How To Know If You’re Overreaching or Overtraining
“There is no fixed physical reality, no single perception of the world, just numerous ways of interpreting world views as dictated by one's nervous system and the specific environment of our planetary existence.”
—Deepak Chopra
Back in 2015, I was training for back-to-back triathlons. Like any athlete, I was pushing myself to the brink while trying to avoid overtraining which would likely leave me injured, underrecovered, and worse for the wear. It’s a quandary I’ve had before with lots of guessing and trial and error but this time I took a different route. I decided to objectively listen to my body to tell me if I was overtraining or overreaching.
I bought a chest strap, downloaded an app, and discovered that I my nervous system was screaming out to me but I was totally unaware. Using heart rate variability (HRV), I discovered lasting insights that went well beyond training. Tracking my HRV was a success with the training (I avoided injury and ended up podiuming in one of the races) but, more importantly, it opened my mind to how imperceivable stress my body has to manage throughout the day and into my workouts. Things like alcohol, sleep, work, and even being in a noisy environment notably increased or decreased my HRV.
Whether you signed up for the rate, you want to add muscle, or you want to drop weight and look better, listening to your nervous system can help you efficiently achieve these goals while avoiding injury, burn out, and unnecessary fatigue.
Overreaching vs. Overtraining
Optimizing training and pushing physical limits are aspirations shared by athletes and exercise enthusiasts. However, it's vital to discern the difference between overreaching and overtraining to ensure effective and sustainable training. This article explores the physiological and psychological distinctions between these states, delving into the intricate world of sports and exercise science. By understanding these nuances, athletes, coaches, and practitioners can optimize training strategies and minimize the risk of performance decrements and potential health issues.
The SAID Principle
At the core of exercise physiology is the SAID principle—Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands. This principle highlights that the human body specifically adapts to the demands placed upon it. In essence, the physiological changes resulting from exercise are specific to the type of exercise or stress applied.
The SAID principle encompasses key concepts:
Specificity: The body responds and adapts in a specific manner based on the type of exercise or stress it experiences. For instance, if you focus on resistance training, your body will adapt by increasing muscle strength and size to better handle the demands. Conversely, cardiovascular activities like running or cycling will lead to improvements in endurance and cardiovascular fitness.
Adaptation: The body is highly adaptable and responds to the specific demands it faces. This adaptation occurs at the cellular, structural, and systemic levels. With repeated exposure to a particular type of exercise, physiological changes occur, enhancing performance and efficiency.
Imposed Demands: The body's adaptations are a direct response to the demands imposed during exercise, including factors like intensity, duration, frequency, and exercise mode. Gradually increasing these demands, such as progressively adding weight in resistance training, encourages ongoing improvements and prevents plateaus.
The SAID principle is behind every exercise-induced benefit, however, there can be too much of a good thing. In a best-case scenario we are overreaching for a short time in our training and in a worst-case scenario we’re injured or sick due to crossing that line into overtraining.
Source: blog.gymstreak.com/could-you-be-overtraining
Overreaching
Overreaching is a carefully applied state of amplified training aimed at inducing physiological adaptations and performance improvements. It involves intentionally pushing the body beyond its normal limits through intensified training sessions or periods of increased training volume and intensity. The goal of overreaching is to induce a temporary state of fatigue and stress that prompts the body to adapt and become stronger. When used properly, overreaching can have important positive benefits.
Overtraining
Overtraining is a maladaptive response to excessive training demands. It involves a multitude of physiological and psychological manifestations that can significantly impair an athlete's performance and well-being.
Some of the symptoms of overtraining include:
Persistent fatigue or exhaustion
Decreased performance or inability to meet training goals
Decreased motivation and enthusiasm for training
Difficulty recovering from workouts or prolonged muscle soreness
Frequent illness or weakened immune system
Disturbed sleep patterns
Mood swings, irritability, or increased anxiety
Elevated resting heart rate
Increased perceived effort during workouts
Loss of appetite or changes in appetite
Unexplained weight loss
Hormonal imbalances
Decreased libido or sexual dysfunction
Old School Vs. Modern Day Training
The old school approach to training was a written out calendar of what to do each day of the week. The workouts only changed based on severe weather or the actual event in the upcoming days. Feeling off or sick? Either suck it up or take a day off and jump back in when you can–and push harder to make up for lost time.
Nowadays, individualized training has gone mainstream. In order to optimize a training plan for overreaching, while avoiding overtraining, a good coach will change the approach and the workout of player A and player B based on both the subjective and objective responses of the mind and body. This approach isn’t just for the elite, it’s best for all people of all skill levels. Your body doesn’t care if you’re a weekend warrior pumping out 5ks or a professional powerlifter.
The goal of working out and training is to improve performance. The body needs to accumulate the right amount of stress and fatigue to stimulate the body and trigger an adaptation. Too little stress and your performance stagnates. Too much stress and you increase the odds of being overtrained with injury, illness, or counterproductive training results.
So how do you measure your recovery? By measuring your nervous system. You can do this subjectively or objectively. Here, we’ll focus on the latter.
How To Measure Recovery
Before we learn how to measure recovery, it’s important to understand the nervous system.
Nervous System Fatigue
There are 2 branches of the nervous system: the central nervous system (CNS) and the peripheral nervous system (PNS). Both the CNS and PNS work together to play an integral role in how our mind and body performs every moment of the day whether we realize it or not. Together, they stimulate our body to perform (through efferent neurons) and react to our body when it is stimulated (through afferent neurons). This two-way street is crucial to coordinate complex behaviors of skill and effort.
The CNS
The CNS comprises the brain and the spinal cord injury. It processes motor output and sensory input throughout the body. If your CNS is overstressed then it will not give the muscles the neural drive necessary for optimal output. Your muscles may have the capability of a strong contraction, however, the overworked CNS hinders the signals of the muscles and limits their voluntary activation. This neuromuscular fatigue results in poor neuromuscular performance.
The PNS
The PNS is made up of a vast network of nerves that branch off from the spinal cord and extend throughout the body. The major roles of the PNS are to send motor commands to muscles, carry sensory information from the environment to the CNS, and regulate autonomic functions (breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, etc.). The PNS is subdivided into the somatic and the autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system is then further subdivided into the sympathetic (fight, flight, freeze) and the parasympathetic (rest, digest, repair) nervous systems.
If the CNS or PNS is pushed too much then their function is limited. The nervous system does not distinguish between types of stress either. A poor diet can have just as much impact as sleep, exercise, or that fight you had with your significant other yesterday.
If the CNS or PNS is rested then it allows you to maximize the results of the workout. To be clear, the nervous system is not binary. It is not “on” or “off,” just as it’s neither “ready” nor “not ready.” It’s more like a see-saw, in constant flux depending on many factors. So determining the “readiness” of your nervous system won’t create the best workout for each person. This will further depend on your training and your goals.
How To Use HRV
Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is a physiological measure that has gained significant attention in the realm of sports and exercise science. It refers to the variation in the time interval between successive heartbeats and provides valuable insights into the autonomic nervous system's activity. HRV analysis has emerged as a non-invasive tool to assess an individual's response to exercise, differentiate between overreaching and overtraining, and optimize training plans for athletes. For a deep dive into HRV see the article, What is Heart Rate Variability (HRV) & 12 Things It Can Tell You.
Overreaching typically leads to a temporary decrease in HRV due to increased sympathetic activity and reduced parasympathetic activity. This imbalance is often observed during intense training phases. However, with adequate rest and recovery, the autonomic balance is restored, and HRV returns to baseline or even increases. In contrast, overtraining is characterized by a more persistent reduction in HRV, indicating a prolonged imbalance in the autonomic nervous system. By monitoring HRV over time, you can detect early signs of maladaptation and intervene before overtraining occurs.
HRV analysis can also assist in developing individualized exercise training plans that optimize performance and prevent overtraining. By monitoring HRV, you can assess physiological readiness for training sessions and adjust the intensity and volume accordingly.
An ideal training plan would look something like this:
Functional overreaching phase: Gradual workload progressions to accumulate fatigue
Recovery or deload phase: knocking down your training to avoid overtraining.
Supercompensation phase: Another bout of gradual workload progression
Repeat
A high HRV indicates a well-recovered state and readiness for challenging workouts such as overreaching and supercompensation. For a deeper dive into ways to increase your HRV, read the article, How To Improve Your HRV Score: 8 Ways According To Science.
A low HRV, on the other hand, suggests inadequate recovery and the need for a lighter training load or a focus on deloading. By incorporating HRV data into training plans, you can ensure appropriate periods of intensity and recovery, leading to improved performance and reduced risk of overtraining.
Furthermore, HRV-guided training plans can help identify an athlete's optimal training zones. By determining the HRV associated with specific training intensities, trainers can tailor workouts to target desired physiological adaptations. This individualized approach maximizes training effectiveness and minimizes the risk of excessive fatigue.
While science does not fully understand nervous system fatigue, it recognizes the correlation between fatigue and performance. According to the journal, Sports Medicine, “the importance of individualization of load monitoring cannot be over emphasized.” Measuring the nervous system can guide athletes to better training and better performance.
Takeaway
When exploring the differences between overreaching and overtraining in sports and exercise, the focus lies on optimizing training strategies and minimizing negative outcomes. Overreaching involves intensified training to induce performance improvements while overtraining leads to impaired performance and well-being due to excessive demands.
Heart Rate Variability (HRV), a measure of the time interval between heartbeats, emerges as a valuable tool in differentiating between these states and developing effective training plans. By monitoring HRV, you can assess physiological readiness, adjust training intensity and volume, and prevent overtraining.
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