Overtraining / Recovery

Hi

First here's my current workout schedule

Monday
- Bench Press
- Squats
- Shoulder Press
- Triceps Extension
- Push Ups

Tuesday
Off

Wednesday
- Martial Arts (Mostly heavy bag training for 10 rounds)

Thursday
- Deadlift
- Bent Over Rows
- Bicep Curls
- Wrist/Reverse Wrist Curls
- Close Grip Upright Rows

Friday
Off

Saturday
2 Hours of intense indoor tennis with a friend

Sunday
2 Hours of intense indoor tennis in a tennis league.

For my compound lift, i'm mainly using 5 x 5, going for strength. For isolation movement i'm doing 3 x 10.

Lately I find that i'm always tired and more depressed than usual. My performance gains in pretty much all my lift have stalled. My energy level are rather down as well. I think I might be overtraining ?

One thing i'm never sure about, is what is the ideal recovery time for exercises? When I squat, i'm usually sore for 4-5 days, samething in my chest when I bench press. I try to eat a healthy diet, but I do stay away from supplements, trying to keep it "natural". Heard supplements are bad for your kidney ?

How long should I wait between workout sessions? Should I reduce my physical activity ? Please help, I don't know what to do anymore, would really appreciate some input.

Thanks

Well I'm not a complete expert when it comes to lifting weights but if I recall right muscles recover in about 1-7 days depending on the severity of tearing in the muscle fibers.

The nervous system can take up to around 2 weeks to recover.

What I would humbly suggest you may try is to take a break from weight lifting for 2 weeks.

Once those 2 weeks are up revise your workout.. If you are lifting your ''maximum'' every work out give every muscle/muscle group 5-10 days rest after the work out.

You should be able to tell once the muscles have recovered they should have regained full range of motion the stiffness, soreness & swelling should be gone and most of all that the muscles strength is slightly better than during the previous work out (if you can't tell then equal is good enough provided all soreness is gone)

When your on your resting period just practice your martial arts, tennis whatever light activity you can think of though you should try to place your weight lifting so you can recover a bit for your tennis.

And of course nutrition, don't just eat like a madman after work outs obviously get your proteins, antioxidants, acids and others but don't go overboard. During recovery our muscles ability to intake carbohydrates is reduced so keep that in mind.

Anyway that's what I suggest you try doing, I'm sure somebody will give you a different suggestion so it's all up to You! I suggest you browse around the net information regarding weight lifting has greatly improved over the years and if you have the patience to read scientific studies, articles and the like You'll gain a lot more knowledge which will ultimately make your work outs more efficient and productive.

What are your actuall goals? are you a martial artist? A tennis player? a bodybuilder? At the moment you seem to be trying to be everything and its no wonder you are overtrained and hitting burnout.

Training 5x5 can work wonders, but you are over-egging the pudding with the amount of exercises you apply it to, and also killing th benefit by sticking in related movements in different rep ranges.

I am happy to sort something out for you, but its going to look a lot different to the above.

I get the sense that tennis is a structured part of your life, but is the 'martial arts' just you working a bag for fun, or do you undertake actual classes in an art?

Bit more info, and decide what you really need from your training, and with that info I will go to work

Hey Cord

You're right that i'm trying to be everything and it's not working. Been considering dropping a martial arts to focus on tennis but I have a hard time doing so, but the way things are going now, I can't deal with the exhaustion anymore since it started to affect me not only physically but mentally as well.

I used to take classes in kickboxing many years ago but i've stopped to train on my own, so now i'm just training on my heavy bag/speed bag from time to time for fun and to maintain my ability's.

Guess what I really need from my training is something to maximize power/strength for tennis without bulking up too much (tennis players are usually lean) as I think it's the sport that I want to focus on for at least the next 6 months instead of the martial arts since I play tennis even more often in the summer.

Do you think I could fit both tennis and my strength training routine without being completely exhausted/sore all the time ? I do understand that i'm doing perhaps too many exercises, what would work best for me ?

Thanks Cord, really appreciate your help!

Perfect! The mot important step is deciding on your goals, and prioritising from there.

You can certainly train to improve your tennis performance, and I think it would be wise to drop the heavy bag work in service towards this goal.

A couple more questions: Do you train in a gym, or at home? and also, is all tennis training purely weekend based?

I have my home gym, olympic barbell with weights and a power rack. Will maybe add dumbbells in the future, still not sure on that.

Tennis for now is week-end only, but at the end of april, that might change to once in the week/once in the week-end or something like that.

OK, no problem

We have to cut your volume right back, and MTK is right that as your overtraining has now been lomg term, you do need to take some time off - one full week including tennis. Your symptoms are an injury, so you need to rest and heal.

During your week off, you should aim for a minumum of 10 hrs sleep per night, eat clean, but eat big, and do nothing other than a gentle full body stretching routine every night before bed. Use this stretching time to quiet your mind - think of nothing but the sensation in your muscles.

The routine itself is going to be very basic.

Tuesday:
Squats 5x5
Barbell RollOuts 5x10

Thursday:
Deadlifts 5x5
Bus Drivers 5x10

Weekends: Tennis.

Every day: Stretching before bed. on rest days make it developmental.

That's it.
Remember that 5x5 means that the 5th rep is as explosive as the 1st - you are not trying to fatigue the muscle, you are trying to ingrain an explosive response between nervous system and muscle fibres - big difference.

Links for exercises:
Bus drivers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMGEVo77bHI

The movement originates in the hips and core, not the arms, the arms perpetuate the transfer of the weight, they do not make it happen on their own.

Barbell roll outs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8np24WmTy_E

When you find the kneeling version easy on the 10th rep of the 5th set, its time to progress to this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATYdM_-TW5s&feature=fvst

Thanks for the tips Cord, really appreciate. That roll outs and bus drivers exercice look pretty cool, never seen those before.

Does 10 hrs sleep per night really make a difference? I usually sleep 8-9 hrs per night right now.

In your intensive recovery week, yes. In normal training 8-9 will be fine. Right now you need the rest for the body to recover and your brain chemistry to normalise. A week of total rest should be enough, and a big part of that recovery is the sleep and the nutrition.

Few questions about the program.

What would you recommend for warming up before doing those exercises ? I usually do 1 set of 10 reps at 50% of the load that I will lift as a warm-up, should I keep doing that or do you suggest a different approach ? Also since I already deadlift/squat, when i'll resume my workout in a week, should I resume with the same amount of weight or drop a few pounds ?

One thing I liked to do from time to time in my warm up and cooling down was 1 or 2 rounds of skipping rope, is it okay if I keep doing that ?

Also i've noticed that the exercises i'll be doing will really concentrate on my core/back/legs, why is that you don't recommend doing anything like bench press/shoulder press/bent over rows ? I'll guess it has to do with overtraining, but i'd like to understand why you didn't include them.

A warm up for strength training should awaken the CNS, not fatigue the muscles. Remember that your working sets are not maximal- you will not be going to failure at any point in this routine, you are concentrating on explosive controlled movement- the generation of power. A fatigued muscle is not a powerful muscle.
With that in mind, you need to rethink what a warm up is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTqI5wnH63M






I have no idea- havent seen you lift. I will tell you that your technique on the 5th rep should be as perfect, and your lift as explosive as on the 1st rep. If your reps slow down and you find the last one an 'all out' effort, then you are training to heavy for your goals. You have to train your body to generate power, so slow 'wading through porridge' reps will kill your chances of that. 3 minutes rest between sets, controlled but not slow negative movements in reps, and explosive, fast positive drives in reps.



The dynamic warm up you will now be doing replaces this more effectively.



Because you are training for sports performance, not to look pretty in your budgie-smugglers on the beach .

Think about your (or any) sport for a second. Where to you ever see bench or bent over row movements replicated outside of the gym?

I am not saying they are not valid of usefull in some instances, but examine tennis, and its all core, torso rotation, and leg power. Dont believe me? next time you practice with your friend, have him send a few easy serves directly at you. Your job is to stand still, upright and feet together, and use only your arms to return the ball. I guarantee that after less than a minute you wont even reach the net, and that nothing you hit moves with any speed or purpose.
Pecs are for show, legs and core are for go.

Also, examine the bus drivers and roll outs again - sure they are 'core' exercises, but think as a tennis player for a minute. notice anything familiar about the movements? Drivers look a little like double handed fore and backhand at all? The roll outs replicate the shoulder/back articulation in the serve a little?

You are a tennis player. You want power to apply to tennis. Those are your goals. Any conditioning routine that does not address those goals directly is a waste of your energy.

The world is full of dedicated, motivated athletes wasting their time and energy needlessly in gyms, doing what they think should work, not what does work. I would suggest a different path.

I definitely agree that the bus drivers/rollout do ressemble movements in tennis. I'm anxious to try that new program, but I do still feel very tired, so i'll concentrate on recovery before resuming my workout.

One thing that does intrigue me.

Why is it that when you read books/magazine, they all have those crazy workout plan with barely one day off, how does anyone get results from those ? I know you'll say he's a bad example, but Bruce Lee, he was doing bench press, squats, bent over rows, good mornings, shoulder press and bicep curls every other day, with a 4x6 program + all the martial arts training, How is that even possible ?

Another example, I was reading the Modern Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding aka Arnold Schwarzeneggers book, he uses 1 day off only, working every muscle group twice a week.

Do these program only work when your on steroid ? like where's the catch ? I'm not gonna lie to you, I always thought these books were the "bible" but I realize now that they are one of the main reason why i'm so exhausted, because I tried to follow what they suggested.

Well, with Lee, you have to take everything with a pinch of salt, because he has become more superhuman every year since his death. Plus the fact that he was probably overtraining himself, maintained an unhealthily low bodyfat level and died at 32. He's not a poster boy for sound training tactics

Pro-bodybuilders and their articles in magazines books are a tricky thing to try and follow for a number of reasons:

1. Training is their job, so every minute of life not training is dedicated to recovery and growth, not work/family etc.

2. They are genetic freaks. Steroids alone wont build a body like that- if it were that easy, there would be more people who looked like that.

3. Steroids and biochemical enhancers do play a part, and alter recovery and volume levels massively.

4. No pro is going to give up their real training details. If they find something really effective, they are not going to tell others. Its a selfish, competetive world. Arnie has gone on record as saying he used to use interviews to give false training details on purpose in the hope his rivals would copy it and mess up their training

5. The Arnie encyclopedia is a fantastic resource for exercises and technique pointers, but it was written and compiled in the late 70's/Early 80's, so the sports science behind its routine advice has been superceeded many times over.

6. Magazines such as Flex, MuscleMag, Muscle anf Fitness etc, exist primarily to promote supplements. The training articles have got a little better since the internet made legit training advice more readily available to the masses, but its still not great. All those magazines have an in-house editorial team who come up with the routines/articles themselves, and then attribute them to a given 'star' of the scene, who gets paid to do a photo shoot to go with it. These guys dont sit around sweating magazine deadlines and submitting articles

You can train 5-6 days a week without overtraining, providing you adjust volume and structure accordingly, but the question for busy people with real lives to live outside the gym is why you would want to, when you can achieve results with less training. Efficient training seldom exercises the ego.

Thanks that explains a lot.