Have you ever experienced what it is like to over-train or push beyond your limits? What does it feel like? Can you describe it? Chances are, you have experienced this at least once, perhaps without even knowing it!
Over-training can come from working yourself too hard and not giving yourself enough rest. Most people view this as time at the gym vs. time away from the gym. If I am training 7 days a week for months on end, and not giving my body time to recover, at some point it will start to break down. This can be considered over-training. You might feel foggy and unable to concentrate, find that your performance is going backwards or tired and lazy most of the time. These are just some of the symptoms.
So let’s say that you catch yourself in this downward spiral before it is too late and you start to cut back your workouts a bit. Now you are training 4 or 5 days a week and giving your body that time to rest between workouts. The hope is that you will start to recover and be able to get back to your old routine soon.
What happens if the reason for your over-training isn’t the number of workouts per week though? It isn’t the long term, slow progression (or regression would perhaps be a better word) into this dreaded ‘over-training’ condition. What if we break it down into each individual workout and monitor you from a day-to-day basis? What about exercise-to-exercise or even set-to-set? Could it be possible that you are over-training in those situations as well?
Let’s break down some of the myth’s behind a “good” workout and see if you have fallen into the trap!
1) Breaking a Sweat – Most people will say that breaking a sweat is your first indicator of getting a good workout in. You have elevated your heart rate, got your blood pumping, body temperature is on the rise and sweat is pouring down your face. Awesome! Or is it? Sweat can be caused by a number of different reasons. For instance, emotional conditions such as anxiety or stress can lead to panic attacks resulting in perspiration. It can also be a symptom of diabetes, or heart and lung disease. Women going through menopause will also experience and increase in perspiration as they go through hot flashes. None of these situations have anything to do with sweating. Sweating will help regulate your body temperature, regardless of the reason why your body temperature has increased. Sweat from a workout does not mean a good workout. It simply means that you have increased your body temperature!
2) Vomiting After a Workout – Believe it or not, some people think that they need to vomit at the end of their workout, otherwise they didn’t work hard enough. Vomiting is your bodies way of getting rid of a foreign substance. When you have the flu or food poisoning, you vomit to eliminate the virus from your body. Heat stroke can cause you to vomit as you become dehydrated and your systems start to shut down. These are all signs that something is wrong and it needs to be corrected! If you reach the point where you vomit at the end of your workout, something is truly wrong and needs to be changed! You are doing much more than what your body can handle!
3) Feeling Sore – This one is pretty common. We all need to “feel the burn” after our workouts. If you aren’t sore, you wasted your time in the gym. No pain, no gain, right? Wrong! When you exercise, you are microscopically tearing your muscle. This small tear will repair itself and allow your muscle to grow, however, too large of a tear and you are now playing with an injury that needs time to heal! If you are feeling sore the day after your workout (and the day after that, and possibly even the day after that) you did too much! What is better – working out so hard that you are sore for the next week and unable to get back to the gym? Or working within your limits, not feeling sore and being able to get in a solid week of workouts?
That last point is the real key to this! Working within your limits! If you want to avoid the dreaded ‘over-training’ then you need to work within your limits! Learn what your body can and cannot do! Micro-progress your way through each and every workout. Recognize when your body does not want to do something and don’t force it! Allow yourself the time to rest and recover between workouts, exercises, and even sets!
Of course you need to challenge yourself, but there is a much more appropriate way of accomplishing that goal without having to experience any of the above adverse effects. Every person is different with what they can handle. Just because your buddy did it, doesn’t mean that you have to as well! Don’t be afraid to train hard, but more importantly, train smart!