Am i overtraining?

[knudci]

Am I overtraining? I can't find decent answers to anything. I don't do drugs and was told on another forum to stay under an hour per workout. Then I read this on that forum.

Stop scaring people with overtraining
Each and every body responds in a different way! There is no such thing as "yeah, you're definitely overtraining"... unless you're working out 8 hours a day 7 days a week.

I bet HALF or even TWO THIRDS of the people who say "yeah, you're definitely overtraining" were once told the same by someone else... so they dropped their sets and number of exercises and now repeat the same thing to everyone else, WITHOUT EVEN NOTICING ANY CHANGES FROM BEFORE!

Look-up "overtraining" anywhere else than on this forum and you'll see the definition goes something like:
-Getting sick very often
-Shaking
-Sore all the time
-Feeble, loss of energy
-Etc.

It's not like if you train for more than 60 minutes and do some cardio on your rest days OH **** YOU'RE BURNING MUSCLE DUUUUDE! Come on!

Stop getting scared with all this crap! If your body can take it, if you feel that you're not doing too much, if you feel good the next day, if you're seeing some gains, if you're getting stronger... YOU'RE NOT OVERTRAINING!!

/endrant

[jslep]

is this quote from boddiebuddies.com?

without seeing a sample workout i don't think you could get an honest answer my man. gotta give us a little more info to help you out.

[BendtheBar]

Here is my take on the concept of overtraining...

The "real" question is often this...how many days a week can I workout and how long can I workout each day without overtraining?

The answer is...a whole hell of a lot!

I've trained on a 3 day on, 1 day off and made great gains. These were 90 minute workouts. I was young, hormonally charged, and in my peak.

It takes a lot to overtrain. But...the real question we should be asking is...

How should I best train for optimal size and/or strength?

Pushing yourself towards overtraining doesn't insure optimal results. Just stay focused on the point of hitting the gym. We lift to get bigger and stronger, and not to see how hard we can beat the crap out of our bodies.

It is best to start with a reasonable approach, and add to it as you advance and get more experienced. BY keeping things simple, you learn your body and what it can handle. It's much easier to add to a workout than it is to overtrain and try to figure out just what to take away.

Think about it...

Say your training week is 40 sets per day, 240 sets per week. And you overtrain. Now what? Do you remove 5 sets? 25? 200?

If you are doing a 2 to 3 day per week fullbody routine, or a simple 3 day split, and this routine has 3 exercises per day...and you want to add more, it's much easier for you to fit in another set here or there to fit your needs.

Pre-steroid era training focused on doing more as you gain experience. I really think this is a wise approach.

[bwys61]

^^^agreed with BTB.

My take is to listen to your body. Feel weak, rest a day or 2. Feel tired, check your amount of sleep. Feel unmotivated, check for male sexual organs.

Basically, your body is a very complex machine, and it will let you know when you have overtrained. The drawback is that you never know until you get there, but you will see signs, such as noted above.

[knudci]

Where is a good place to start? What kind of workout?

[RickB]

Originally Posted by bwys61

^^^agreed with BTB.

My take is to listen to your body. Feel weak, rest a day or 2. Feel tired, check your amount of sleep. Feel unmotivated, check for male sexual organs.

Basically, your body is a very complex machine, and it will let you know when you have overtrained. The drawback is that you never know until you get there, but you will see signs, such as noted above.

Listening to your body is THE key!

[BendtheBar]

Originally Posted by knudci

Where is a good place to start? What kind of workout?

How long have you been training, and what types of programs/routines/exercises have you been running up to this point?

[knudci]

Originally Posted by BendtheBar

How long have you been training, and what types of programs/routines/exercises have you been running up to this point?

Ummm, well, i've been training for about 6 months and tried everything i guess. Dogcrap 5x5 and a few other programs. I guess I don't know where to start.

[folkprophet]

I'm not a fan of 'listen to your body' simply because it depends on your mentality/personality. In other words...if I listened to my body I'd never lift a single weight.

That's not to say that I don't think a person should listen to their body. It's just an incomplete thought. It's like saying listen to a person speak...but they're speaking french...and you don't know any french. Just saying 'listen closer' ain't gonna do a thing. Go learn french first. Then listen closely.

You have to learn and understand your body to listen to it.

Regardless. Overtraining is a real thing. But it's not a real thing for most of us. Literally overtraining is serious. If you're overtraining...for real...there are distinct symptoms. Most people are way too big of wusses to push hard enough to actually overtrain.

Beyond that it's about efficiency training and wasted training. That's what most people are thinking about when they're talking about overtraining. And it's not really overtraining. It's just wasted time with no results.

The key is to train effectively and efficiently with as little time spent as possible to get the training you need. Anything more than you need is...well...not needed.

The short answer is...no...you're probably not overtraining. But you could be wasting time doing stuff that you don't need to.

[RickB]

Originally Posted by folkprophet

I'm not a fan of 'listen to your body' simply because it depends on your mentality/personality. In other words...if I listened to my body I'd never lift a single weight.

That's not to say that I don't think a person should listen to their body. It's just an incomplete thought. It's like saying listen to a person speak...but they're speaking french...and you don't know any french. Just saying 'listen closer' ain't gonna do a thing. Go learn french first. Then listen closely.

You have to learn and understand your body to listen to it.

Regardless. Overtraining is a real thing. But it's not a real thing for most of us. Literally overtraining is serious. If you're overtraining...for real...there are distinct symptoms. Most people are way too big of wusses to push hard enough to actually overtrain.

Beyond that it's about efficiency training and wasted training. That's what most people are thinking about when they're talking about overtraining. And it's not really overtraining. It's just wasted time with no results.

The key is to train effectively and efficiently with as little time spent as possible to get the training you need. Anything more than you need is...well...not needed.

The short answer is...no...you're probably not overtraining. But you could be wasting time doing stuff that you don't need to.

How long have you been doing this? And do you enjoy it? I assume yes to the 2nd one

But really, I've done this long enought I know when I need to back off. If I lose that "ready to go" feeling for too many days in a row....that's a pretty clear indication something needs to change. If my sleep time and diet are in line...that's my only choice...right?