We just wrapped up a Body-fat loss Challenge in the studio. I typically schedule these twice a year (January and August). The duration of the Challenges is always five weeks. The objective is to lose as much body-fat as possible within the five week window. Body-fat is measured using a Lange skinfold caliper. A typical amount of body-fat seems to hover around 2%. The winners of the Challenge usually lose upwards to 4% in body-fat or more in the five week span. To facilitate and help fat-burning we recommend people increase their intensity in their workouts and the frequency. These serve as a great jump start for many of our members. At the completion of the Challenge, we always program a de-load week or week of less intense training sessions and recommend members take extra rest time in between session to help recovery. Too much of any good thing can lead to problems, which inspired me for today’s post of overtraining.
The National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) define overtraining as:
“When training frequency, volume, or intensity (or some combination of these) is excessive without sufficient rest, recovery, and nutrient intake, conditions of extreme fatigue, illness, or injury (or more than one of these) can occur. This accumulation of training stress can result in long-term decrements in performance with or without associated physiological and psychological signs and symptoms of maladaptation, and is referred to as overtraining.”
-4th Ed. Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning
I frequently get confused looks when a person joins who hasn’t been active and I recommend they train at the studio twice a week. This recommendation usually has a follow up question of “Is that enough?” It is enough if you’re starting from a point of in-activity.
As explained in Supertraining by Dr. Mel Siff, researchers have identified at least two types of general overtraining. A-overtraining (Addisonic overtraining) named after Addison’s disease, which is associated with diminished activity of the adrenal glands. This category of overtraining affects predominantly the parasympathetic pathways of the autonomic nervous system and is difficult to detect early, due to the lack of any dramatic symptoms. The only sign tends to be stagnation or deterioration of a person’s performance.
B-overtraining (Basedowic overtraining), named after Basedow’s disease, which is associated with thyroid hyperactivity. This category of overtraining affects predominantly the sympathetic pathways of the autonomic nervous system and is the classic type of overtraining observed in gyms, with an abundance of symptoms. These symptoms include:
• Slight increase in blood pressure
• Slower coordination or reaction time
• Decrease in bodymass
• Tendency to tire easily
• Increased demand for sleep
• Elevated resting pulse
• Reduced appetite
• Mild to pronounced muscle stiffness
• Diminished general resistance to headaches, colds, fever blisters
• Poor motivation to exercise
In an effort to prevent this for our members at the studio, we adopted a system of adjusting exercise intensity weekly at the studio. Over a five week period, we vary between 3 levels of exercise intensities. We post an orange sign that reads “Always improving” during our moderate intensity weeks (weeks 1- 3). We peak in week 4 and post a red sign that reads “Challenge week”. These weeks are typically followed by a de-load week of less intense sessions posting a green sign that reads “Throttle-back”. This system has served us well in preventing our members from over-training. The bottom line is that too much of anything can lead to problems.
See you at the studio.