Over Training

Yes, I do believe over training to be a very real thing; however, many average people have never experienced over training and are most likely suffering from other stresses in life, or are simply out of shape. The physiological response of over training is the body's inability to return to homeostasis, or put more simply, it is having a hard time recognizing to not be in a training state. Think about it this way: while you are training your heart rate is elevated, stress hormones are secreted, the nervous system is stimulated, and many other acute adaptations occur. So, it only makes sense that if you spend too much time training and putting your body in the perpetual state of being it will have a hard time coming down from the stimuli of training. Symptoms of over training include, but are not limited to: elevated resting heart rate, insomnia, irritability, decreased performance, decreased focus, and many more. In my opinion, it takes weeks or months of chronic over exercise to reach an over trained state. This definition of over training is much different than the term lifters use. In the body building and power lifting culture, over training is a term that more or less means you are stunting your results of growing bigger. This is very true, lifting too much will result in minimal growth from the previous sessions. If you do more sets, then day after day you will see a decrease in gains and performance; but, unless you're doing significant cardio on the side or lifting 2+ hours a day (not counting rest) you are not over training as much as you are just not optimizing your growth. Hope this helps!