Overtraining Part 1: Symptoms

This month's theme is in-season training since the spring sports are starting up.  All the  practices, games, and tournaments start to add up to over time, not to mention any weight room sessions the coachs' require of their athletes. Lack of proper awareness and management of physical stressors can lead, very quickly in some cases, to overtraining... which leads to poor performance, lost games, increase risk of injury, and a rather unpleasant season.

The subject of overtraining is a vast one and we won't be able to cover all the aspects that contribute, but by the end of this two part series, you should have a decent grasp on what overtraining is and how to avoid it. Today's post will be about recognizing the symptoms of overtraining while next post will offer techniques and training advice to avoid the dreaded state of overtrained-ness. (Yes, I made that word up.) Li'l food for thought: quite often the strength and conditioning aspect of in-season training is the cornerstone of maintaing the health of the athlete. Too much, and the athlete breaks, but administered intelligently, a strength program can restore an athlete's body and enhance overall performance. Right, let's dive in!

Who doesn’t like a good work out? Who doesn’t like to train hard, pwn some weight (or mileage if you’re a distance person), and accomplish the physical goals you’ve set for yourself? Every work out leave you gasping, dead-tired, and wiped out, otherwise it doesn't count, right? (read the truth to that fallacy here)

We all want a to feel like you've conquered something, I know I do!

However, sadly, there can be too much of a good thing. We may be superheroes in our minds, but sometimes our bodies see it differently. Outside of the genetic freaks out there who can hit their training hard day after day (I’m a bit envious…), most of us will reach a point where we enter the realm of overtraining. I should note, that for many competitive athletes (college, elite, and professional levels) there is a constant state of overtraining, but it’s closely monitored. But, this post is designed for the rest of us.

Now, everyone is different and not everyone will experience every symptom or perhaps experience it in varying degrees depending on training age, other life factors, and type of training. These are merely general symptoms that both athletes and coaches should keep a sharp eye out for.

Symptoms:

1.  Repeated failure to complete/recover in a normal workout- I’m not talking about a failed rep attempt or performing an exercise to failure. This is a routine training session that you’re dragging through and you either can’t finish it or your recovery time between sets is way longer than usual. For distance trainees, this may manifest as slower pace, your normal milage seems way harder than usual, or your heart rate is higher than usual during your workout. Coaches: are you players dragging, taking longer breaks, or just looking sluggish? Especially if this is unusual behavior, they're not being lazy; it might be they've reached stress levels that exceed their abilities to recover.

2. Lifters/power athletes (baseball, football, soccer, non-distance track, and nearly all field sports): inability to relax or sleep well at night- Overtraining in power athletes or lifters results in an overactive sympathetic nervous response (the “fight or flight” system). If you’re restless (when you’re supposed to be resting), unable to sleep well, have an elevated resting heart rate, or have an inability to focus (even during training or practice), those are signs that your sympathetic nervous system is on overdrive. It’s your body’s response to being in a constantly stressful situation, like training, that it just stays in the sympathetic state.

3. Endurance athletes (distance runners, swimmers, and bikers): fatigue, sluggish, and weak feeling- Endurance athletes experience parasympathetic overdrive (the “rest and digest” system). Symptoms include elevated cortisol (a stress hormone that isn’t bad, but shouldn’t be at chronically high levels), decreased testosterone levels (more noticeable in males), increase fat storage or inability to lose fat, or chronic fatigue (mental and physical).

4. Body composition shifts away from leanness- Despite training hard and eating well,  you’re either not able to lose body fat, or worse, you start to gain what you previously lost. Overtrained individuals typically have elevated cortisol levels (for both kinds of athletes). Cortisol, among other things, increases insulin resistance which, when this is the chronic metabolic state, promotes fat storage and inhibits fat loss.

5. Sore/painful joints, bones, or limbs- Does the thought of walking up stairs make you groan with the anticipated creaky achy-ness you’re about to experience? If so, you’re probably over training. Whether it be with weights or endurance training, you’re body is taking a beating and if it doesn’t have adequate recovery time, that’s when tendiosis, tendoitis, bursitis, and all the other -itis-es start to set in.  The joints, muscles, tendons, and ligaments are chronicallyinflamed and that equals pain. Maybe it’s not pain (yet) but your muscles feel heavy and achy. It might be a good time to rethink you’re training routine…

6. Getting sick more often- Maybe not the flu, but perhaps the sniffles, a sore throat, or a fever here and there; these are signs your immune system is depressed. This can be a sneaky one especially if you eat right (as in lots of kale), sleep enough, and drink plenty of water (I’m doing all the right things! Why am I sick??). Training is a stress on the system and any hard training session will depress the immune system for a bit afterwards. Not a big deal if you’re able to recover after each training session… but if you’re overtraining, the body never gets it's much-needed recovery time. Hence, a chronically depressed immune system… and that’s why you have a cold for the 8th time in two months.

7. You feel like garbage- You know the feeling: run down, sluggish, not excited to train… NOOOOO!!!!! Training regularly, along with eating well and sleeping enough, should make you feel great. However, if you feel like crap… something is wrong.

Those are some of the basic signs of overtraining. There are more, especially as an athlete drifts further and further down the path of fatigue, but these are the initial warning signs the body gives to tell you to stop what you’re doing or bad things will happen.

Next time, we’ll discuss ways to prevent and treat overtraining.

Exercise & Your Body's Circadian Rhythm

Anyone who travels across time zones regularly knows quite well about the challenges of trying to quickly get your body on-board with it's new schedule. With the constant quest being to find the perfect combination of rest, food, relaxation, etc. to ease the transition quickly.

So, is there an answer?

A recent study from the University of Kentucky examines the role of "zeitgebers" - or time cues - in helping to reset the body's internal clock.

As it turns out the body has several tried and true time cues. The most common, strongest, and well-known is the role of night vs. day (or dark vs. light). Meals are also an important and well-known cue to help set the body's circadian rhythm.

But, as it turns out, scheduled exercise is also an important time cue:

These data provide evidence that the molecular circadian clock in peripheral tissues can respond to the time of exercise suggesting that physical activity contributes important timing information for synchronization of circadian clocks throughout the body.

What's the best way to quickly adjust to a major time zone change?

1. Make yourself sleep when it's dark and wake when it's light outside.
2. Eat meals at regular times (Usually have lunch in NY at 1pm? Then eat lunch at 1pm London time, too).
3. Stick with your usually scheduled training times. Don't fall for waiting for your body to tell you 11pm "feels right" for training, that will prolong the adjustment process.

Hmm, that list above looks suspiciously like good advice to follow whether your traveling or just looking for good information on how to make the most out of your day and maximize energy levels!

When You Can’t Sleep

So, you’re not sleeping? Ahh – neither am I.

Here’s a list of things to keep your busy mind occupied and focused on something positive instead of dwelling on the issues that are probably keeping you up in the first place:

1. Eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Why not? Who cares that it’s 2AM? They’re delicious and will probably make you feel a little bit better about being awake.
2. Take the bull by the horns: address whatever is keeping you from falling back to sleep. Returning emails, addressing little projects, addressing little parts of big projects, etc. Can’t hurt, right?
3. Listen to music.
4. Turn on SportsCenter. It’s sports, it’s on 24-hours a day, it’s usually pretty positive and inspiring.
5. Do something enjoyable/out of the ordinary.

Here’s my early morning play-by-play after Arabella woke up at 1:17AM (you start remembering the exact time after about the 300^th occasion you’ve been roused by crying in the dead of night):

1. Lay awake in bed for approximately 60-minutes mulling over small, but important and irritating, “issues.” Eventually, I officially acknowledged I’m not going back to sleep.
2. Go downstairs and make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (see #1 above). It was delicious.
3. Return a few emails.
4. Fill out SAPT product survey: I filled out a review on one of SAPT’s excellent products (if you’re reading between the lines, yes, that means I buy them, too… at full price). They actually are excellent and I actually enjoyed pouring some positivity out in a way, which for me is very non-traditional.
5. Rediscover my love for Britney Spears. I'm totally serious right now.

   

6. Make adjustments to my program for women’s basketball (Mason).
7. Realize I can do a blog post on not sleeping – begin that.
8. Fill out testing roster for women’s soccer (Mason) and go over testing protocol and setup one more time to ensure things go smoothly in the morning.
9. Finalize this blog post while watching highlights of Pro Bowl players on SportsCenter.

Seriously though, here are some Actual Recommendations for Improving Sleep Patterns:

1. Exercise daily: this helps reduce stress and expend the extra energy that may be stored up.
2. Eat sensibly: throughout the day and before going to bed. It’s best to steer clear of large, dense meals right before trying to sleep.
3. Set yourself up for some relaxing wind-down time: take a shower, drink some water, and get into bed with a good book (again, something relaxing).
4. Allot 7-9 hours for uninterrupted sleep.
5. Avoid allowing young, fitful sleepers occupancy near your bedroom. I’m hoping to surmount this problem in about 5 years.

Good LUCK!

4 Things Currently Improving My Sleep Life, Part 2

In Part 1, I shared two nifty tricks I've been using to improve my sleep quality and wakefulness during the day. Here are the last two:

3. If I'm sleepy, I go to bed.

This may sound like a "Well, duh...." piece of advice but you'd be surprised how many times you continue to stay up even if you're tired. Especially with the time vacuums of TV and the internet, always having emails, text messages, and voicemails to answer, etc. it's very easy to begin staring at a screen and "forget" that you're tired.

If you're tired, go to freakin' bed!!

My wife is very good at this, and marrying her has definitely helped me in this department. Whereas before, it wasn't uncommon to find me staying up extra hour or two past the point of my body saying "Dude, you need to go to bed." But now, here's how a typical evening may go in my home:

Me: (In the living room, doing stuff on my computer)

Kelsey: (coming out of the kitchen) "Hi sweetie, I'm going to bed. Are you going to be out here for a while or coming to bed soon?"

Me: Okay honey, sounds great. Yeah, I think so. I just have a few more things I was going to.......

.........

Kelsey, why are you holding that chef's knife like that?

Kelsey: ........no reason......

Me: *slams laptop cover closed*

Okay, maybe it doesn't ALWAYS happen like that, but admittedly I used to be terrible at turning off the stupid and just going to bed if my body was trying to tell me it had enough for the day. And it's crazy how much more refreshed I feel after making a point to do this.

Now, at the same time, this isn't to say that if someone important to me needs to get together or talk late on a weekend evening I'm going to ignore them. Or, if some friends want to get together and the only possible time is 9-11pm on a Saturday, I'm not necessarily going to turn that down. But I hope you get the gist of what I'm saying.

4. Finding my 'money maker' sleep hours.

This will vary, depending on the person, as we all experience slightly different durations of the four stages of sleep (the fourth one being the REM cycle). Most people do well with 7-9 hours of sleep.

Most experts say that eight hours of sleep is ideal, but speaking for me personally, I feel like a big bag of poop if I sleep eight hours (on the dot). I've tried this many times, and, without fail, getting eight hours of sleep sets me up to be a walking pile of Fail in the mornings. Through experimentation, I've found that either 7.5 hours, or (even better) 9 hours, makes me feel amazing.

Nine hours can be tough to get, especially with a busy schedule (who isn't "busy" nowadays anyway?), but as long as I manage my time, get my tasks done in advance, and don't lollygag throughout the day, I can get it done. It's funny as it seems to be wearing a badge of honor if you're too busy to sleep; it's like you're seen as being lazy and unproductive if you're sleeping more than six hours.

Bullcrap.

Sleep is the most restorative activity you can partake in, and if you're only doing your body, and those you care about, a favor when you make a point to receive enough sleep. Get over yourself, as you're really not that busy; you simply have poor time management skills (I'm preaching to myself here as well).

5. Bonus: Sleep Aids

This is last on the list because you really should get everything else in check first.

The two I use, recommended to me by Tony Gentilcore while I was visiting him in Boston, are ZMA and Z12. ZMA you can get through a bunch of different companies, while you need to go through Biotest to get Z12.

Z12 is my favorite, as it REALLY enhances the quality of your sleep and makes you feel like a new man (or woman) upon waking. It's essentially a magic potion wrapped up in a pill, containing a naturally occurring amino acid called 5-hydroxytryptophan, which is a precursor to the neurotransmitter serotonin, (is implicated in sleep and general "well-being" sensations). I'll use Z12 on one of two occasions:

1. When I'm only going to get less sleep than normal, and need to make sure I'm refreshed in the morning.

2. (My preferred) On a weekend evening when I know I'm really going to get a chance to get some quality sleep time in the next morning. Works like a charm.

That's all.....these are the the things that have worked for me personally. Feel free to chime in below if you've found other tactics aid you in getting that "perfect night's sleep."

-Stevo

4 Things Currently Improving My Sleep Life

Ahhhh, yes....sleep. What better way to keep hormonal balance in check, raise testosterone, improve insulin sensitivity, lower cortisol (stress hormone), keep body fat at bay, along with restoring and improving cognitive function? After all, in the hit series Dexter, when Lt. Maria LaGuerta asks Dexter how he's so smart and figures things out all the time, Dexter simply replies with (cue slow, monotonous Dexter voice.....): "Hmm...lots of sleep."

Sleep and I have an interesting relationship. She reels me in very quickly, but, when I want to leave, she doesn't let me go. In other words, for those of you who may not be getting it, I can fall asleep very quickly (and I mean VERY quickly), but have a terrible time getting out of bed in the morning.

For example, let me explain how easy it is for me to fall asleep, as it often leads to my own demise. Here's a truncated list of movies I've fallen asleep during, IN THEATERS mind you. And, keep in mind, I'm not just talking about a few minutes, but I literally missed the last three-fourths of all of each of the below:

• The Bourne Ultimatum

• Black Hawk Down. Twice. Yes, twice.

• The Departed. Again, twice.

• American Gangster

As you can see, I might as well have slept through an active mine field explosion during World War II. I've wasted over $150.00 by spending money on evening showings of top rated movies, only end up frustrated by having my sleep interrupted by constant gun fire, bomb detonations, and an uncomfortable theater seat. Not to mention, missing a good movie.

Not to mention the man-card I had to hand in by failing to see those movies (I still have yet to see the entirety of them...). There are many more I missed in the theaters, copious rental movies I conked out during, and don't even get me started on the fire alarms in college I slept completely through. Don't worry though, I'll spare you the prolixity.

Moving onward, getting out of bed is an entirely different bear. While sleep will take me within 3o seconds of hitting the pillow (not kidding), she is entirely recalcitrant when it comes to letting me put my feet on the floor in the mornings.

No, I am not a morning person, but it's beyond that. Call me weak-minded, unmotivated, whatever...but you know something is wrong with me when I'm pointing the TV remote at the toaster oven to make breakfast and wondering why it's not turning on.

In fact, things got so bad with my sleeping through fire alarms and alarm clocks that my mom actually ordered me a Sonic Boom alarm clock in college, when I was completing Clinical Exercise Physiology course that required me to be there at 5:00AM in the morning (we were working with cardiac rehab patients).

This alarm clock is the loudest, most obstreperous** thing you will ever experience in your life. It can actually be used for deaf people, as it comes with a vibrating "bed shaker" (you can see it in the picture) that you place under your pillow to literally convulse you into awakening. The noise also goes up to 113 decibels; the equivalent of someone walking into your room and revving up a freaking chainsaw!!

Needless to say, I couldn't use it for long as I'd wake up 5-6 times each night stressed out of my mind because I didn't want the actual sonic boom to wake me up. It was that bad...the first time it happened I fell out of my bed thinking that I was under attack by the entire cast of The Expendebles.

expendables3

Okay, so I think I've proved the point that it's extremely easy for me to fall asleep (and stay asleep), but very difficult for me to wake up in the mornings, at least without feeling extremely groggy.

Never to fear! You can learn from my many mistakes and losses in my relationship with sleep. Here are four things I've found that have dramatically improved my sleep life, and subsequently, wakefulness during the day:

1. Using a Dawn Simulator Alarm Clock

You can find countless articles on tips for falling asleep, but very few on how to wake up. Given that waking up was one of my greatest pitfalls, I needed work in this department. Enter the dawn simulator alarm clock.

Getting one of the these things was the best thing that happened to me since discovering good coffee. Kelsey and I actually put it on our wedding registry, and, let me tell you, it has made my morning wake-ups SO MUCH BETTER. Here is a picture of mine below:

DCIM100SPORT

What does this little gem do? It slowly emits light throughout the thirty minute period leading up to your wake-up time. Then, when the clock strikes the hour you want to wake, an alarm goes off (with mine you can choose from various sounds from nature noises, the radio, soft beeping, etc.).

This way, it helps your body arise from sleep the way it was originally designed to: without the glaring jolt of a boisterous alarm clock.

I can't tell you how much easier I wake up now. I will often wake before the clock even goes off (even during the week when my clock is set for 530-6AM), and I feel incredibly more refreshed than I did in the past when using a traditional alarm clock.

I personally use the one by Philips, and I highly recommend it.

2. Avoiding TV and Computers Before Bed

Some of you may struggle with wasting time on both of these, for others of you it may be one or the other. For me personally, TV has never really been an issue. In fact, my wife and I don't even subscribe to basic cable, given that we feel it's an incredible waste of money and time. This being the case, we won't find anything more than black and white static even if we wanted to. Sarah recently alluded to the utter death valley of television, as well, in her 30 Things I Want to Share post last week.

However, what did used to be an issue for me was spending time on my computer upon getting home from work. I usually get home between 830-9PM, and, upon sitting down, I would frequently flip it open my laptop to read articles, check email, peruse Facebook, you know the drill....

To make matters worse, sometimes I would even take my laptop into bed with me to watch AnimeBand of Brothers episodes before going to sleep.

However, what this was doing was not only stimulating my brain (instead of causing it to slow down, which would the obvious winning option for sleeping well), but also altering my body's circadian rhythm and delaying/lowering melatonin production.

This is a clear no-no for experiencing sound, quality sleep.

To give credit where credit is due: I can primarily thank my wife for helping me break free of this habit, as, once we got married and moved in together, she wouldn't have been too happy with me watching war movies in bed as she's trying to fall asleep.

So, what to do instead of watching TV or using your laptop?

1. Take the TV and/or computer out of your room. In fact, I now leave my cellphone out of the room, as well. The bedroom should only be used for two things anyway, sleeping being one of them.

2. Try reading a non-fiction book. Some light reading that won't get your brain going too much. I used to do this all the time in high school (The Lord of the Rings and Ender's Game series being some of the most notable ones ), but kinda got out of the habit during college and beyond. Currently I'm reading The Hunger Games, and it is awesome.

That's it for today. I'll be back on Friday for the remaining two tips on improving one's sleep life. Enjoy.

(Update: Part 2 is Here)

**It's a cool word I learned over Thanksgiving and wanted to share it with you all. Can be used to mean "noisy and clamorous" or "unruly; stubbornly defiant."  You're welcome.