[quote]Jason B wrote:
I seem to be much in the minority around here when it comes to this, but I’d love to see more opinions.
So…Overtraining…Myth or Reality…and why…without quoting your favorite author, please use your own brain to form your answer…
I have stated that I do not belive in it. I feel it is a myth. No matter how hard I have ever pushed my body it has always adapted and continued working. I have read about Jerry Rice’s offseason training routines and if there was ever a man who was overtraining he would be one.
Why is weightlifting any different than running, or skating, or biking? Shouldn’t overtraining be overtraining? Lance Armstrong training for the Tour de France…wow, looking at those workouts he should never have won a race, he should have needed months off to not feel so overtrained, yet he kept winning and improving.
So give me your 2 cents…I am a big boy, I can take it…
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Those elite level cyclists who eventually gain the recovery ability to participate in the Tour, and many don’t and remain one-day specialists, take many years to do so. It’s rare for a rider’s first grand tour to occur before age 25 because it takes so long to build up the work capacity.
In fact, training for cycling at a high level is built almost entirely around managing fatigue, walking that thin line between training which will produce adaptation and training which will produce overtraining/regression. This is the case in most non-skill dominant sports.
If you don’t believe in overtraining, I suggest you go max your deadlift every day for a month while continuing your normal training program. Come back then and tell me if you were able to eat and sleep your way out of declining performance, insomnia, depression, and loss of libido. Come back again a week or two after that and tell me if you’re good as new and better than ever.
If you’ve never managed to dig yourself a recovery hole that was too deep to escape without regression, then either you had great coaching, great luck, or a shortage of desire.