Overtraining

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Overtraining. Many of us are probably guilty of it at some time during our workout regime. In an effort, to get bigger, stronger or leaner we put in a big effort training everyday with the idea that more is better. This mentality is probably most identified with overachievers and perfectionists.

I'm sure if you're reading this, you're probably one of them as you want to find out everything you can about training and contest preparation so you can better yourself at the gym or on stage.

To be successful in anything, in particular in the sport of bodybuilding where high disciplined is needed, you need to have an element of 'obsession' in your personality otherwise you wouldn't achieve your goal. The reasons why some athletes don't achieve as much definition as they should for a show is not applying enough effort ie they give in to cravings or don't work hard enough training or doing cardio. Which isn't really a problem for our overachievers!

In this update we'll look at the issue of overtraining. Specifically training during pre contest phase.But its identifying when your obsession (ie perhaps doing too much cardio, dieting too hard) becomes detrimental to your progress that is the key to contest success. Identifying this could make the difference between having a depleted or a great body at the gym or on stage. Read on to learn some of the symptoms of overtraining.

The Guide to Overdoing It When you're starting out on your pre contest journey, perhaps at 12 weeks out, you can probably get away with going overboard on your cardio and weights. You still have plenty of fat stores that the body can tap in to use for energy required to fuel your 1hr cardio sessions and heavy weight training sessions. However problems tend to arise as lower levels of body fat are reached - usually around 4 weeks out from contest if you've been a super dedicated athlete which our overachievers are.

 

With four weeks to go, overachievers are usually looking pretty sharp but instead of mainting their diets and decrease their intensity of their cardio regime, they usually start panicing.They feel time is running out as contest day gets closer. They start to eat less, and exercise more. They begin to over-diet and over-train. At first, their legs start to feel heavy - an early sign of energy levels getting low. As the days passed and the show draw nearer, they try harder and harder to get that last little bit of definition. They cut calories even more, and keep increasing the amount of cardio they do. They experience a drastic strength decrease in the gym and energy levels hit an all time low.