T Nation

2 Wks Out of a K1 Tournament

Combat
#1

since pad work on wednesday last week I feel like shit! So I stopped training on thursday and friday and had a training session for speed and strength on saturday. Since that I feel totally destroyed. my girlfriend is a doctor and she tried to indicate me symptoms of overtraining the last 2 weeks but I completely denied it. But now I have apathy, insomnia, fatigue, decreased performance, decreased concentration and annoying headache …

I have 12 days left and I wanted to concentrate one more week on sparring an conditioning but it seems like i have to take one week off. next week is already the last days before the fight so I do not know what to do.

the tournament I enter is a K1 tournament (national championships for fighters with < 5 fights). I would have to fight for 2 - 4 times.

Despite the fact that I am a complete idiot who is too stupid to listen to his own girlfriend, what can I do ? Anybody an idea ?

I lost my last fight so my confidence is down and I wanted the perfect training for this tournament. i made a great plan with my coaches but we neglected the fact that it was really demanding in the office the last weeks.

#2

well, that sux…

one thing that i was thinking that might help, is to take a shitload of supplements to speed recovery right now…ZMA at night (and maybe even after your workouts), and tons of B-complex and C throughout the day. high doses of L-tyrosine (Power Drive, maybe?) might help you out as well…

if you don’t have to worry about cutting too much weight, maybe you can bump up your calories a bit right now…BCAA’s, fish oil, etc.

i start drinking a ton of H2O just to flush out everything as well…

also, maybe several heavy streching sessions daily, sports massage, too…

i wouldn’t do too much intense training right now, but i think you can still do some skill work…

good luck!

#3

thanks for the reply. I do take already all those supplements and the good thing is I am a heavyweight and i am not really concerned about my weight.

that was wrong because i am concerned about my weight because it went accidentally down from 245 to 220.
Drinking a ton of water seems to help especially with the headache …

I will try to do sparring tomorrow hopefully i recover a bit till then . But the 5 day layoff did not help to much…

Any other tipps ?

#4

That sucks, dude.

I don’t want to overly scare you, but that can be a serious thing here:
Dropping that much weight is very unusual. You definitely have to check it out.
Monitor your weight now, it definitely shouldn’t drop any further.

Has the camp been that hard for you?
If you’re in your mid thirties, the prep along with the stress might be it. But still, go to a doc and run some tests.

Random thoughts:
A good sign would be a healthy (for you) sex drive.
Take an extra nap throughout the day, either before or right after training.
Have you lately been off of any drugs or similar vices? I know switching from 2 coffees a day to zero gets me tired and headachy for one day. If you’ smokin some, you might have picked up some laced shit.
Remove all stress sources, rigorously! (dinner with annoying family etc)

#5

Man I dunno even though your training was very tough…having 5 days rest and still feeling like shit…I mean if your doing everything you can…sleeping, eating, recovering…I think the problem may be bigger than that…

#6

Thanks for the replies! Yesterday i decided to pull out of the fights, although it is national championship tournament it isnt worth risking my health. I will see a doc and run some tests.

I think the whole problem was the project work in the office. working for 60 hours and training for 6 days with just one day rest was stupid. i should have rest on wednesday too (do some streching or long slow distance work). Normally i always do that but this time i thought i am thougher and after 6 weeks my body just shut down i think.

i will come back stronger after my son is born in fall 2010.

thanks again for the hints!

#7

man, sorry to hear you had to pull out, but i think you did the right thing… i know a few guys that overtrained like that and got goofy-ass colds afterwards that hung around for a couple months…

you’ll come back stronger.

#8

yeah you did the right thing…might’ve been hard to do but it’s your health, and well if you can’t perform well you don’t want to get knocked the fuck out right…decreased concentration, fatigue etc. well those things won’t help you in the ring! Like cyco said you’ll come back stronger and plan accordingly

#9

I’m frowning at this right now.

#10

[quote]Beershoes wrote:
I’m frowning at this right now. [/quote]

why is that? he made the right decision.

#11

[quote]kaisermetal wrote:

[quote]Beershoes wrote:
I’m frowning at this right now. [/quote]

why is that? he made the right decision.[/quote]

Not really, feeling a bit tired and not mentally being in the right place doesn’t make it right to pull out. No one feels 100% going into a fight. It’s not fair to the people he would have fought to pull out so late.

#12

went to the doctor. he told me i have to understand that beeing overtrained like that all those broken down muscle tissue is like an infection of the whole body. my heart rate in the morning is only 50 (normally it is about 58-60) and if i do something like sprintig, the heart rate does not raise correctly and drops down immediatly.

he told me that he would not clear me for fighting. blood pressure sucks too. So i am pretty sure i made the right decision. Although i know i will feel fit again on the fight day i pulled out. for me it makes no sense to enter the ring if have not trained the last 12 days.

when i made this post i hoped for somebody to come up with something i overlooked. but we all know what the right things to do are. sleep a lot - put tons of water in your body get a calorie plus and rest. If you cant recover you can not fight. this is amateur fighting.

the positive thing is i thought i was in shape although i was overtrained. cant wait to see what i am capable of if i have completely recovered.

Weeks ago another fighter from our gym collapsed during training because of an infected tooth. He got an infection of his heart and now he has to carry a mobile heart monitor with him. And nobody can tell him which long term damage his heart took although it me look completely recoverd soon.

i think there is a thin line between beeing a though fighter or just a stupid guy.

#13

It’s hard to say not being in your situation. Just seems to me you should have seen this coming prior to two weeks before a fight. Just kind of shitty. My solution… don’t train stupid.

#14

[quote]dnbjoe wrote:
went to the doctor. he told me i have to understand that beeing overtrained like that all those broken down muscle tissue is like an infection of the whole body. my heart rate in the morning is only 50 (normally it is about 58-60) and if i do something like sprintig, the heart rate does not raise correctly and drops down immediatly.

he told me that he would not clear me for fighting. blood pressure sucks too. So i am pretty sure i made the right decision. Although i know i will feel fit again on the fight day i pulled out. for me it makes no sense to enter the ring if have not trained the last 12 days.

when i made this posed i hoped for somebody to come up with something i overlooked. but we all know what the right things to do are. sleep a lot - put tons of water in your body get a calorie plus and rest. If you cant recover you can not fight. this is amateur fighting.

the positive thing is i thought i was in shape although i was overtrained. cant wait to see what i am capable of if i have completely recovered.

Weeks ago another fighter from our gym collapsed during training because of an infected tooth. He got an infection of his heart and now he has to carry a mobile heart monitor with him. And nobody can tell him which long term damage his heart took although it me look completely recoverd soon.

i think there is a thin line between beeing a though fighter or just a stupid guy.

[/quote]

you did right, don’t care to what the others says, your health comes in first place.

#15

the decision is complete shit to make. really. i am always thinking am i doing the right thing. but now i have a seven day break and i still feel like shit when i run the stairs for 4 floor … I will be okay on the day of the fight but without training for the last to weeks… I dont know … if i would know my opponent and have one fight i would do it. But entering a tournament were you probably have to fight 3-4 wars with 3 rounds of 3 minutes is different story.

i understand all the pros and cons of taking the fight and i think Beershoes and Brisks are right in what they say.

just talked to my trainer again i will train on saturday and go full force training on monday and tuesday. when i recovered well i will fight.

#16

Dude, you do have a problem here.

seven days rest and you cannot run to the 4th floor without feeling good?
That istn’t “not in shape” , that’s completely fucked up.

My guess: either your hormone system is funky, (who knows, some organ eg kidneys is damaged) or, and that’s my guess, your cardiac system has major problems. A simple blood test should rule out problem No1, and you already stated your heart rate and blood pressure is shitty. Myokarditis or similar things are entirely possible here.

My advice: If you say “fuck my health” then at least go very east with your training on monday. You body might respond positively to light training (ie start proper regeneration) while heavy training will yield no positive results at all. Take the next day def. off and observe. If you took no vacation, do it now (or go to a doc for a medical certificate).

#17

So your taking the fight? Go in there with strength then man…fighters have fought sick, broken arm/hands, jaws…the body can be really pushed, just how far are you willing to take it…

Don’t know what else to say, if you do not feel better aafter 7 days rest something is defianetly fucked up…I mean that is quite the time to take off.

#18

the biggest problem is over training, when im in full shape all the do the week before would be stretching and cardio, Light stuff 2 weeks out im paro of injuries. The hardest thing to deal with is the training. its not training too little usually, its training to much.

Sounds like you got complete burn out. CNS, mental etc all spent.

Shitty reason to pull out, but if you dont feel right you dont feel right. Learn from it next time. Your off target, ease out next time. Being in shape is a big thing, you can win just by being a great athlete, but 95% is still mental. Thats includes the discipline to train right.

Better luck next time.

#19

remember to record your fight, then you can analyse what you did wrong/right and post here so that we can see too

#20

Fighters get doctor checks if they tear something, break something and have to pull out of fights. I wonder if a SERIOUS burn out could also be a medical condition that a doctor could write you off and you not being allowed to fight. I mean from his story, it would be horrific to fight in…the only time I really feel like that is if I’m training really hard (which is always) but at the same time getting only 4 hours of sleep a night…do that for a few weeks on top of work, and not so good eating habits…you’ll feel like death lol