Do Less and Be More: Avoid injury and burnout from overtraining

Recently I was asked what is something that is going great in your personal life right now. I said it was that I got my energy back. I am now able to teach a 6:30 a.m. cycle class on Monday mornings, train clients around the city, work on my online business, and squeeze in a lifting session in the afternoon. (teaching is not my workout) I would not have been able to do this one year ago. I didn’t have the energy.

One of my FB friends posted today about how she’s cut back on training because she realized she was overtraining and that was hindering her progress. She is so spot on!

When it comes to fitness We live in the day of extreme. Extreme diets, Extreme Exercise Program, Extreme Weight Loss, Extreme everything. From all of my preaching you know that Extreme is not sustainable and just leads to more problems in the end,

Overtraining leads to injury

For the first time ever last year, I was injured. My back extensor felt like it was strained or overstretched. I had stopped training the way I believe to be the best way which is an integrated training system of: Conditioning, Strength Training, Dynamic Flexibility, Plyometric (Reactive), and Coordination. Because of this, my muscles were tight and not in the proper range of motion when I strength trained making me a prime candidate for injury.

I was training the wrong way by being focused on the amount I was lifting and not the WAY I was lifting. I should also add that I committed another error by doing excessive exercise leaving me tired and I’m sure that was just too much for my body. I’m lucky something worse didn’t happen.

Overtraining leads to injury because constantly pounding your joints, tendons, ligaments, and muscles with excessive amounts of weights, sets, and repetitions can lead to overuse injuries. I used to shake my head at all these HARDCORE people who were constantly posting on Instagram about their KILL KILL KILL workouts and then the next posts would be about how they got injured.

If you’re in it for the long haul, then you need to be smarter about your training. Take breaks from the weights, focus on lifting lighter sometimes, work on flexibility and range of Motion.

Right now I am training myself as I train clients which is to not only focus on the larger muscles but also to work on the smaller stabilizer muscles. I truly believe this helps with injury prevention because it’s the stabilizers that help to…STABILIZE our joints.

Stimulate Don’t Annihilate

One of the biggest A-Ha Moments for me last year was reading books by top physique coach, Scott Abel. He is at the forefront of discussing metabolic damage and has a very extensive history in bodybuilding and physique training.

He talked about he watched 8x Mr. Olympia, Lee Haney train. He was not focused on the amount he lifted but how he lifted. Haney’s motto was: Stimulate Don’t Annihilate. Lee Haney also That was good enough to win him 8 Mr. Olympia titles and best of all when you watch Lee Haney today, he’s healthy, vibrant, can jog, and isn’t all beat up.

The opposite of that are some other folks who trained with INSANELY heavy weight and pushed it to the limit. Those folks can barely move today and have had surgery after surgery because of the damage they inflicted on themselves.

To add: We must be realistic about how long it takes to accomplish our goals. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither are our bodies. It takes time to see big changes but in InstaFitness world, people are not interested in hearing that.

Overtraining leads to less results

Progress is made during rest and recovery so if you’re constantly pounding when will your body have a chance to recover? I can tell you that last year I felt run down. I will not forget the day after teaching two classes in a row that I was so fatigued, I was in bed the whole next day. I could not work I was so tired. I was burned out and of course as you know I wasn’t seeing many results.

This year is different. Not only am I not run down but I actually FEEL my workouts a lot more. They are shorter (usually no more than one hour 10 minutes), more intense (even with lighter weight because I’m focused on HOW I’m lifting), and I really am feeling my body more.

What about results?

I don’t know because I haven’t weighed myself in about 2 months or tried on the pants that don’t fit. All I know is that I feel 10x better and that my energy levels are up. I came to the conclusion that I cannot control how and when my body decides to respond to my nutrition and exercise. When Amanda Latona said it took her body 13 months to RESPOND to her training I thought: “WOW!” This month marks one year since I took the reigns back over and I don’t regret doing that.

I know I will be back to form physically when I can do pull ups again like I could with my awesome trainer Shawn. I am not giving up on that.

I’ve stopped seeing exercise as punishment for eating or something to tear myself down because of self loathing. It’s something to make me feel alive, keep me strong, and to help me do things I enjoy doing such as teaching classes at 6:30 a.m.