Overtraining

Days 9 and 10

As it turned out, I wasn't able to meet with the nutritionist yesterday.  I'm gonna have to wait until next week. I'm still giving this macronutrients thing the old college try, though. Getting better, but I definitely need some guidance in this area.

I did ask my trainer what I should be doing on days I'm not training with him. Of course, he said eating right is my number one priority. I assured him I was keeping my food journal and making improvements.

Then he asked about what I'm doing on the days I don't workout with him. I told him I run 4-4.5 miles twice a week, which takes about an hour or so, and then do a rowing or punching bag workout once a week. He said that sounds great, but to watch out for overtraining. If I'm feeling sluggish or irritable, then there's a chance I've done too much exercise.

Flash forward to today and what did I do? I did exactly what he said not to - I overtrained.

In my defense, I had an awesome run today. My endurance is really improving, but I'm exhausted. I have wanted to sleep the day away,

I've felt this way after a particularly grueling workout (or three) before, but never really gave it much thought. I just figured it should better over time, but now that it's been brought to my attention I was curious how overtraining effects the body. It can't be all that bad, right?

WRONG!

Overtraining is actually quite counterproductive. I won't go into everything I read, but I'll post some of the points I found most interesting.

* Overtraining can cause the body to burn muscle instead of fat.
* It can weaken the immune system.  People who have overtrained will get sick more often than normal.
* Exercise should improve your mood, but overtraining can cause depression and irritability.
* You will feel both mentally and physically fatigued and sluggish.
* It can cause insomnia.
* Overtraining will halt any progress you're making no matter how hard you work.

The best way to prevent overtraining is a) go for intensity rather than duration during your workouts and b) make sure you're taking your recovery days. This doesn't mean you can't do any form of exercise, but rather have an active recovery day by doing something like yoga.

If you'd like more information on overtraining, you can read about it at Men's Fitness, Muscle For Life, Built Lean and Immunology and Cell Biology Journal. The last is geared more toward elite athletes, but contains more of the scientific findings.

Oh, one more thing. Overtraining is something that can accumulate over time. My trainer it's best not to go more than two or three days of hard workouts without a recovery day. After today, it looks like I'll be switching one of my five exercise days to an active recovery day.