WHAT IS OVERTRAINING?
A physiological state caused by an excess accumulation of physiological, psychological, emotional, environmental, and chemical stress that leads to a sustained decrease in physical and mental performance, and that requires a relatively long recovery period.
WHAT OVERTRAINING IS NOT!
Overtraining is often misunderstood since even the name leads us in the wrong direction. To begin with, overtraining does not imply excessive training. You didn’t overtrain just because you did 30 sets of one exercise in one session. It doesn’t necessarily imply that what you did was wise, but it turn it doesn’t mean you overworked the muscle group at hand either.
We all have different capacity for recovery, but the point is that overtraining is more than just “training too much.” Furthermore, getting hurt does not always imply that you were overtraining. Overtraining is not training too much but a complex construct a various factors that have to be respected.
OVERTRAINING SYNDROM IS VERY RARE
It’s unlikely that you’ll experience true overtraining syndrome. Training hours of 20-25 hours per week or more would be necessary. However if you’re unfortunate enough to get real overtraining syndrome, it won’t take you days or even weeks to recover; it’ll take months.
Overtraining syndrome cannot be developed by simply training 4-6 hours a week, especially if you use methods that do not test the nervous system.
HOW TO AVOID OVERTRAINING
Pay attention to the core principles of a healthy lifestyle. Make sure you get proper sleep this is the most important part of your regeneration. Fuel your body with all the best nutrients. You would not put crappy oil into an expensive sports car. Only the best oil should be used to maintain, conserve and protect the engine. Do that for your body, eat only the best and nutritious foods to fuel yourself for success. Supplementation can help you greatly with recovery, sleep and performance. Plant extracts, vitamins and minerals can help us lower cortisol and speed and enhance recovery.
