When Am I Overtraining?

Over the last 18 years I have been blessed with motivated clients that pursue there goals relentlessly. From young to old alike the desire to reach the summit, to attain nirvana, to accomplish what may seem impossible is what drives them. For others it may be fear. Fear of gaining weight, loss of good health, or in some cases even losing relationships. All of these factors are ones that drive people to do incredible things.

People who are incredibly motivated at times have difficulty drawing the line between a balanced approach and reasonable direction to attaining a goal vs. a move forward at all cost approach. I find that even though most do not intentionally over train or seek imbalance in there approach to there goals, most of are guilty of not listening.

"Listening to what?" , you might ask. Well, listening to some of the key indicators our body is giving you everyday. The balance of this article will be focus on defining over training, signs of over training, and adjustments for over training.

Defining Over training

Over training begins when imbalance between stress and the bodies ability to adapt to that stress is not in your favor. In other words, your body can not recover due to interactions between your hypothalamus, endocrine system, central nervous system, and your muscular system.

Types of over training include general over training and local over training. These can further be subdivided into acute " overreaching" and chronic "over training". Furthermore, there is a big difference between exhaustion and over training.

The bodies ability to recover is effected by the central nervous system and the endocrine system. The central nervous system controls has a direct impact on musculoskeletal performance. The endocrine system complexly controls and impacts a group of glands in your body that release various hormones. These hormones such as Thyroxine, Insulin, Growth Hormone, and Testosterone, etc control cellular function, muscle recovery, bioengergetics, metabolism, and psychological health.

Categories

To further break down over training some researchers further define into two categories we will call category A, and Category B.

Category A is defined by low energy, stagnant progress in strength development, performance and is primarily due to adrenal stress . Due to lack of acute significant pain etc, this is a difficult category to recognize. There are forms of saliva testing etc. that can help determine if this is an issue for you. If you feel tired all the time, are low on motivation, have minimal pain, have a low resting pulse, and recovery time seems longer you might consider this as being an issue if your exercising on a regular basis and these issues are not improving or are getting worse. Visit http://www.diagnostechs.com/ for more information on Adrenal stress and it's effect on your health.

Category B tends to be associated with thyroid hyperactivity. This hyperactivity mainly impacts the Central nervous system and is more easily recognized. Typically this is characterized by localized muscle soreness that is not relieved by rest of 1-3 days.

Exhaustion during activity is simply a structural and bioenergetic stress that still allows adequate recovery and adaptation for the energy systems, hormonal systems, nervous system, and cellular function.

Signs of Category A include the following:

-Diastolic blood pressure 100mm Hg or greater during and after exercise
-Coordination impaired
-Increase in tiredness
-Resting pulse is low
-Minimal muscle soreness
-Slight loss of motivation

Signs of Category B include the following:

-Increased reaction time
-Decrease in Lean Body Mass
-Low endurance
-Increased need for sleep
-Elevated pulse
-Reduced appetite
-Abnormal breathing rate
-Pronounced, prolonged muscle sourness
-Tendency for headaches, colds, fever blisters etc..
-Nervousness, poor motivation, anxiety, or depression

So this is all great. Now we know what over training is and how to recognize it! My next article will discuss restoration and recovery. The different methods of restoration are designed to assist in moving you to be healthy and vital! Mean while keep moving and make sure your listening to the feedback your body is giving you.