Recognizing 'Overreaching'

CT - Past few weeks I’ve been under a lot of stress, limited sleep (disturbed cycles) and have been caffeinated to the gilt. Max ramp has gone down, although I “make up for it” by doing lots of HDL and clusters. I drag through the day but my evening workout becomes that stimulation that raises my mood, and I feel that Im not getting as much of a pump, feel as explosive, or increasing strength (in fact, may be getting weaker). But I’m training 6-7 days and

Physique wise I feel less full, and a tiny bit smoother even though my dietary intake has been pretty low. I dont kno if this is symptomatic of “overtraining” but I definitely recognize that I’ve seemed to push past diminishing returns.

My question is I’m not sure if this is just slowed progress, regression, or vastly overtrained. I’ve been doing the layer system for awhlie so Im not sure if “newbie gains” (particularly as I’ve been reaming the high pulls multiple times a eek) are gone anyways, and I should push further. It’s just my performance hasn’t been upwardly trending but I crave the stimulation from the workout.

Along with this, I feel mood/mental performance has suffered. Limited appetite, vapid feeling, etc. It seems kind of obvious as I write this yet simultaneously the training is what gives me a mood lift. I feel like off days would make me haywire. So would appreciate hearing your opinion on how to approach this.

Olympic lifters go through that “dark period” where they keep hitting maxes everyday and then after a few weeks suddenly emerge with newfound gains and adaptation. Im not sure if a similar thing could occur here? Or i’d be better off tapering down to some lower intensity version of your layering system? Limited volume?

Many thanks.

Sigil i look forward to CT’s response on this.Like you i’ve been hammering away but i feel like i’m in the exact same place your in at the moment and having the same problems.And taking in way to much coffee,gotta cut this back.

  1. The fact that you are eating and sleeping less probably has more to do with how you feel that the actual training.

  2. Overtraining is a physical state, not the action of “training too much” (although training too much can be one of the factors involved in entering and overtraining state).

  3. Olympic lifters do not go through a “dark time” and keep maxing… JOHN BROZ’ OLYMPIC LIFTERS DO THAT. And Bulgarians. The rest of the world elite doesn’t get to that state, and if they do they back off a little. It is worth mentioning that the whole Bulgarian olympic lifting team tested positive 3 times and were severely sanctioned, and Broz has two lifters test positive recently.

  4. I also hit a point where I started to feel bad… I was losing motivation to train and my strength was eroding a bit. What was doing it to me was doing too much HDL work. I drastically reduced it (or even dropped it in some cases) in favor of more cluster work (and other strategies that will eventually be available) and within a few days my strength came back and I increased my strength significantly over the past 3 weeks.

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:

  1. The fact that you are eating and sleeping less probably has more to do with how you feel that the actual training.

  2. Overtraining is a physical state, not the action of “training too much” (although training too much can be one of the factors involved in entering and overtraining state).

  3. Olympic lifters do not go through a “dark time” and keep maxing… JOHN BROZ’ OLYMPIC LIFTERS DO THAT. And Bulgarians. The rest of the world elite doesn’t get to that state, and if they do they back off a little. It is worth mentioning that the whole Bulgarian olympic lifting team tested positive 3 times and were severely sanctioned, and Broz has two lifters test positive recently.

  4. I also hit a point where I started to feel bad… I was losing motivation to train and my strength was eroding a bit. What was doing it to me was doing too much HDL work. I drastically reduced it (or even dropped it in some cases) in favor of more cluster work (and other strategies that will eventually be available) and within a few days my strength came back and I increased my strength significantly over the past 3 weeks.[/quote]

ye I’m actually feeling similar but finding it hard to decide whether it is over reaching or just simple tiredness from being on a cut. in that case what would you do to tell the difference? also heavily reliant on caffeine but feel thats normal when cutting

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:

  1. Olympic lifters do not go through a “dark time” and keep maxing… JOHN BROZ’ OLYMPIC LIFTERS DO THAT. And Bulgarians. The rest of the world elite doesn’t get to that state, and if they do they back off a little. It is worth mentioning that the whole Bulgarian olympic lifting team tested positive 3 times and were severely sanctioned, and Broz has two lifters test positive recently.
    [/quote]

It was my understanding that overtraining is a neurological thing, which is why it’s always seemed odd that maxing every day o-lifters are said to get by with drugs. Does AAS or some over PED aid in neural recovery? Or is overtraining not a CNS issue?

[quote]DoubleDuce wrote:

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:

  1. Olympic lifters do not go through a “dark time” and keep maxing… JOHN BROZ’ OLYMPIC LIFTERS DO THAT. And Bulgarians. The rest of the world elite doesn’t get to that state, and if they do they back off a little. It is worth mentioning that the whole Bulgarian olympic lifting team tested positive 3 times and were severely sanctioned, and Broz has two lifters test positive recently.
    [/quote]

It was my understanding that overtraining is a neurological thing, which is why it’s always seemed odd that maxing every day o-lifters are said to get by with drugs. Does AAS or some over PED aid in neural recovery? Or is overtraining not a CNS issue?[/quote]

Overtraining is not limited to the nervous system at all. It can affect any of the body’s main systems: neurological, hormonal (that’s why AAS can improve yur capacity to handle training loads), immune (which is why tons of athletes get sick after a big competition) and even digestive.