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Overtraining, The "Inside" Story
By Richard Morales, M.D.
During the past two decades I have come across numerous articles on overtraining in all major exercise books and magazines. Like most other body builders these have failed to persuade me to avoid overtraining even when know I?m heading that way. The fact that these articles continue to be written and body builders still continue to over train probably relates to the lack of contemporary information about the physiology and biochemistry of this phenomenon. Today?s body builder is considerably more sophisticated about physiology, nutrition, and biochemistry than his counterpart 30 years ago. As such, he needs to understand over training in a way that takes into account his new level of sophistication about these matters.
The following information will update you about the physiology about the stress and overtraining in a way that ties in your present levels of knowledge about how your body gains and loses muscle mass. In simple terms, the body operates on a series of feedback systems designed to maintain internal equilibrium. This inner intelligence rewards good habits of sleep, nutrition, relaxation, and exercise with a thriving muscular physique and penalizes deviations of these healthy habits by causing a loss of muscular growth, size, and strength. Not surprisingly, therefore, these catabolic conditions will be seen in people's physical and mental illness.
Stress is frequently associated with the reduction in testosterone levels and increases in cortisol. Remember that cortisol is catabolic, which means that it breaks down muscle tissue. When we put ourselves in a stressful situation (physical or emotional) it will cause the adrenal glands (located above the kidneys) to release adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol which in turn becomes an inhibitory signal to the anterior pituitary in the brain to shut down release of human growth hormones and testosterone. Without hGH and testosterone, increases in muscularity cannot occur.
The antithesis of stress is relaxation and it is during our most relaxed state (stage 3-4 sleep) that hGH is released. (hGH and testosterone are also released during exercise). It follows therefore; that a relaxed disposition coupled with a regimen of strength training will produce muscle growth, whereas a stressful lifestyle with restless sleep will result in muscle loss.
The body perceives excessive exercise (overtraining) as a "stressful situation". Again, cortisol will be released and the muscle?s supply of glycogen (glucose energy storage) is depleted. This is why the physiques of a body builder and a long distance runner are so different. The prolonged exercise of the runner demands a constant supply of glycogen (muscle energy) which will eventually consume his muscle mass. The dietary differences between these athletes are designed to supply the nutritional demands of their particular sport. The runner will require much more carbohydrates to replenish his glycogen (muscle energy) loss whereas the body builder will require more protein and fewer carbohydrates in his diet. The ideal strength training sessions should be brief and intense (usually under 45 min.).
Prolonged training session will be perceived by the body as stress. The adrenals will release cortisol activating the "runners loop" and lead to muscle loss. Learning the "loops" is essentials to understanding the nutritional, rest, and training requirements of your sport.
Serious body builders, as a rule, are driven people. This allows them to endure a difficult repetitious activity coupled with an equally difficult repetitious diet. Their drive to make progress in muscle growth can easily push then to overtrain (more is better) which their bodies will read as stress and they will enter the "runners loop". At that point, the harder they train the more muscle they will lose.
If you have some concerns that you may have entered the "runners (muscle loop) loop" you may want to look for the following signs:
constant anxiety and irritability
restless, non refreshing sleep
difficult non-energizing workouts
loss of muscle "pump" during your workouts
loss of weight and muscularity
subtle (or not so subtle) increase in body fat
At this point a vacation from your training schedule may be indicated. However,this must be a real vacation. Take this time to go hiking, sight seeing, etc. Visit old friends and new places. In a word, relax. Within a few days (or sometimes a couple of weeks) you will notice a reversal of the signs noted above. Do not be concerned with any weight gain or loss of definition, which may have occurred during your gym vacation. Your muscularity and body fat levels will come back into balance when you resume regular training with appropriate rest intervals.
Once more, although I am sure that most of you have read about over training before, it is helpful to understand how and why it happens. Remember that knowledge is power. Armed with this new information, I believe even the most driven of body builders will accept a vacation from training once he "understands" when and why it is necessary to do so.
What's Up Doc? Articles
Antibiotics can cause muscle tears!
Mind Games - Bringing Quality to Your Training
Overtraining, The "Inside" Story
Stress and Anger Management
VO2 Max: What Is It? How Do You Develop It?
Dr. Richard Morales is a U.S. trained medical doctor specializing in anti-aging medicine. During the past 15 years he has assisted numerous men and women needing hormone replacement therapy for such problems as loss of sexual desire, sexual dysfunction, depression and obesity. Dr. Morales has assisted professional athletes and body builders through hormonal enhancement for increased muscularity and athletic performance. Dr. Morales? medical clinic located just across the Mexican border can offer patients the benefit of anabolic medications without legal complications.
Additionally, the medical supervision of anabolic enhancement is offered to prevent side effects and complications often encountered by athletes using anabolic drugs.
You may contact Dr. Richard Morales at (520) 245-2579.
By Richard Morales, M.D.
During the past two decades I have come across numerous articles on overtraining in all major exercise books and magazines. Like most other body builders these have failed to persuade me to avoid overtraining even when know I?m heading that way. The fact that these articles continue to be written and body builders still continue to over train probably relates to the lack of contemporary information about the physiology and biochemistry of this phenomenon. Today?s body builder is considerably more sophisticated about physiology, nutrition, and biochemistry than his counterpart 30 years ago. As such, he needs to understand over training in a way that takes into account his new level of sophistication about these matters.
The following information will update you about the physiology about the stress and overtraining in a way that ties in your present levels of knowledge about how your body gains and loses muscle mass. In simple terms, the body operates on a series of feedback systems designed to maintain internal equilibrium. This inner intelligence rewards good habits of sleep, nutrition, relaxation, and exercise with a thriving muscular physique and penalizes deviations of these healthy habits by causing a loss of muscular growth, size, and strength. Not surprisingly, therefore, these catabolic conditions will be seen in people's physical and mental illness.
Stress is frequently associated with the reduction in testosterone levels and increases in cortisol. Remember that cortisol is catabolic, which means that it breaks down muscle tissue. When we put ourselves in a stressful situation (physical or emotional) it will cause the adrenal glands (located above the kidneys) to release adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol which in turn becomes an inhibitory signal to the anterior pituitary in the brain to shut down release of human growth hormones and testosterone. Without hGH and testosterone, increases in muscularity cannot occur.
The antithesis of stress is relaxation and it is during our most relaxed state (stage 3-4 sleep) that hGH is released. (hGH and testosterone are also released during exercise). It follows therefore; that a relaxed disposition coupled with a regimen of strength training will produce muscle growth, whereas a stressful lifestyle with restless sleep will result in muscle loss.
The body perceives excessive exercise (overtraining) as a "stressful situation". Again, cortisol will be released and the muscle?s supply of glycogen (glucose energy storage) is depleted. This is why the physiques of a body builder and a long distance runner are so different. The prolonged exercise of the runner demands a constant supply of glycogen (muscle energy) which will eventually consume his muscle mass. The dietary differences between these athletes are designed to supply the nutritional demands of their particular sport. The runner will require much more carbohydrates to replenish his glycogen (muscle energy) loss whereas the body builder will require more protein and fewer carbohydrates in his diet. The ideal strength training sessions should be brief and intense (usually under 45 min.).
Prolonged training session will be perceived by the body as stress. The adrenals will release cortisol activating the "runners loop" and lead to muscle loss. Learning the "loops" is essentials to understanding the nutritional, rest, and training requirements of your sport.
Serious body builders, as a rule, are driven people. This allows them to endure a difficult repetitious activity coupled with an equally difficult repetitious diet. Their drive to make progress in muscle growth can easily push then to overtrain (more is better) which their bodies will read as stress and they will enter the "runners loop". At that point, the harder they train the more muscle they will lose.
If you have some concerns that you may have entered the "runners (muscle loop) loop" you may want to look for the following signs:
constant anxiety and irritability
restless, non refreshing sleep
difficult non-energizing workouts
loss of muscle "pump" during your workouts
loss of weight and muscularity
subtle (or not so subtle) increase in body fat
At this point a vacation from your training schedule may be indicated. However,this must be a real vacation. Take this time to go hiking, sight seeing, etc. Visit old friends and new places. In a word, relax. Within a few days (or sometimes a couple of weeks) you will notice a reversal of the signs noted above. Do not be concerned with any weight gain or loss of definition, which may have occurred during your gym vacation. Your muscularity and body fat levels will come back into balance when you resume regular training with appropriate rest intervals.
Once more, although I am sure that most of you have read about over training before, it is helpful to understand how and why it happens. Remember that knowledge is power. Armed with this new information, I believe even the most driven of body builders will accept a vacation from training once he "understands" when and why it is necessary to do so.
What's Up Doc? Articles
Antibiotics can cause muscle tears!
Mind Games - Bringing Quality to Your Training
Overtraining, The "Inside" Story
Stress and Anger Management
VO2 Max: What Is It? How Do You Develop It?
Dr. Richard Morales is a U.S. trained medical doctor specializing in anti-aging medicine. During the past 15 years he has assisted numerous men and women needing hormone replacement therapy for such problems as loss of sexual desire, sexual dysfunction, depression and obesity. Dr. Morales has assisted professional athletes and body builders through hormonal enhancement for increased muscularity and athletic performance. Dr. Morales? medical clinic located just across the Mexican border can offer patients the benefit of anabolic medications without legal complications.
Additionally, the medical supervision of anabolic enhancement is offered to prevent side effects and complications often encountered by athletes using anabolic drugs.
You may contact Dr. Richard Morales at (520) 245-2579.
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