What is Over Training and How Does it Connect with Corrective Exercise?

 

 

What is over training? When something feels off with your body, should you stop training? In the past, I’ve met boxers, CrossFit athletes and soccer players that were really good at what they did. In fact, my friend Jeffrey Payeras is now part of the LA Galaxy and is now part of the Guatemala Nacional team. He was just good at what he did and one of the things that I used to see in him was consistency. However, a lot of the other players in the team that were good as well did not necessarily took the sport serious to the point when they needed to step back and work on their weaknesses or even rest. It happens, doesn’t it? Is like working 10-15 hour shifts. I don’t care, you can be good at your job but there is such thing as a burnout and just like your job I can’t tell you to stop working, but what I can tell you is to take the time to figure out when you are overdoing things, step back, observe and look at what is stopping you from improving. This is when you need to understand recovery and corrective training.

Here are some questions to ask yourself when you are trying to figure out whether there are missing pieces to your fitness progress: Am I getting enough sleep? Am I testing my range of motion? Do I need mobility exercises or stretches? How is my body feeling? Can I continue to PR my lifts, time sprints, or even benchmark workouts? Am I eating enough and the right way to sustain my training?

This week I interviewed NASM Trainer Alex Rulvalcaba and we talked a lot about the importance of corrective training and we came to understand, what happens to the body when you forget about assisting and essential muscles that can improve your training. Instead we focus on beating our bodies to death with improper nonvalenced programming or training. More than often we come across people who walk into the gym and either do three things; hit cardio such as running on the treadmill for 30 minutes (without wondering whether muscles around the knee joint are getting hurt), Hit the bench (supper heavy and not caring about their shoulders or form), or do a HIIT workout they came across to on someone’s Instagram page. Why are you training the way that you do? The whole point of being fit is to be able to perform good at everything, right? But even the most well rounded athletes know that there are times when you need to work on your weaknesses. I see Jeffrey show up to the gym sometimes and work on agility drills because on his last game he probably noticed his foot work needed to improve, I’ve also seen him work on his core which is essential for a pro athlete to work on to be stable and well balanced in the field. Him understanding that his training needs to be well balanced is why he is good!

What weaknesses do we tend to see? The first one is posture. Sitting in a desk for long periods of time (overdoing) require that we do core exercises to activate the muscles that we are not using. If your bench press is not increasing and your shoulder is starting to bug you, take time to work on single arm dumbbell presses, rows or focus on strengthening your posterior/ back muscles which assist your movement on a bench press. Same goes for athletes that perform high intensity movements in CrossFit that require you to be mobile, stable and balanced to perform Olympic lifts safe and successful. Challenge yourself with Bosu balls, single side movements like lunges, stiff legged deadlifts, scapular and shoulder strengthening/stability movements, etc. Therefore, it is important to ask a knowledgeable trainer or coach to help you work on your weaknesses and asses the way your body is moving.

As I continue this blog please make sure you drop your comments, feedback and stay motivated.  You shouldn’t stop training because of an injury but you can always continue your training by focusing on accessory movements to supplement your training. Please be safe when you’re working out and be conscious of your programming to make sure is balanced well.

I will be doing short interviews as podcast to some of my trainers so please feel free to leave your questions on the box and we will try to answer the best we can. Stay motivated and remember that you have control of your results!