your competitive sport.
WHEN I TOOK A WEEK OFF
So lately, I’ve had a lot of really good sessions and a lot of really bad sessions. In fact, lately the bad sessions were starting to outnumber the good and that was telling me something. My body has felt tired, I’ve felt tired, from both training and working really long hours. I’m better now at listening to my body than I ever have been and so I announced last week on IG that I was taking a week off training. Am I going to lose my muscle? No. Am I going to put on shit loads of weight? No. Am I going to rest in order to improve my performance when I start training again? Yes. I worked out that the last time I had any time off training was September 2020. And we are now May 2022! So if that wasn’t a good enough reason, I don’t know what is. Yes, it will feel strange being out of my usual routine, yes it may even affect my emotions, but I know it is the best thing for my body right now. Sometimes rest is best.
So just to sum up, really think about making your workouts more effective. You don’t have to be dying, you don’t have to be aching all the time. Just train smarter, not harder. And most importantly, LISTEN TO YOUR BODY.
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