My Overtraining Nightmare

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
21

[quote]cmorgan00 wrote:
A question was meant to be in at the end but it didn’t quite come across as obviously as I hoped.

I’m not sure how long i’m supposed to rest for until I can hit the weights again. They say anywhere from a few months to 2 years depending on your level of adrenal fatigue. 2 years would be the case for somebody who has it so bad that they can’t even get out of bed, and i’m nowhere near that stage. After a month of recovery i’m good to go go again but less than a month later and my system is burnt out again. It’s not that I become less dedicated or start “wussing out” it’s that I physically stop getting stronger and all workouts do at this point is cause muscle mass to decrease.

I would have thought more people on this forum would know about it. I was hoping someone could speak from experience on how long off they took until they went back to training. There was a similar forum that looked like this one where people seemed to know all about it.

A lot of you are making it sound like over-training isn’t and never will be an issue for yourselfs, could some of you explain why do you think this? You must have reasons why.

It’s great that most of you are having a laugh about it though, it won’t be so funny if it happens to you. I wish this kind of information was available for me to easil find before because I could have avoided all of this just by taking a little time off to let my nervous system recover once I hit a plateu.[/quote]
Fine, I’ll bite.

What does your routine look like and how many calories are you eating per day?

For the routine: Exercises, weights, sets, reps, approximate rest times.

For the diet: List everything you eat in a normal training day. Along with the foods and amounts, list the macro breakdown of that meal. Then total it all up at the end of the list.

22

[quote]JayPierce wrote:

[quote]cmorgan00 wrote:
A question was meant to be in at the end but it didn’t quite come across as obviously as I hoped.

I’m not sure how long i’m supposed to rest for until I can hit the weights again. They say anywhere from a few months to 2 years depending on your level of adrenal fatigue. 2 years would be the case for somebody who has it so bad that they can’t even get out of bed, and i’m nowhere near that stage. After a month of recovery i’m good to go go again but less than a month later and my system is burnt out again. It’s not that I become less dedicated or start “wussing out” it’s that I physically stop getting stronger and all workouts do at this point is cause muscle mass to decrease.

I would have thought more people on this forum would know about it. I was hoping someone could speak from experience on how long off they took until they went back to training. There was a similar forum that looked like this one where people seemed to know all about it.

A lot of you are making it sound like over-training isn’t and never will be an issue for yourselfs, could some of you explain why do you think this? You must have reasons why.

It’s great that most of you are having a laugh about it though, it won’t be so funny if it happens to you. I wish this kind of information was available for me to easil find before because I could have avoided all of this just by taking a little time off to let my nervous system recover once I hit a plateu.[/quote]
Fine, I’ll bite.

What does your routine look like and how many calories are you eating per day?

For the routine: Exercises, weights, sets, reps, approximate rest times.

For the diet: List everything you eat in a normal training day. Along with the foods and amounts, list the macro breakdown of that meal. Then total it all up at the end of the list.[/quote]

I start by warming up, i’ll do some stretches and occasionally 2-3 minutes on the rower.

First up is leg extensions, i’ll do 3 sets of 8-10 at 100kg. The gym located near me doesn’t really have a lot of extremely heavy weight options and 100kg is the max option on this so I can’t go heavier. I try to do it slower and slower to make up for this, especially mid-rep when it’s at the hardest point and this makes it very difficult.

Bench press next at 105kg, 3 sets of 8-10. Again this is the max weight this gym offers for this exercise, just before my adrenal fatigue problem started I was lifting this weight with quite a bit of ease and was considering traveling to goto a different gym. Those plans were halted when I started losing strength.

Leg curls next at 75kg, 3 sets of 8-10

Shoulder press at 50-55kg, 3 sets of 8-10

Leg press at 105kg, 3 sets of 10. This is the max weight offered, so again I work on my technique to make it harder.

Lat pull down, 3 sets of 8-10 at 55-60kg. Sometimes I do a mix of pullups aswell, sets of 10.

Bicep curl usually with a barbell, 35-40kg, 3 sets of 8-10

Stiff legged deadlift with a barbell, 40kg, 3 sets of 10.

I usually workout on mondays, wednesdays and fridays, always getting at least a days rest. I got to the point where I was recovered by the morning after the workout, I probably should have traveled to a better gym, except then the problem started.

I eat 5 meals a day, occasionally 6. I eat whole foods, non processed, lots of protein from meats, protein shakes, fatty oils, sweet potatoes, bananas, apples, occasionally broccoli. I don’t really eat or drink anything considered unhealthy.

Each meal contains 450-500 calories so throughout the day i eat between 2300 and 2500 calories, occasionally i’ll have a 6th meal in a day and get even more calories.

Macro breakdown? A typical day would consist of breakfest (8am) of 2 eggs, 2 slices wholegrain toast, 11am i’ll have chicken breast with vegetables and a piece of fruit. 2pm i’ll have wholegrain rice, tuna in olive oil and some skimmed milk. 5pm more chicken with vegetables and fruit. 8pm sweet potatoes cooked in olive oil with fish either completely plain or in a light breadcrumb. It’s not really that often I have a 6th meal, especially with my current condition, adrenal fatigue/hypothyroidism surpresss my appetite in the morning and I tend to eat a bit too late in the day to get a 6th meal in, though this should change once i’m off the thyroid hormone pills.

I always did a pretty good job of working out and eating clean, and getting enough calories, if anything maybe I could have eaten a little more.

Remember I was vitamin D deficient during this, as I hadn’t got much sunlight for years, something that’s no longer a problem, but no matter how much thought I put into training or eating well, it could be that being vitamin D deficient kicked it all off. I never got tested for the B or C vitamins, but there could have been a problem there too. Either way, my adrenal recovery program consists of me getting all the B vitamins, C and D. Also fish oil supplements with every meal. I think i’ll keep on taking this supplements even after i’m better because perhaps it will help me avoid this situation happening again.

I want to get back to working out as soon as I can, i’ve tried multiple times for the past year and all i’ve done is stunt my recovery each time. That’s the only reason i’m taking longer of the gym now. It’s not because I want to, it’s because it seems I have no choice if I ever want to improve my strength.

23

[quote]cmorgan00 wrote:

[quote]JayPierce wrote:

[quote]cmorgan00 wrote:
A question was meant to be in at the end but it didn’t quite come across as obviously as I hoped.

I’m not sure how long i’m supposed to rest for until I can hit the weights again. They say anywhere from a few months to 2 years depending on your level of adrenal fatigue. 2 years would be the case for somebody who has it so bad that they can’t even get out of bed, and i’m nowhere near that stage. After a month of recovery i’m good to go go again but less than a month later and my system is burnt out again. It’s not that I become less dedicated or start “wussing out” it’s that I physically stop getting stronger and all workouts do at this point is cause muscle mass to decrease.

I would have thought more people on this forum would know about it. I was hoping someone could speak from experience on how long off they took until they went back to training. There was a similar forum that looked like this one where people seemed to know all about it.

A lot of you are making it sound like over-training isn’t and never will be an issue for yourselfs, could some of you explain why do you think this? You must have reasons why.

It’s great that most of you are having a laugh about it though, it won’t be so funny if it happens to you. I wish this kind of information was available for me to easil find before because I could have avoided all of this just by taking a little time off to let my nervous system recover once I hit a plateu.[/quote]
Fine, I’ll bite.

What does your routine look like and how many calories are you eating per day?

For the routine: Exercises, weights, sets, reps, approximate rest times.

For the diet: List everything you eat in a normal training day. Along with the foods and amounts, list the macro breakdown of that meal. Then total it all up at the end of the list.[/quote]

I start by warming up, i’ll do some stretches and occasionally 2-3 minutes on the rower.

First up is leg extensions, i’ll do 3 sets of 8-10 at 100kg. The gym located near me doesn’t really have a lot of extremely heavy weight options and 100kg is the max option on this so I can’t go heavier. I try to do it slower and slower to make up for this, especially mid-rep when it’s at the hardest point and this makes it very difficult.

Bench press next at 105kg, 3 sets of 8-10. Again this is the max weight this gym offers for this exercise, just before my adrenal fatigue problem started I was lifting this weight with quite a bit of ease and was considering traveling to goto a different gym. Those plans were halted when I started losing strength.

Leg curls next at 75kg, 3 sets of 8-10

Shoulder press at 50-55kg, 3 sets of 8-10

Leg press at 105kg, 3 sets of 10. This is the max weight offered, so again I work on my technique to make it harder.

Lat pull down, 3 sets of 8-10 at 55-60kg. Sometimes I do a mix of pullups aswell, sets of 10.

Bicep curl usually with a barbell, 35-40kg, 3 sets of 8-10

Stiff legged deadlift with a barbell, 40kg, 3 sets of 10.

I usually workout on mondays, wednesdays and fridays, always getting at least a days rest. I got to the point where I was recovered by the morning after the workout, I probably should have traveled to a better gym, except then the problem started.

I eat 5 meals a day, occasionally 6. I eat whole foods, non processed, lots of protein from meats, protein shakes, fatty oils, sweet potatoes, bananas, apples, occasionally broccoli. I don’t really eat or drink anything considered unhealthy.

Each meal contains 450-500 calories so throughout the day i eat between 2300 and 2500 calories, occasionally i’ll have a 6th meal in a day and get even more calories.

Macro breakdown? A typical day would consist of breakfest (8am) of 2 eggs, 2 slices wholegrain toast, 11am i’ll have chicken breast with vegetables and a piece of fruit. 2pm i’ll have wholegrain rice, tuna in olive oil and some skimmed milk. 5pm more chicken with vegetables and fruit. 8pm sweet potatoes cooked in olive oil with fish either completely plain or in a light breadcrumb. It’s not really that often I have a 6th meal, especially with my current condition, adrenal fatigue/hypothyroidism surpresss my appetite in the morning and I tend to eat a bit too late in the day to get a 6th meal in, though this should change once i’m off the thyroid hormone pills.

I always did a pretty good job of working out and eating clean, and getting enough calories, if anything maybe I could have eaten a little more.

Remember I was vitamin D deficient during this, as I hadn’t got much sunlight for years, something that’s no longer a problem, but no matter how much thought I put into training or eating well, it could be that being vitamin D deficient kicked it all off. I never got tested for the B or C vitamins, but there could have been a problem there too. Either way, my adrenal recovery program consists of me getting all the B vitamins, C and D. Also fish oil supplements with every meal. I think i’ll keep on taking this supplements even after i’m better because perhaps it will help me avoid this situation happening again.

I want to get back to working out as soon as I can, i’ve tried multiple times for the past year and all i’ve done is stunt my recovery each time. That’s the only reason i’m taking longer of the gym now. It’s not because I want to, it’s because it seems I have no choice if I ever want to improve my strength.

[/quote]

Are you british? I don’t know what it is about us but the most ignorance I see about training/eating is usually from fellow britains. I was told the other day by a couple of people the other day that eating more than 2 eggs a week could lead to a heart attack… anyways…

If you ever ‘get better’ and decide to start training again, you should try and eat more food at breakfast than what my 43KG girlfriend eats. Then maybe you could start eating properly over the rest of the day as well.

Your diet looks like something a figure girl would eat pre-contest, I’m not exaggerating or being a dick, but really, this is one of the first things you should of addressed when you started regressing, not continuing to beat yourself into the ground further.

24

Forgot to mention workout days, nothing really changes much, except that I have Surge as a workout drink after my gym session. The morning after the workout i’ll add in a small whey shake with breakfest.

25

There’s many article on overtraining online, and they all seem to preach pretty much the same thing.

Maybe my downfall was inexperience to this type of problem and that I was training a little too hard, combined with a vitamin D deficiency. I’ve always prefered to do full body workouts rather than split the muscle groups. Perhaps 3 days a week every week for 16 months without a break was too much.

What made things get really bad is when I stopped getting stronger, I started pushing harder, which obviously was the opposite of what I should have done at that point, which was just take a few weeks off.

I also never used to really take the time to just chill and relax, I always had to be busy with something, relaxing was never really my thing. I’ve come to learn though that relaxing is actually something that everybody needs to do in order to remain healthy.

26

[quote]cmorgan00 wrote:
…i eat between 2300 and 2500 calories, occasionally i’ll have a 6th meal in a day and get even more calories.
[/quote]

^^^ This sets of alarm bells in my head, please don’t tell me that you actually gain weight on this amount? That’s how much I eat on a diet (and many others too). You will feel like utter rubbish if you don’t eat enough; it doesn’t matter how “clean” your food is. I’m speaking from personal experience - in the days where I used to eat the amount that you are eating, I was constantly tired (used to sleep in the afternoon etc), my sex drive went to zero, I got ill every 3 months…

The vitamin D deficiency gives the hint that you are probably malnourished (not just lack of sunlight) - something that often happens when staying clear of “Western foods”; what some people call “unhealthy”. How they can call dairy products unhealthy I’ll never know.

I’m not going to recommend eating rubbish, but you do need to eat more. All the functions in your body will cease to function 100% without adequate calories (your caloric needs go much higher with training)…which includes things like sex drive, energy, adrenal function etc.

If your appetite is poor right now, try eating more calorie dense foods like peanut butter, eggs, full fat beef, full fat milk, olive oil etc. This will mean not having to fill your stomach up as much, but you’ll still be able to get in more calories. And believe it or not, you’ll get many nutrients from those foods, not just calories.

For breakfast, eat something high in carbs - this stimulates the appetite for the rest of the day. Also, consider a bit of morning slow paced cardio (this again stimulates the appetite).

Apart from that, what are your stats? e.g. Weight/height/~bodyfat

27

[quote]cmorgan00 wrote:
I’ve always prefered to do full body workouts rather than split the muscle groups…What made things get really bad is when I stopped getting stronger…[/quote]

^^^Yep, there’s another alarm bell :wink:

No bodybuilder stays on a full body training 3x/week. Hardly any even start off with that. It’s a good starting point (e.g. Mark Rippetoe’s “Starting Strength”), but once a decent strength base has been built you’ve got to split it up. You will just burn out otherwise (doing squats/deadlifts 3 x/week and not at least varying the intensity).

You won’t continue to get stronger doing the same exercise three times a week. Change to at least a two way split, or a three way split…when you can manage it - this trains body parts about twice a week.

28

I have started to drink a lot of milk now, I just have this urge to drink it and I enjoy it, I suppose thats my bodys way of telling me it wants it. I’ve never had an issue with dairy, and I was eating quite a lot of low fat yoghurt up until I stopped going to the gym.

Apparently most of our vitamin D comes from sunlight, and i’m not exaggerating when I say I hardly even got any sun. After all the problems started and I was looking to find the cause of my hypothyroidism I thought about any deficincies and vitamin D was the first to come to mind, then tests comfirmed it. I took vitamin D pills all throughout winter and now that it’s summer I sunbathe reguarly.

Do you think it would be wise to add low fat yoghurt back into my diet?

29

A tip for breakfast:

Night before, shove some oats in a blender with milk and whey protein, mix up and put in the fridge for morning…quick and easy, and you’ll have no excuse for putting off breakfast :slight_smile:

30

[quote]cmorgan00 wrote:
Do you think it would be wise to add low fat yoghurt back into my diet?[/quote]

Yeah you can’t go wrong, or maybe some cottage cheese at bedtime. If I were eating under 3000cals/day, I wouldn’t be worrying about the fat content of my yoghurt mind you…

31

I’m a big believer in getting in enough dietary fat (e.g. 20% of total intake or above). Not only does fat intake increase testosterone levels, but it brings along with it other nutritional benefits too. I bet that as soon as you increase your “fatty” foods (and change your split), you wouldn’t “over-train” again.

You’ve given your calorie levels (pretty low) which suggests that your fat intake is very low (calories mainly based on carbs). You’ve hinted at the “fat phobia” by specifically stating that the yoghurt is low fat, and that you eat “clean”.

It’s no surprise that you are vitamin D deficient since vitamin D is fat soluble (only taken in by the body via “fatty” foods).

32

Had a friend in college who was diagnosed with hypothyrodism, was getting ill, gained weight, tired. She got her hormone in check, straightened out her diet, and got back to training within a few months. No biggie.

If you pushed the crap out of yourself too long, take some time off and come back. It shouldn’t take years to come back from this, that’s a ridiculous concept.

Eat, lift, sleep.

33

[quote]mch60360 wrote:
Had a friend in college who was diagnosed with hypothyrodism, was getting ill, gained weight, tired. She got her hormone in check, straightened out her diet, and got back to training within a few months. No biggie.

If you pushed the crap out of yourself too long, take some time off and come back. It shouldn’t take years to come back from this, that’s a ridiculous concept.

Eat, lift, sleep. [/quote]

Did she actually get rid of the hypothyroidism condition or does she still have to take hormone tablets for it?

34

[quote]its_just_me wrote:
I’m a big believer in getting in enough dietary fat (e.g. 20% of total intake or above). Not only does fat intake increase testosterone levels, but it brings along with it other nutritional benefits too. I bet that as soon as you increase your “fatty” foods (and change your split), you wouldn’t “over-train” again.

You’ve given your calorie levels (pretty low) which suggests that your fat intake is very low (calories mainly based on carbs). You’ve hinted at the “fat phobia” by specifically stating that the yoghurt is low fat, and that you eat “clean”.

It’s no surprise that you are vitamin D deficient since vitamin D is fat soluble (only taken in by the body via “fatty” foods).[/quote]

Well to be fair I was vitamin D deficient, but not anymore, as soon as I tested for that I started getting more sunshine and also take a vitamin D tablet daily to boost levels. Doctor told me to come back 3 months later to get re-tested, the re-test was just about 6 weeks ago, that revealed that my vitamin D levels are fine now. Who knows how long I was deficient for, I know what my lifestyle has been like, and I think it could have been like that for quite a few years.

35

[quote]its_just_me wrote:
A tip for breakfast:

Night before, shove some oats in a blender with milk and whey protein, mix up and put in the fridge for morning…quick and easy, and you’ll have no excuse for putting off breakfast :)[/quote]

Sounds like it might be a good idea to try, getting very fond of milk these days, and I’m really struggling to eat breakfest recently.

36

I would actually track your food for a little while until you can be pretty accurate in determining that your getting enough. just pick a number of calories and make sure you get it every day

37

Shouldn’t I wait until i’m almost ready to start lifting again before I begin eating for lifting? Right now i’m probably a good 2-3 months away from going back to the gym and that’s being optimistic, I was advised by a nutritionist that i’ll probably need 12-18 months to recover and that’s if I don’t stress.

Of course that seems a bit too long and my thyroid levels are rapidly going back to normal so I was hopoing to get back into it within a few months.

38

The more you eat (within reason) the quicker the body will bounce back.

39

[quote]waylanderxx wrote:
That’s actually pretty interesting.

So does this mean you are physically incapable of performing demanding levels of exercise? [/quote]

x2, that’s what I got out of it.

40

[quote]PHGN wrote:
Get some test, I would start with 2g a week and see where it goes…[/quote]

LOL, what?