Overtraining

It’s no secret for athletes, that in order to perform at your best, you need to work hard.  Equally important as all your hard work, is your recovery.  Your body relies on recovery periods to rebuild the muscles used during your workouts. 

Overtraining occurs when adequate recovery time is not given, preventing regeneration of the muscles to occur. In other words, muscles are not able to repair and recover sufficiently between hard workouts. If this imbalance continues and is not altered, the result is a decline in performance. ‘Overtraining syndrome’ is a term used to describe the symptoms of overtraining that have been present for several weeks to several months.

The most common and noticeable symptom is fatigue.  Tiredness after a workout is normal, but fatigue, as it pertains to overtraining, will last beyond the allotted recovery time.  The over-trained athlete may lose their competitive drive and desire for the sport.  Constant aches and pains, insomnia, drops in performance, depression and irritability, and increased number of injuries are also common symptoms.  On the other side of lack of interest for the sport, some over-trained athletes may experience a compulsive need for exercise.  Seeing their performance drop can be disheartening, so some feel they need to exercise even more to compensate for it.  This is a dangerous symptom as this will only exasperate the overtraining and serve to weaken the athlete even more. 

If you’re experiencing any of the above symptoms, it’s possible you are overtraining.  Pay attention to your routine.  Your muscles generally need about 24 hours between intense strength workouts.  Are you allowing for that?  (This does not mean you can’t exercise every day, just that if you did a killer chest workout on Monday, you shouldn’t do one again on Tuesday).  Make note of your levels of fatigue and your performance.  A training log will help you notice trends in your workouts, how you feel, and if there’s any drop in performance. Be as detailed as possible when entering information into your workout log.  Include time of workout, intensity of the workout, what you did, what you ate before and after (and during if it’s a long endurance workout), your levels of sleep, mood etc. 

Another way to tell if you may be overtraining is to track your resting heart rate. Take your resting heart rate each day at the same time, preferably when your first wake in the morning.  Any significant increase (higher by more than just a few beats per minute) could mean you are not fully recovered.

Many athletes have experienced overtraining at one point or another.  In trying to achieve that balance between exercise and recovery, we sometimes push it too far.  The important thing is that we learn from the limits of our body, and take steps to alter our exercise programs to stay within those limits. If you are currently overtraining, the best thing you can do is rest and recover.  Easier said than done, I know, especially for those who, like me, love their sport. Understand that this rest and recovery is going to ultimately bring your performance back up and keep you injury-free.  Be sure to stay hydrated and maybe get a sports massage.  This will help loosen up sore, aching, overworked muscles as well as relax the mind.  Cross training is another possible way to help treat overtraining.  It will prevent you from continuing to overwork certain muscles by using them in a different (and most often non impact) way. 

It’s hard to assess when one is overtraining (and therefore it’s hard to prevent) because everyone responds differently to exercise and everyone can handle difference volumes of it.  Every athlete pushes their body and tries to find that limit of how much they can handle without going too far.  The best advice I can give is to listen to your body, schedule recovery periods into your program and vary your workout.

Assessing Your Health

Assessing your health is important.  Knowing your risk factors and current health status will help you know what areas need some work and how you can improve.  There are several different ways to screen clients for health, all with varying degrees of accuracy and convenience.  In this blog, I will cover the three most common ones that every trainer should use prior to beginning workouts with you.

• The first is BMI. This stands for Body Mass Index and assesses your weight relative to your height. The calculation is reached by dividing your body weight in kilograms (weight in pounds divided by 2.2), by your height in meters squared (height in inches multiplied by 0.0254 squared).  The BMI is used as a way to assess obesity and associated health risks. A BMI of 25 or higher is usually accompanied by increased obesity-related health risks.

Here is a BMI classification chart:

o   Underweight:          BMI below 18.5

o   Normal:                      BMI between 18.5 and 24.9

o   Overweight:             BMI between 25 and 29.9

o   Obesity Class 1:       BMI between 30 and 34.9

o   Obesity Class 2:       BMI between 35 and 39.9

o   Obesity Class 3:       BMI 40 and over

The BMI is used to screen general populations for health risk. It’s a relatively easy and time efficient way to do so.  Although it is an indirect measurement, it seems to be fairly reliable for most people.  It does, however, have limitations.  Because it doesn’t take into account muscle mass, it is not accurate for athletes or those with more muscle mass.  Muscle weighs more than fat, so although an athlete’s weight on the scale might be higher than their sedentary counterpart, they are not necessarily at a higher risk for obesity-related health risks.  Athletes with large muscle mass will get an inaccurately high number for their BMI. It is for this reason that BMI can only go so far to assess health risk. As a tool for the general population, it is great, but it is not accurate or appropriate for everyone.

• The second form of assessment is waist to hip ratio.  The pattern of body fat distribution is a key predictor of health risks related to obesity.  Two circumference measurements are taken for this assessment; one at the waist and one at the hips.  The waist measurement is attained at the narrowest part of the torso, usually a little above the bellybutton.  The hip measurement is taken at the widest part of the hips. The waist to hip ratio is the circumference of the waist divided by that of the hips. For example if your waist is 26 inches and your hips are 36 inches, your waist to hip ratio would be .72. Health risks increase as your waist to hip ratio does.  Those who store most of their fat in the abdomen area around their internal organs (android), have higher risk for obesity-related issues when compared to those who store their fat in the hips and thighs (gynoid).

The classification chart for waist to hip ratio is below:

Male                                                     Female                                                 Classification

.95 and below                                    .8 and below                                      Low Risk

.96-1.0                                                  .81-.85                                                  Moderate Risk

1.0 +                                                      .85 +                                                      High Risk

• The final aspect of health assessment I will discuss here is defining your positive risk factors.  This will usually come in the form of a health history questionnaire; basic information about you that we need to know in order to accurately assess the status of your health. If you currently smoke or have quit within the last 6 months for example, that is a positive risk factor which increases your risk of coronary artery disease.  Other positive risk factors that you can control are: sedentary lifestyle, hypertension, and obesity.  All these factors can be eliminated with proper diet and exercise.  Family history, obviously, you can’t change. You have a risk factor if your father or male first degree relative has a heart attack or sudden death before the age of 55.  The age for your mother or female first degree relative is 65.  There are other controllable positive risk factors as well like your fasting glucose score and LHL(bad) cholesterol and total cholesterol score.  If your HDL (good) cholesterol score is over 60, it eliminates one risk factor.  Often you don’t know this information as blood tests need to be done in order to acquire it.

Whether or not you plan to work with a trainer, this information is helpful to know.  BMI calculations are simple and can even be done online.  If you have a tape measure, you can also enter in your waist and hip measurements online for your waist to hip ratio.   

Setting Fitness Goals

Trying to find motivation (and time) to begin and stick to an exercise program isn’t easy.  Excuses and things that interrupt your fitness schedule are everywhere.  Proper goal setting in an important way to help you stick to your routine.  I use the S.M.A.R.T. principle for all the clients I work with. It’s a great way to specifically break down your goal, assess whether it’s reasonable and attainable, and plan how you’ll reach that goal.

The S.M.A.R.T Principle:

S-Specific: Choose a specific goal you’d like to achieve.  For example, say you want to improve your 10k time by 2 minutes over 6 months, or lose 10 pounds in 2 months, rather than just saying you want to be faster or thinner.  The more specific your goal is, the more likely you are to achieve it.

M-Measurable: How are you going to measure your progress towards your goal?  It’s beneficial to document and record your progress. You’ll be able to see how you’re improving, and if there are weak areas, you’ll be able to see that and make changes as necessary.  For the above examples: Time yourself on a 10k run once a month and record your time to see how you’re improving.  If you’re wanting to lose weight, either weigh yourself or get a body fat test every week and record your progress.  If you’re weighing yourself, do it at the same time of day each week. If you go the body fat testing route, make sure the tester is a trained professional, and, for increased accuracy, have the same tester conduct each test.

A-Action: This is the most important part, how exactly will you reach your goals?  It’s important to be specific here too.  Instead of just saying you will run faster, tell me HOW.  Saying you will add one track workout a week to your current program where you will time your 400m time, or sprinting the last half mile of your training runs is more specific. If your goal is to lose weight, simply saying you’ll workout more isn’t enough.  How will you workout more?  Maybe you’ll add one group exercise class or one session with a personal trainer to your current workout program every week.  Maybe you’ll add one fruit and one vegetable to your diet everyday and walk your dog three times a week.  If your action is specific, you’ll know exactly what you need to do to get where you want to be. 

R-Realistic: For success in your goal, it needs to be realistic.  If you’ve never run a 5k before for example, it’s not realistic (or safe) to say that you will run a marathon.  There is no reason that can’t be a long term goal, but in the short term, your immediate goal should maybe be a 5k and then gradually progress.  If your goal is to lose 50 pounds, it’s not realistic to say you will do so in a month. Again, long and short term goals.

T-Time: With any goal, it’s important to establish a timeframe. Without a timeline, it becomes easy to procrastinate.  It may also be beneficial for you to set up timeline “checkpoints” to keep you on track. For example, take our 10k goal, maybe after 3 months you’d like to be one minute faster.  This gives you a check point halfway through your 6 month goal of improving your 10k time by two minutes. It is sometimes helpful to break down your goal like that, so you have smaller accomplishments to look forward to that are bringing you closer to achieving your overall goal.

Utilizing the S.M.A.R.T principle will help you achieve your desired goals. Remember when creating these, it’s necessary to choose a goal that’s important to you. If you are not committed or don’t have a desire to accomplish the goal in the first place, finding motivation to get there will be more difficult. Choose something that means something to you.  The same is true for the “action” portion. Don’t choose to do a group exercise class every week if you hate going to group classes. Instead set aside a time to hike or walk outside. If you come across questions or concerns when making your S.M.A.R.T goals, feel free to email me at thenextmilefitness@gmail.com.

Interval Training

Interval training consists of bouts of high intensity exercise followed by brief periods of active recovery.  Because of the high intensity bursts, interval training helps you burn more calories in a shorter period of time. I generally do my intervals with two minutes of intense exercise followed by one minute of recovery.

Interval training provides many benefits as it works both your anaerobic and aerobic systems. Your anaerobic system is used primarily for activities that require strength, speed and power such as body building or the 100 meter dash.  These anaerobic activities last between a few seconds up to about two minutes; they are short, intense bursts of activity. This system works without oxygen but the byproduct is lactic acid. (The build-up of lactic acid in the muscles is what creates the soreness you feel after a good workout.) Because this system works without oxygen, it creates an oxygen deficit in the body (which is why anaerobic activities can only be maintained for a short period of time before the aerobic system kicks in).

The aerobic system is used for any activity lasting more than about two minutes (so it’s used a lot).  Activities like running, cycling and swimming that require a great deal of oxygen to perform, are great examples of activities that utilize the aerobic system.

As far as interval training goes, your high intensity phase will have you using your anaerobic system for two minutes (or however long your intense phase is, but no longer than two).  You’re creating that oxygen deficit and building lactic acid in the muscles.  Your active recovery (one to two minutes) gives your body a chance to “catch-up” with its necessary oxygen demands as well as breaks down some of the lactic acid. This type of training greatly improves your cardiovascular efficiency which is your ability to deliver oxygen to the working muscles. Interval training also increases your tolerance to lactic acid, meaning more of it can build up in your bloodstream before you need to stop or slow down.

In order to do an interval workout, you need to know at what intensity you are working.  Perceived exertion is a great and easy way to measure this.  The easiest one to use is a scale of 1-10; 1 being very low physical activity and 10 being maximal exertion.  The scale breaks down as such:

·         1- very light activity: anything other than sleeping

·         2-3- light activity: can maintain for hours-easy to breathe and carry on a conversation

·         4-6-moderate activity: feels like you can exercise for hours-breathing more heavily and can hold short conversations

·         7-8- vigorous activity: on verge of being uncomfortable-short of breath-can only speak one sentence at a time

·         9-very hard activity: very difficult to maintain exercise intensity- can barely breathe and only speak a single word

·         10-maximal effort activity: feels impossible to keep going-completely out of breath and unable to speak

During the intense phase of the workout, you want your perceived exertion to be between 8 and 9.  During your recovery phase, you’ll want to be around 5 or 6. Interval workouts can be done almost anywhere. On the track you can alternate between sprinting and jogging. A sample interval workout for the track could be to sprint around the track once followed by a jog one time around.  You can also do these workouts on the treadmill.  You could either change the speed or incline for the intense intervals. The same could be said for cycling, by changing the resistance and/or speed, of the elliptical by changing the resistance and/or the incline.   The important thing is that you are paying attention to your rate of perceived exertion and being aware of the time of each interval.

Here is a sample interval workout that I frequently use:

5 minutes of warming up

2 minutes- intense interval

1 minute- recovery interval

Intense/recovery intervals repeated for desired length of workout

5 minutes of cooling down

I keep this going between 45 and 60 minutes.  The minimum amount of time for an interval workout should be about 20 minutes.  If you are a beginner, you can lengthen the amount of time you spend in your recovery phase.  Starting with 1 minute intense and 2 minutes recovery is also an option if you are new to this type of workout.