When introducing one’s self to a new sport it’s easy to become so enthusiastic/involved that you try to do everything as quickly and as fast as possible. I want to learn EVERYTHING. NOW. I'm LOVING boxing. It's challenging, it's new, a total body workout. But quick changes and/or increases to your workload set up the perfect scenario for overtraining. You've been there right? You try so hard - and then you hit a wall… you just can’t seem to get your heart rate over 120 and lift even your dinner from the table. So how to prevent that wall from sending you straight back to go?
First one must understand. What is overtraining? Quite simply you body says enough. Hits the wall. Reaches the limit. It can’t heal the tiny microtears/trauma you are creating quickly enough, can’t load glycogen fast enough, and therefore your muscles can no longer respond. In fact they are probably getting weaker! But it’s more than that. It’s a mental and emotional battle! You don’t want to appear weak, you don’t want to give up! So what are you to do? There is only one solution: rest. You have to be honest with yourself. If you are aware, honest and smart about it to catch the symptoms early, you can make it just one skipped workout, maybe a day, max two’s rest instead of possible injury and a week or two setting yourself very far back.
So what are the symptoms? There are a lot of articles out there but here is a quick overview of what I find most easy to track and the earliest symptoms. Track your heart rate on a daily basis, both resting and during workouts. Heart rate elevated in the morning? You’re probably worn down. This is a sure fire signal you are worn down, though can also signal an oncoming cold. As you progress further without enough rest your heart rate becomes slow to respond… you try to sprint but it doesn’t budge. Finally you just won’t be able to keep yourself moving – when it gets to its worst you’ll feel like your heart is about to explode out of your chest even at a normally easy pace! By that time it’s gone too far… you’re going to need a few days rest.
A great test using orthostatic heart rate, developed by Heikki Rusko:
· Lay down and rest comfortably for 10 minutes the same time each day (morning is best).
· At the end of 10 minutes, record your heart rate in beats per minute.
· Then stand up
· After 15 seconds, take a second heart rate in beats per minute.
· After 90 seconds, take a third heart rate in beats per minute.
· After 120 seconds, take a fourth heart rate in beats per minute.
Well rested athletes will show a consistent heart rate between measurements, but Rusko found a marked increase (10 beats/minutes or more) in the 120 second-post-standing measurement of athletes on the verge of overtraining. Such a change may indicate that you have not recovered from a previous workout, are fatigued, or otherwise stressed and it may be helpful to reduce training or rest another day before performing another workout.
So you know the symptoms. So what’s the hardest part? Accepting its time and acknowledging them! I don’t claim to be an expert. Where am I right now? Somewhere between complete failure and possible injury. My load right now is between 1-3 workouts a day… while not an increase in load for me, the introduction of new movements and recruitment of previouslyuntrained muscles requires more rest! I was so excited to keep learning new skills in boxing that even when I saw my heart rate becoming slow to respond earlier this week I told myself I could go a few more days before rest – don’t want to miss a training session! But instead by this evening my hip was tweaking at the slightest stress and despite being able to get my heart rate up, it wasn’t coming back down and while I could start an exercise strong, 15s in I could barely lift a weight. Time for at least a solid day of rest. At least the weekend is nearly here!
I highly recommend reading Gray Cook’s book Athletic Body in Balance (http://www.amazon.com/
What signals overtraining to you? How do you convince yourself to take a day off?
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