Over Training
By Dr. Russ Ebbets
Off The Road Column
Children Running Can v. Should
After you were involved in the sport for awhile, usually later than sooner, you realized that more is not always better and that in fact too much training can lead to illness and injury. This lead to another self-discovery –The Law of Diminishing Returns, past a point training harder works against you.
Some people never get to the second realization. They are the "no pain – no gain" bunch who valiantly limp on crippled by their own drive.
For the motivated athlete with performance goals the consequences of overtraining, illness and injury are ever present.
The thing that most runners refuse to accept is the cumulative effect distance running has on the body. Training, used sensibly, can increase one’s endurance, speed, technique or strength. Taken to extremes training can be physical or mental torture that can break the spirit and the body.
It seems ridiculous that one would jeopardize one’s health and mental well being by excessive training but the offices of many health care professionals are full of individuals whose performance aspirations have over ridden their good sense.
Although it is the mental desire that drives one to excel overtraining is the physical breakdown with the body. At its most basic overtraining is an imbalance between work and rest.
It has been said that all improvements that we make come when we rest. Although this runs counter to the work ethic most runners swear by close examination of the statement reveals its truth.
The concept of training, competition and the supercompensation training causes was first theorized by the Russian Yakovlev in the 1960’s. It is simply another rendition of Neitchze’s "anything that does not destroy you makes you stronger." Work (interval training or long distance running) tires and breaks down the body. On the graph this is represented by the line dipping below the x-axis.
Rest, usually a day or two, allows the body to recover and return to a "normal"
State and rise above the x-axis, this is the state of supercompensation. The body adapts to the stresses placed upon it – assuming they aren’t too great.
But what if the next stress faced by the body, the next physical challenge, comes before the body’s physical state has returned to the x-axis? At this point the body becomes over trained and follows the dotted line, actually decreasing one’s fitness level.
This is a simple representation of a complex problem. Doing an inappropriate workout or not getting adequate rest in between individual workouts usually doesn’t have dire consequences when done once. The problem arises when the pattern is repeated again and again relentlessly. Something has to give.
The body gives. Illness and injury are the result of overtraining. Injury, a physical breakdown is easily understood, it may be a sore Achilles tendon, bum knee or low back pain. Illness, a physiological breakdown, takes some explaining. Illnesses (colds, susceptibility to flu, infections, etc.) come about when our natural resistance is lowered. Our natural resistance is lowered when we are under stress. Training with adequate rest is a stress our body can adapt to. Overtraining, with decreased rest is a stress we cannot handle. It upsets our system.
System is a nice word that represents all our bodily functions – our metabolism, digestion, nerves, muscles and elimination functions. Normally the body functions in a delicate chemical balance, overtraining upsets that delicate balance.
When all the systems are coordinated and functioning together the chemical pH (the number used to tell the acid/base balance of the body) of our body is 7.4 on a 14 point scale. Overtraining and fatiguing stress tend to lower the pH of the body making it more acidic. This makes sense because an acid, lactic acid, is the waste product of muscle metabolism. Increases in the lactic acid build-up in the muscle tissues that is not dissipated over time shift the pH of the body to a more acidic state making the body more susceptible to illness.
What can be done to counteract this? Faster recoveries can be achieved by a sensible, multi-factorial attack that includes rest, regeneration and restoration plus proper hydration and diet and a physical manipulation of the spine and soft tissues that helps speed repair.
The ideas of hydration and diet are not new. Water is the body’s solvent. All bodily functions need water. Increased exercise and profuse perspiration deplete our body’s water stores. This eventually thickens the blood making it harder to pump leading to a decreased circulation of oxygen and nutrients that exercising muscle cells so desperately need.
The amount of water necessary for an active person is ½ ounce of water per pound of bodyweight (150# = 75 oz/day). This should be broken up over the course of the day and remember the stomach most readily absorbs distilled water.
The more natural the diet with foods closer to their "natural" state the better.
Fresh fruits and vegetables should compromise up to 60% of the food consumed. Fried foods, sugars, bleached flours, carbonated drinks, coffee, tea and alcohol should be consumed at a bare minimum.
A good warm down following training also sets the recovery in motion. This begins the circulation of the blood that helps dissipate the lactic acid and waste products that build-up after exercise. A warmdown could include easy jogging, stretching and even a short swim if a pool is accessible. The water in the pool will cool down and decompress the joints.
Good food, water and a simple warm down will begin the restoration and regeneration process. More aggressive measures that will speed recovery and enhance performance include massage of the soft tissues and physical manipulation of the spine. Massage is a systematic kneading and stroking of the muscles that helps break up pockets of accumulated lactic acid in the muscles. Lactic acid has a glue-like effect in the muscles preventing a smooth sliding of the fibers back and forth. Loss of the smooth sliding of a muscle not only affects the force application of the muscles but also the blood’s ability to transport blood with oxygen and nutrients and for the blood to remove nutrients.
Manipulation of the spine and articular joints of the extremities relaxes the holding elements (ligaments, tendons and muscles) and improves the nervous innervation to a particular area. Our nervous system controls the flow of blood. Properly aligned joints also have less stress on the muscular system additionally relieving stress in this way promoting general feelings of health and well being.
Interestingly recovery of the muscular system takes 24-48 hours. This translates into two "hard" efforts per week. Experience tells you that you can handle these two efforts, trying three or four and bad things begin to happen.
Tudor Bompa, generally considered the preeminent training theorist in the world says that a fatigued nervous system takes 9x as long to recover as a fatigued muscle. Nine times might be nine days or longer. This may possibly explain why in the middle of a sensibly planned and successful season one suddenly becomes "flat." The muscular stresses may have been planned for but not the stress on the nervous system.
Charlie Francis, the infamous Canadian sprint coach routinely rested (50-60% efforts) his sprinters after they produced personal record performances for nine days. This allowed not only the muscular system to recover but also the nervous system.
Francis and Bompa have worked closely together for years.
There are three simple ways to monitor one’s physical state. Charting one’s morning weight over time will give a fair indication of the present state of health. Losses of greater than two pounds from one day are significant and should be monitored.
A more accurate means to monitor recovery levels is to chart the morning pulse rate. A baseline number can be arrived at after two weeks of monitoring. A fluctuation of more than 10% (normal pulse 60 beats per minute to 66BPM) indicates that the body has not recovered from the previous day’s workouts and easy workout days are in order.
The simplest and most effective way is to monitor the morning urine pH. This can be done with litmus paper. Drips of urine should register in the acidic range indicating that the body is in an alkaline state (which is good). This info can be easily charted in a daily training diary. The pH paper is usually available from any pharmacy.
Overtraining is an unhealthy imbalance between work and rest. Overtraining is an example of one’s drive and motivation over riding one’s good sense. The development of a seasonal plan is critical but this plan must be monitored along the way whether it is by the morning pulse or the pH of the urine. The fact that one’s performances are improving could be misleading. Plan your training and work your plan. Train with intention with liberal amounts of rest. Don’t just do it.