FITNESS, INSPIRATION

Overtraining?

A company called INOV-8 makes my favorite all around gym shoes. Their slogan is “obsessed is just a word the lazy use to describe the dedicated.” C.T. Fletcher famously says, “Overtraining is bullshit.” So, is it true? Or is it the case that we must be careful to avoid overtraining? My personal belief on this topic is that you can over train, but not in the way most people talk about it.

f-lite 235 v2 is in my opinion the best all around functional gym shoe.

Let’s face it, our life is kinda weird to most people. The idea that it is harder to stay out of the gym than to go to the gym simply doesn’t make sense to a lot of people.

It’s Still Your Mother Fuckin’ Set

Casual gym goers who go for some light exercise or to socialize or because they think it makes them cool or for whatever reason will often point to us and say we are crazy and we are overtraining. I think that the INOV-8 logo has the right of it. These are simply people who are not motivated enough or too lazy to put the work in.

I see a guy who shows up to the gym three times a week with his Mehdi 5×5 program in a notebook. He does his 5 sets of this and his 5 sets of that and walks out. Those are the guys who are going to look at you and tell you how crazy you are and that you are over training. Despite the fact that they look out of shape 104% of the time while pontificating on “the right way” to do things, they will quickly drop the “O” word as some condemnation of your training style. It is truly amazing, but it happens with such frequency that I am forced to think there is a fully explainable human pathology behind it (feel free to give it a crack comments section).

But I can totally lift 25 pounds more than I used to

That said, should we go as far as to listen to C.T. Fletcher who will work biceps 7 days a week? Of course not – especially if you are a natural lifter. That is a quick way to pain. However, if you want big results you have to be able to put in big work. I go to the gym seven times a week and at least four of those days I go twice. In the summer, this might change because I can get some outside exercise on a weekend, but nevertheless a workout.

The trick to avoid overtraining is not to avoid the gym. The trick to avoid overtraining is to know the correct way to lift and how the body works. As any long time lifter will tell you (paging Lou Skunt), we never stop learning. There will never be a day where you have nothing left to learn. If you are a

The “I lift way heavier than you bruh and I only go to the gym 3 times a week” starter kit

student of the discipline and not just a casual gym goer you will learn how to manipulate the body.

You should know exactly what the primary, secondary and tertiary muscles are that are activated by each lift. If you are doing deadlifts you know they are hitting your glutes, hamstrings and quads. Fine. But do you know that a properly executed deadlift also hits your adductor magnus, soleus, gastrocnemius, erector spinae, upper and middle trapezius, levator scapulae, rhomboids and obliques? Oh you didn’t? So why the fuck are you deadlifting?

If you are going to design a program involving deadlifts you should consult this chart

Since your upper and your middle traps are being hit by the deadlift it is a great idea to hit traps on the same day you are deadlifting and a bad idea to hit them the day after.

What about bench press? Sure, it is working out your pecs. But it is also working your anterior, posterior and middle delts, traps, abs, obliques, triceps, biceps, infraspinatus, your traps, forearm flexors and extensors and serratus anterior. Just walking into the gym and tossing as much weight on the bar as you can, pushing it with bad form and calling it a day is not enough. The funny thing is, it is exactly those people who will see you load up 30% of your 1RM and push it 20 or more times and tell you that you don’t know what you are doing.

A well-designed program (like the ones you get from awesome places like www.teamwbfitness.com) will take all of this into account. Because of this, you can go to the gym 7 days a week, 2 times a day and not overtrain.

And look, don’t get me wrong. Being about this life is simply not for everyone and that is ok. There is plenty of room in the gym for people just looking to get a little exercise or even people looking to socialize a bit. However, if you want inhuman, beast like results you simply can’t get it without putting in inhuman, beast like effort. Going to the gym 3 days a week for an hour a day is not a terrible thing, but it isn’t going to give you the kind of results that #teambeater members are looking for. People won’t stop on the street and say “wow! You must spend 3 hour a week at a gym!”

To recap here: Yes, you can overtrain by training the same muscle day after day.  That said, the only people who will call daily work at the gym overtraining are lazy, jealous or ignorant (usually some combo of the three). Overtraining is avoidable with intelligent program design, not with extra days off. So get on your grind. Get in your work. If you are looking to look like a beast, work like a beast and if you hear people talking about how you are overtraining just remember that that says more about them than it does about you.

Earn that jealousy.

When you see some gimmick workout program tell you that you can work out a few times a week with heavier and heavier weights and it is not important to be in the gym for so many hours, remember that what they are telling you is that you can get the results of hard work without putting in hard work. That is absolutely false. Arnold says it perfectly in my favorite inspirational speech ever. He says, “If you want to win there is absolutely no way around hard, hard work…….you can’t climb the ladder of success with your hands in your pockets.” In fact, I love this speech so much I am going to link to it below. I cannot stress enough how you should listen to it over and over until the words are burned into your mind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1JBQMXbN2k

 

 

WB FITNESS

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11 Comments

Jim Johnson

Maybe there is a too much, but for the 99.9999% of us who are not there, we can do more.

WB Fitness

Absolutely Jim.

I suppose I should add as a caveat that if you are a top pro athlete you should listen to your trainers regarding rest times.

J.Nyx

“low heavy weight is just an excuse for old fat guys” J. Nyx’s Asshole Brother

Seriously though the guys worried about you “overtraining” are the ones severely undertraining. I’ve noticed with low rep heavy weight shit there is always this constant fear. Fear that you’re going to royally fuck your body up permanently. Never feel that way doing volume/bodybuilding.

WB Fitness

When you do something right it always works out better

Lou Skunt

Overtraining. That’s one of those words that gets thrown around plenty in the commercial gyms, not so much in the hardcore facilities – funny how that works.

Do I believe in overtraining? Of course, you can overdo anything. With weight training, you need to be smart about. This is not for dummies, far from it – it takes some brains; there’s an awful lot to learn and properly apply.

I always like to use a racing engine as an analogy… If you want the best performance from the engine, you need the best parts, race fuel and expert tuning & maintenance.

Same thing with the body… A proper training routine should be methodical and focused. Couple that with the highest quality nutrition, proper rest and the ability to listen to your body, and you shouldn’t succumb to “overtraining.” When I hear people mention Overtraining, I always jokingly say:” there’s no such thing as overtraining – just undereating and not resting enough” – some get it, some don’t.

Bottom line, if you want any sort of success, you must be willing to outwork others. You need a “do whatever it takes” attitude. Keep educating yourself. Trust the process, because it works. Like Arnold says: “NEVER BE AFRAID TO FAIL.”

WB Fitness

“When I hear people mention Overtraining, I always jokingly say:” there’s no such thing as overtraining – just undereating and not resting enough”

So much excellent here! I will be using this.

On the never being afraid to fail, Mike Tyson says something to the effect of “I’m going to grab for the stars. So what if all I wind up with is a handful of clouds”

CursedWolf

Posted this on the “Right to Bare Arms” article, but didn’t get an answer so I am reposting it.

Should I as a Gym newbie do the two supersets? I’m 5’4 (167cm) and weight 138 pouds (63kg). This is my 6th month in the gym I’ve been going 3 days a week for at most 1 hour (No excuses, just don’t have more time during working days) I am going to add weekends as training days, I started doing supersets for everything and it’s amazing. My goal is not really to get super big, I am mostly doing it to be fit and healthy but still it’s like a addiction, missing days in the gym just feels terrible.
I am lucky i stumbled across this site where real advice is given.
Keep up the good work!

WB Fitness

Thanks for the great words! Sorry I didn’t see your comment on the earlier post. I don’t get notified for a comment so i usually only see them on the most current unless I go back.

To answer your question about supersets: I absolutely believe you, and everyone, should incorporate supersets into their workout routine regardless of goals. Getting big, getting lean, getting fit, getting anywhere is going to be a lot about your diet.

The one trick with supersets is to make sure you are supersetting the right lifts. Feel free to be in touch if you want help designing a particular regimen tailored to your goals.

As for missing days in the gym making you feel terrible, welcome to the greatest addiction in the world.

Thanks again. Your comment really made my day.

CursedWolf

Thanks for the answer, no need to apologize.

You deserve the praise man, the superset routine is helping me a lot and most of the advice that’s on the site.My diet is mostly meat, eggs and vegies/fruit low carb intake.

At the moment I am doing supersets for back, chest and arm exercises, this is week 2 that i started implementing superset in my training routine and there is already a improvment in the feel and look of the muscles.

It really is the greatest addiction it either becomes your lifestyle or not, if you’re serious about health/looks/the pump the former is a no brainer choice.

To add to the topic of this article, you can’t overtrain if you balance your workout, people confuse soreness with overtraining and that’s a big common mistake.

WB Fitness

“people confuse soreness with overtraining and that’s a big common mistake.”
Absolutely. Eventually you come to love the soreness…the DOMS…and feel odd when they aren’t there. If you are on the telegram app feel free to message me if you want to go more into detail on diet and particular workouts.

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