First off I want to let you guys know about a great blog I came across,
Josh's Garage. He has some really good strength and fat loss posts and some interesting opinions about
kettlebell training.
Since I have once again pushed myself into over training I thought it might be a good time to write about the much maligned subject. Over training is serious business if you are trying to achieve athletic or aesthetic goals. Burning yourself out leads to decrease performance and missed workouts, sometimes even fat gain due to stress! So trust me, you want to prevent over training whenever you can but you should still train hard to achieve your goals.
First off, how do you know you are over trained? Well, it is different for everybody but common symptoms are irritability, achenes, upper body flu symptoms, an elevated heart rate and finally dreading training. Personally I tend to get all pissy first as my nervous begins to falter long before my body will. Then I get kind of sick and need to take time off. Over training sucks because I love to train, but it is something you have to learn to control in order to make progress.
How do you become over trained? Good question, I mean I sit on my butt all day at the computer, walk or bike to and from work and then go train for an hour. That is not too strenuous a day, but if I do that too many days in a row, bam! I am beat up and falling apart. Most people become over trained because they train to hard to often without giving their body enough recovery time. For example, you can't train hard and heavy with kettlebells or weights every day, your nervous system will simply start to crack. Using heavy weights will stress the nervous system much more than you realize and will it hit you all of a sudden. A lot of endurance athletes over train their body's by doing too much of the same movements resulting in chronic injuries like knee or hip pains.
How can you prevent over training? Easy, sleep as much as possible. An eight hour sleep plus a nap is great, if you can get more, even better! Napping does wonders for me, I swear by them for recovery and mental health. Eating a ton of quality protein, fats and fiber will help too. All that nutrition will give the body what it needs to recover quickly. As for the nervous system, I take
zinc,
magnesium and a product called Calms Fortes that really improves my mood and recovery. By far the most important factor in preventing over training is to schedule light or off days in your weekly schedule so you don't burn out and miss more days. I am really guilty of this one as I almost live to train! The truth is though, sometimes it is better to live to fight another day.
If you are over trained, what should you do? First off, pop a
ZMA and go to sleep! Sleep is recovery, remember that. Next, take a few days off, at least one more than you feel you need to give yourself a buffer. During this time off, eat a lot of quality food, drink a lot of water and keep on sleeping. When it is time to hit the gym again, take a look at your schedule and see if you can trim it down a bit to prevent this from happening again. I find the best thing to do is cut out a light or optional workout. Make sure your training focuses on your goal and not on doing things you think are important "just because". As
Dan John said, "You see, to do everything at once, you have to be lousy at everything. To be great, you have to focus on very few things — most of us can barely handle more than one."
So, if your goal is to become a better kettlebell lifter, schedule as many kettlebell sessions as you can handle without over training and stick to them. If you want to lift weights or run on top of that you will most likely have to eliminate a kettlebell session. Is it worth it? Will it help you reach your goals? I will tell you one thing, being over trained and missing 3 days of training won't help anyone!
Since I have once again pushed myself into over training I thought it might be a good time to write about the much maligned subject. Over training is serious business if you are trying to achieve athletic or aesthetic goals. Burning yourself out leads to decrease performance and missed workouts, sometimes even fat gain due to stress! So trust me, you want to prevent over training whenever you can but you should still train hard to achieve your goals.
How do you become over trained? Good question, I mean I sit on my butt all day at the computer, walk or bike to and from work and then go train for an hour. That is not too strenuous a day, but if I do that too many days in a row, bam! I am beat up and falling apart. Most people become over trained because they train to hard to often without giving their body enough recovery time. For example, you can't train hard and heavy with kettlebells or weights every day, your nervous system will simply start to crack. Using heavy weights will stress the nervous system much more than you realize and will it hit you all of a sudden. A lot of endurance athletes over train their body's by doing too much of the same movements resulting in chronic injuries like knee or hip pains.
How can you prevent over training? Easy, sleep as much as possible. An eight hour sleep plus a nap is great, if you can get more, even better! Napping does wonders for me, I swear by them for recovery and mental health. Eating a ton of quality protein, fats and fiber will help too. All that nutrition will give the body what it needs to recover quickly. As for the nervous system, I take zinc, magnesium and a product called Calms Fortes that really improves my mood and recovery. By far the most important factor in preventing over training is to schedule light or off days in your weekly schedule so you don't burn out and miss more days. I am really guilty of this one as I almost live to train! The truth is though, sometimes it is better to live to fight another day.
If you are over trained, what should you do? First off, pop a ZMA and go to sleep! Sleep is recovery, remember that. Next, take a few days off, at least one more than you feel you need to give yourself a buffer. During this time off, eat a lot of quality food, drink a lot of water and keep on sleeping. When it is time to hit the gym again, take a look at your schedule and see if you can trim it down a bit to prevent this from happening again. I find the best thing to do is cut out a light or optional workout. Make sure your training focuses on your goal and not on doing things you think are important "just because". As Dan John said, "You see, to do everything at once, you have to be lousy at everything. To be great, you have to focus on very few things — most of us can barely handle more than one."
So, if your goal is to become a better kettlebell lifter, schedule as many kettlebell sessions as you can handle without over training and stick to them. If you want to lift weights or run on top of that you will most likely have to eliminate a kettlebell session. Is it worth it? Will it help you reach your goals? I will tell you one thing, being over trained and missing 3 days of training won't help anyone!