Not feeling it now - overtrained?

lategainer

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Workout:
I have been on a 1x2 week plan for seven weeks where I work out light weight high reps for the first week and then the next two weeks I work out heavy weight lower reps. I just ended the sixth week of that routine and wanted to switch my workouts from here forward with something different but with work keeping me busy I just stuck with it for another 3 week rotation. Next week and the following week will be back to heavy weight lower reps.

Schedule:
I work out chest neck and forearms on Mon, Back and calves on tuesday, biceps and triceps are on wednesday, thursday is off, friday is hamstrings and quads, saturday is shoulders and traps, sundays are off.

Cardio:
I run cardio at the end of each workout for 30 min on the recumbant cycle - nothing too intense just good pace.

Sleep and diet:
Generally I sleep well and my diet is clean eating 5-6 times a day (lots of chicken breast with pasta in a balsamic vinegrette and olive oil dressing as well as egg whites and oatmeal). Throughout the week I have a few cheats thrown in (pizza beer etc). Although I have not lost weight, the shoulders are up 1.5 inches, thighs are up 2 inches, neck is down 1/2 inch, upper arm is up .75 inch forearm is up 1/2 inch and waist (belly fat) is down 1.5 inches since I started this program.

Supplements:
I am taking a mulit-vitamin for men, fish oil, efa, calcium, c, glucosamine chondroitine with MSM, cla, bcaas, amino acid sup, magnesium and b6. I take whey protein and creatine 45 min before workouts and EAS Phosphagen Elite and EAS Myoplex protein shake after workout with L-Glutamine mixed in.

How I felt:
My back is great, I feel connected and concentrated, I sleep better, my numbers are consistently up in stength. My sex drive is slighly up and my appetite was on the way up.

How I feel:
--- this is the ? and maybe a problem? For this week I have had a hard time eating my food on schedule and my appetite feels lesser. Last night for example, I went to bed early and felt lke I couldn't get enough sleep when the alarm went off. In the gym I feel a bit weaker and less connected with the weights while just last week I was hammering personal bests. The lactose burn is coming in really badly and I am not sure if I am overtrained, lacking in some supplement, or it is just the high rep in a heavier weight range (my weights are going up and my high rep workouts are done with 60-80% max weights).

FYI: I am trying to go as cleanly as I can - I am not adding any test boosters or PH or anything of that sort. I hope to keep clean for the full run of a year to see what a 40 year old guy can accomplish with solid workouts, moderate cardio, good diet and simple supplementation.

So far it has worked well up until this week, and I can't help but wonder am I overtrained? or lacking in something? I am considering taking a week off on weights but keeping cardio during that time. Then getting back started where I left off.

I appreciate your thoughts.
 

84bandit

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how does your weight look? has it gone down? i moniter mine on a daily basis to keep an eye out for over training.

and when was the last time you took

say 3 days off?

i would do this every month or so, to let things catch up.

you havent had any new stresses in your life have u?
 
suncloud

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sounds like you are overtraining. take a week off. in the future, you might want 2 days off per week to prevent this kind of thing from happening.
 
lategainer

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off days

I have been taking Thursday and Sunday off from all weights and cardio.

I haven't taken more than a day off in a stretch in the last 7 weeks.
 
lategainer

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My weight has gone up over the 7 weeks by 1.5 lbs. With the measures I have I anticipate that is fat loss and muscle gain but I don't have a bf% to measure the changes
 

84bandit

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i would seriously consider taking off 3-4 days then

and your weight hasnt dropeed any as of late? in early stages of overtraining it will drop 2-3 pounds from what is your normal weight typically
 

Knowbull

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1 week off, cut weights in half, re-start JMO
 

landfill

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i would seriously consider taking off 3-4 days then

and your weight hasnt dropeed any as of late? in early stages of overtraining it will drop 2-3 pounds from what is your normal weight typically

Other early signs are loss of appetite/digestive problems, disrupted sleep,or heavy fatigue no matter how much sleep you get.Sounds like you're overtraining,i would take a week off,and maybe factor in 1 week of rest every 6-8 weeks.Unfortunately at 40yrs you don't have the recovery abilities you had when you were 20,don't mean you can't make progress though.
 

Knowbull

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Dont incorporate the," you cant recover like you did when you were 20" bullshit. Adapt your workouts to maximize your gains, periodize them, its" how" you lift, Be as smart as you can about it and that means regular breaks JMO
 
Rugger

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Sounds a lot like over training. How is your body going to fully recover and grow when you only give it two days off a week?
 

landfill

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Dont incorporate the," you cant recover like you did when you were 20" bullshit. Adapt your workouts to maximize your gains, periodize them, its" how" you lift, Be as smart as you can about it and that means regular breaks JMO
What i said about age was not supposed to be an insult,just that the OP needs to train within his recovery abilities,as we all do.Maybe i could have been a little more diplomatic.....
 
lategainer

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No insult taken on the age - it is a fact that I took in mind when I started out (explains the name - wishing I had kept at it with the commitment and intensity as I have been for the past 7 weeks). Funny ... I remember at 20 thinking I wanted to get bigger and 20 years have past. Not that I didn't get bigger, I did -- fatter, all the while donating money to gym after gym.

It looks like 6 weeks was the end of my productive period so I will have to see what a few days off does for me.

Maybe I can set up my next 6 weeks of workouts to include 3 days off in a row. Mon-Tues-Weds-Thurs for my weight training and cardio and then Fri-Sat-Sun off and see how it goes.
 
nemo

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People will disagree, but whatever. I feel there is no reason, unless someone is advanced that they should hit a bodypart once a week with high volume(you didn't mention your volume). I've made my best gains doing a M-W-F whole body routine for beginners for 2 months, then moving on to a push-pull routine for intermediates.
 
lategainer

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week one (lighter wt - higher rep)
4 sets per body part at 15,12,12,10 reps (60-80% max)

week two and three (to max wt - lower rep)
4 sets per body part at 10,8,8,6 reps
 
Rugger

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If I were you, I would lift MWF and take both Saturday and Sunday off. You grow on your off days, not in the gym.
 

Knowbull

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I agree with the 3 days weekly full body workouts, unless you are competing its the way to go at this age, incorporate HST principles into it and your good to go, you can build muscle at any age.
 
lategainer

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a week off

Well, I totally took a week off and my conscience says I took off too long and too much. I ate decent most days but threw in cheats all over the place with Pizza and beer at least 4 different times during the 7 day span. I even stopped taking my vitamins and supps - likely not a great idea because I think I will have to load up on creatine again. As much as I enjoyed the loose schedule and diet, I am back to normal today and back to the gym.

The results for taking a week off: I had to laugh last night when my wife and I did my measurements because as bad as I had been, my bf went down by 1/3 of a percent with me losing a pound of fat and gaining 1/2 lb of muscle. (measured by Tanita scale that is not super accurate but the best I have for bf% and wt measuring). My waist lost 1/4 inch and my thigh was up over a 1/2 inch. Most measurements numbers didn't change significantly, but I take the thigh increase to be a result of hitting legs so hard lately.

I guess my body, during the week off, built on recovering from what I had been doing in the gym and thankfully my metabolism is picking up enough that the fat kept coming off. I am not keeping on my fat *** regimen of no gym and my pizza / beer / chocolate cocktail of the last week. I am back in the gym today finishing out the final two weeks of my current workout routine. Afterwards I am going to switch it up to a new routine focusing on strict form, using the POF (points of flexion) method to failure and will go to include 2-3 days off in a row so I don't get overtrained again.

LG
 

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