overtraining???

[Lord Denning]

I've been training seriously for the last 4 years. The gains I made in the first were pretty amazing - and that without any set routine, sometimes training every day of the week...just doing what felt right on the day.

Since that first year, after which I got into Gopro's routine because I was suffering from symptoms of overtraining, I have trained every other day, and have kept to that even after switching to a MAX OT style routine a year on.

For the past month however I have been training everyday, 4 days weights, 3 days high intensity cardio (mainly rowing - sprints). I feel like I am making good gains doing this, but I do not know whether this could also be classed as overtraining? Particularly as I am not doing cardio to lose weight but rather to improve fitness it is by no means essential that it be included.

 

[BulkMeUp]

Depends on what your routine is like. E.g. if you are doing 4x full body + 3x high intensity cardio, that would be a no-no.

Post your entire routine (sets, reps & RI)

 

[Dale Mabry]

It's not overtraining until you experience symptoms of overtraining, ie. increased resting HR, Increased BP, restlesness, etc. What you are doing is overreaching and if you continue doing it too long you will probably reach a point where you are overtraining.

 

[P-funk]

It's not overtraining until you experience symptoms of overtraining, ie. increased resting HR, Increased BP, restlesness, etc. What you are doing is overreaching and if you continue doing it too long you will probably reach a point where you are overtraining.

and to add to that.....typically, it is advised that you continue your overreaching period until a maximum of a 10% decrease in performance has been showen. At that point, drop your volume and allow for a period of delayed transformation to take place.

 

[Lord Denning]

Thanks DM, I'll cut the high intensitiy cardio to 1 day a week.

BulkMeUp: I dont do full body work outs but work each bodypart directly once a week, and most indirectly twice. Appreciate your offer to look at my routine, but for now DM has answered my question.

 

[Lord Denning]

P-funk...only just got you message, that was very helpful. Accordingly it would be ok to alternate between periods of overreaching and recuperation/transformation?

 

[P-funk]

P-funk...only just got you message, that was very helpful. Accordingly it would be ok to alternate between periods of overreaching and recuperation/transformation?

yes, in short, this is called accumulation/intensification. You workout at a high level and accumulate a large amount of both fitness and fatigue. After a certain period of time the fatigue levels become greater and breakdown begins to occur. You then drop the volume down, but keep the intensity up (this is the intensification phase) and this allows the fatigue to disipate and the new aquired fitness levels to manifest themself. You can then take a week off and relax after your intensificatio phase before starting over.