Guys! You Are Not Overtraining

Today, many fitness tips and guides tend to focus on the dangers of overtraining.

Here are a couple of examples:

• Do not worry, you don’t have to work out very often to achieve the results you want.
• If you work out too often, you will overtrain, which will lead to stagnation or even losing your gains in lean muscle mass.

Be careful not to overtrain is the typical bullshit advice that will lead to almost no progress and hence demotivation. In this article, I will explain the different stages of overtraining and make sure everyone understands that it is virtually impossible for a novice to overtrain. A novice is someone who is not very experienced and has just started with strength training.

Overtraining for beginners is a myth; the correct advice is this: STFU and train!

I know this sounds a little harsh, but let’s be honest. The most difficult part about progress in resistance training is usually bringing up constant motivation. Going to the gym on a daily basis and not finding excuses is the main reasons why athletes achieve their goals.

Let’s have a closer look on overtraining now. Is it really so problematic?

What Is Overtraining?

I would highly encourage you to read the entire article if you want to understand overtraining including the different characteristics involved completely.

But first, let’s start with the definition. The general definition of overtraining goes somewhat like the following from Wikipedia:

“Overtraining occurs when a person exceeds their body’s ability to recover from strenuous exercise. Overtraining can be described as a point where a person may have a decrease in performance and plateauing as a result of failure to consistently perform at a certain level or training load; a load which exceeds their recovery capacity.” (Wikipedia, 2019)

To avoid any misunderstandings right from the start, I want to clarify that I am not an advocate of true overtraining. It has been scientifically proven that true conditions of overtraining can cause severe disruptions of our hormones and the neuromuscular system. However, what I would like to stress is the simple fact that novices, meaning people who train a couple of times a week for 45 minutes to an hour, and additionally engage in a split routine will not be able to overtrain.

Just think about this for yourself for a second. How do you want to overtrain? Guys seriously, you cannot overtrain if you belong to this category. You have rest periods all over the place.

Ok, enough of the high-level stuff. Let’s get started with overtraining.

Genetic Potential

The reasons novices and total beginners cannot significantly overload their system is their little strength in comparisons to their genetic potential. You might feel as if a certain weight is heavy, but for your bones and nervous system, this is in fact quite easy to handle. Especially initially, you will realize that without actually gaining muscle size, your body will be a lot stronger within several days while applying progressive overload.

The reason is that your central nervous system (CNS) can learn to recruit muscle fibers more efficiently which will make you stronger without waiting for the new hardware update (muscles mass) to arrive. Your CNS can re-program itself (similar to a new software package) to handle the new training loads more effectively without needing a new graphics card.

Your body can withstand a lot more than you think it can and a certain overload is simply necessary for progress.

Progressive Overload & Motivation

People are either too motivated and train too hard permanently every day or they do not train enough and hence give up at some point due to a lack of progress. So if you belong to the motivated group, stop thinking too much about overtraining and be grateful for your strong mindset.

Related Article: How to Build Muscle: 5 Tips for Serious Mass

To see improvements a certain progressive overload is necessary to make the muscle react and adapt to the new stimulus. Excessive overload without adequate recovery should be avoided, but is, as already said, usually not a significant concern. The problem is often the opposite; people do not train enough to maintain adequate progress over time due to general life demands as school, work, or just a lack of motivation. Especially after the initial novice gains run to an end, it becomes increasingly difficult to stay motivated. At a point when fast visible progress does not occur easily anymore, many people give up. Your body has adapted to the training stimulus, knew what was coming next and has become fatigue-resistant.

If you realize that you have started to reach a plateau, then you should try to implement training adaptations into your standard program. Focus on increased training frequency and shorter rest periods, different exercises, higher volume or intensity or some combination of these should solve the problem till the next plateau comes around the corner. When you reach this point, you will probably need a new and more demanding training routine to progress further.

Recovery

As long as you have an appropriate amount of sleep and nutrition, your body – especially in your first 1-2 years of training – can recover and adapt quickly. If you realize that you have overdone it a little bit, take a couple of days off, maybe even a week, and you will almost certainly come back stronger than before.

Your body can perfectly recover during that time. You will not lose a single muscle fiber only because you have taken a short break. Muscle loss – even though it also depends on your genetics – rarely occurs within the first two weeks, especially if proper nutrition is in place.

A little muscle soreness and fatigue will have nothing to do with overtraining. This soreness or fatigue is mainly an indication that you’re following a solid exercise program.

Actual Fatigue

The first thing you will probably experience is acute fatigue, and if you haven’t experienced this condition yet, then you do not train hard enough to see long term progress. It is essential in strength training (actually in most areas of your life) that you exceed your limits slightly and step out of your comfort zone.

If you don’t convince your body that its current conditioning is too weak to survive, you will see no significant progress. Our bodies are very used to the status quo, and it takes tremendous effort to push them towards a new normal.

Actual fatigue is not overtraining and usually lasts only a couple of days. It is an important part and necessary for improvement — nothing to worry. You will often come out stronger as before as a response to this stage.

Functional and Nonfunctional Overreaching

The second stage of overtraining is officially called functional overreaching (FOR) and means you somewhat overdid your training.

FOR is not problematic, but your required rest period will be longer; usually from a couple of days to weeks. You can spot this in case your body was not able to adapt to the last stimulus, and you perceive a temporary decline in performance. This short term strength loss is normal for any athlete who takes training seriously. After adequate rest, your performance will return to the baseline, and you will be able to lift as heavy as before.

It is possible to drive your body closer towards or directly in the stage of functional overreaching if you know that you won’t be able to train for a while due to holiday reasons or anything else. This will prevent muscle loss during your holiday.

The next stage would be non-functional overreaching and is characterized by stagnation or an actual decrease in strength. It is not a good idea to go so far as a recovery period of weeks to months is required to continue the usual routine.

Overtraining Syndrome

So, now we are talking about real overtraining. The scientific literature and experts in strength training and conditioning call it overtraining syndrome (OTS). This real state of overtraining is characterized by extreme stress on your whole immune system. Recovery can take from months to even years and often means the end of the career for a competitive athlete. Important for you to remember is that beginners are not in danger of this stage.

True overtraining or OTS occurs mainly in elite athletes who train close to their genetic potential every day of the week or even more than once a day. Most people of the general public will never be able to provide this extreme stress level to their bodies.

Conclusion

So, to sum up, let me repeat what I have already said at the beginning of this post. Forget the overtraining myth and hit the gym. Work hard, and you will see visible progress every week. Your body can withstand a lot more than you think.

Recommended further reading: How to Build Muscle: 5 Tips for Serious Mass

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