I must've been overtraining...

[Anthrax Invasion]

...'cause I haven't really lifted consistently in the past two months or so, yet my arms are UP half an inch. Hoo-rah! I always tried to get 'em up to par, too. Looks like I needed a nice break. All I've done lately is practice split jerks, power cleans, my form with the flat bench since I've altered it, snatches, overhead squats, high pulls, OHPs and squats, and I've done it with very moderate weight sporadically. No set training times or anything, just winging it and dealing with a lot of issues in life right now.

But damn, it feels good to look swole without doing much of anything in terms of solid progression and eating. Anyone else contribute this to overtraining?

 

[NorgePrecision]

Isn't it funny to watch those idiots in the gym do set after set of curls, busting a solid hour and a half of bicep training. Then they walk out of the gym like they are the baddest motherfucker alive. Overtraining is an all too common occurence in the bodybuilding world. I found out I was doing it after a month of DC training and I started to actually get bigger.

 

[Anthrax Invasion]

Yeah. I never trained like a BBer, really, but I was overtrained. I never sleep well, I've been stressed, diet was lacking, and I kept pushing myself along with a physically demanding job at UPS 15 hours a week. It all added up, I suppose.

 

[Guinness5.0]

It seems like you're doing a lot of dynamic pulling. Have you increased this or are you just saying that your overall workload is lower and that those movements you listed are the only ones left from before?

What I'm getting at is that if you upped the dynamic pulling I'd wager that's where the arm growth came from. Couple it with improved recovery via deloading and there ya go

 

[Anthrax Invasion]

Yeah, I just started adding in the dynamic pulling about two months ago, really trying to get my form down, teaching myself the lifts. I need to find a coach to make sure I'm doing them all correctly, though.

 

[Micker]

Overtraining sucks and I bet most people go through it. I don't think most people hit extreme overtraining, but I bet most people would do well to take some time off and decrease the volume. People who do a lot of extra activity like sports or a job that is physical are prime targets. The problem is people get impatient and think that if they do more sets, more often that they will grow faster. Unfortunatly, the human body can only grow so fast/do so much and if you ask it to go too fast, it will start to breakdown.

Last year I suffered some bad overtraining. My problem was my diet was too low in protein intake and my sleep was not enough. I started to lose motivation to lift. Next I started to actually do LESS weight then the previous workouts. I figured I wasn't lifting enough, so I took out one of my rest days(brilliant). I started to lose my appitite, could barely choke down my lunch, it was like swallowing pills. I had little energy and started to feel depressed(normally a very happy go lucky person). At night, in bed, I would get anxeity attacks where my heart would pound, hands would tingle and my mind would just race. I would have to get up and walk around to calm myself.

I didn't know what was wrong and I put the symptoms into google. I came upon overtraining and it just hit me like a brick. I stopped lifting for almost 2 weeks. I then started easy and only worked out 2 times a week for less then an hour for about a month. I upped my protein intake by a lot and made sure I started sleeping more. I felt SOOO much better after that. It was scary to feel like that and I never want come close again. Everyones tolerances are different and each person needs to learn where the line is. 9 times out of 10 though, less is more when it comes to lifting for most people. Too bad we all don't have a little stress meter built in to show us how much we are abusing our bodies.

 

[Madcow2]

www.usaweightlifting.org

Take a look there. Contact someone if you don't find anyone close. People with interest in the sport are as a rule warmly welcomed. My friend in Chicago trains and gets assistance for free every week (might not be free but will always be affordable).

 

[Guinness5.0]

www.usaweightlifting.org

Take a look there. Contact someone if you don't find anyone close. People with interest in the sport are as a rule warmly welcomed. My friend in Chicago trains and gets assistance for free every week (might not be free but will always be affordable).

Could you PM the gym or trainer's info to me? I'm in the Chicago burbs and at some point that info may be VERY useful to me.

 

[swaptrex]

whats a good indication of overtraining?

 

[Madcow2]

whats a good indication of overtraining?

There is a difference between full blown overtraining and not properly managing fatigue (sort of sitting in mild overreaching state and being a bit run down). Full blown overtraining tends to be pretty obvious in the here and now. Not managine fatigue correctly, overreaching for too long, or not allowing the body to properly deload and recover is closer to describing what he's talking about. Having overtrained myself on purpose just to experiment - you don't miss those signs, you are a walking zombie that can't concentrate and performance is straight in the crapper on all lifts. The first link is a post and the 2nd is an article that segways into periodization after discussing the nature of overtraining (accumulated fatigue) and dual factor theory:

http://www.elitefitness.com/forum/showpost.php?p=5107966&postcount=804
http://www.higher-faster-sports.com/PlannedOvertraining.html

 

[Anthrax Invasion]

Read Micker's post. He listed a lot of the common symptoms there. Lack of focus, loss of appetite, trouble sleeping, anxiety (more extreme, I'd think), lack of motivation to train or do most things, can lead towards depression (though I think indirectly, 'cause the lack of sleep and impaired diet would be something to escalate this, not the overtraining itself), and very simply - backpeddling of your poundages in the gym. If you notice this, you may want to ease up.

 

[thelion2005]

...'cause I haven't really lifted consistently in the past two months or so, yet my arms are UP half an inch. Hoo-rah! I always tried to get 'em up to par, too. Looks like I needed a nice break. All I've done lately is practice split jerks, power cleans, my form with the flat bench since I've altered it, snatches, overhead squats, high pulls, OHPs and squats, and I've done it with very moderate weight sporadically. No set training times or anything, just winging it and dealing with a lot of issues in life right now.

But damn, it feels good to look swole without doing much of anything in terms of solid progression and eating. Anyone else contribute this to overtraining?

You should read Yates preach about overtraining and recovery. I know he had a lot of help ... but he is right.