Overtraining?

[Keyboard Ninja]

How do you know when you are overtraining? Is it when you are sore?

[bpmull]

There's a few deciding factors I take into consideration:

Soreness is one but can you elaborate? Are you just getting into it? If you are, you will be sore for the first few weeks until your body adapts to the strain you are putting on it. How often do you train and what is your split like? Larger muscle groups such as back, legs and chest need around 72 hours to fully recover. Smaller groups such as bi's, tri's need about 48 hours.

If you are lethargic through out the day but find that you are restless and can't sleep at night, that may be a sign of over training.

Sometimes plateuas are a sign. If you haven't been making progress or you are declining in your performance, that could be a sign as well.

To fix this, just take a week off. Or if you are like me and are addicted to the gym, then take it easy for a week.

This has never happened to me but some people actually get sick from overtraining so that's another good reason to take a break. I don't worry about that because I'm one of those people that can count on my hands how many times I've been sick in my life.

[ZxHunteR]

In a nut shell over training is a mental thing. Its an overtaxation of your motor functions. When you over train you are over training your central nervous system. It has nothing to do with soreness. Having a plateu or being sore is no guarantee that you are over training. Doing wrist curls for 8 hours straight is not going to tax your CNS. It will just make you sore. Maxing out on dead lift every 10 minutes for 8 hours straight will.

Your mind cant take in several extreme compound exercises in a row. Maxing out on bench squat deadlift etc, all in the same day will over train you.

The strongest symptoms of over training are categories of depression.

4. lack of sleep
3. lack of appetite
2. lack of sex drive
1. The most obvious and important sign to me of over training is the feeling of wanting to quit. If you really want to quit after weeks of progress and enjoyment, you are over training. Though for the first 3 months you will want to quit any way...lol

[maci4life]

if you're feeling sore and having trouble in recovering, start taking some l-glutamine. I'm not one to jump on some magic pill but this actually works. i do gym 4 days a week, ( major body part a day ), then ice hockey 2 days and soccer 1 day. From my knees down were killing me ( shin splints? sore muscles ) and the l-glutamine is actually working.

[Keyboard Ninja]

Thanks for the responses!

1) No lack of sex drive here
2) Sleep isn't lacking either
3) Eat plenty, sometimes over eat because I love food (working on controlling that )
4) I never want to quit...and I think that is my problem.

I try to work out with weights 4 - 5 days a week (differnet major body part once/twice a week, and hit the minor ones another day by itself). I run 2 - 3 times a week (would do it more, but I hate running). The running is normally a 1mile warmup with 1600 meters worth of sprints. I can't jog because for some odd reason it stresses out my knees and legs too much. Running faster actually relaxes me and is much lower in impact. Sounds odd to me though.

No real pains to speak of...just the usual good soreness. The only thing that I do find is that when I take a week off because I'm lazy I'm actually running better, and I'm a bit stronger the next time I'm in the gym. I know when I really do overdue it I get sick really easily. I don't want to overtrain, but I can't see that fine line that I'm crossing.

[SAHTT]

It's hard to over train after you've been doing it for years because you are used to giving it just about everything you've got. The only time I over train is running 5-6 miles when I'm supposed to just run a quick 2 miles and be done but I keep going. I don't eat enough calories to support that so it causes the symptoms of over training.

Also, if you are a newb and you are doing 5-6 chest exercises 3-4 times a week you can over train fairly easily. I know way too many guys that do that. Most muscles can actually take that much damage if you are eating/sleeping enough but core exercises to that extent can cause you harm.

[06six00]

Here is a good article man...

Bodybuilding.com - Mr. Ryan Swan - What Is Overtraining: Learn How To Recognize & Avoid It.