Am I Overtraining?

Seein Green

New member
Hello all....Needing some advice with my current routine. For the past twelve weeks I have been following this routine. I am running a split routine that looks something like this. Monday: Back and Biceps. Tuesday: Rest. Wednesday: Chest and Triceps. Thursday: Rest. Friday: Legs. Saturday: Shoulders and Calves. Sunday: Rest. I usually fit some core exercises in a few days per week as well. My workouts are lasting approx. 90-120 min. depending on the body parts being worked. I am averaging 5 exercises per muscle group with a rep count of 10-12 reps, usually to failure. I try and limit my rest periods to 1-2 minutes unless I am doing squats or bench press. I am eating a lean muscle building diet with about 3000 calories on training days and 2300 on non-training days (I currently weigh 185 lbs.). I have been cycling some productive stacks as well as consuming my staples daily. My gains have been substaintial as I have also cut my bf% as well. My question is, do you think that I am overtraining? Soreness is usually gone by the time I repeat my routine but have been researching that workouts should not be lasting more than an hour (possibly leading to overtraining). Given the intensity of my training it is hard for me to shorten my routine to an hour each visit. Even though I am happy with my progress...do you think shortening my routines would produce even better results? Thanks in advance for your advice!
 
If you're making the gains/results that you're going for, you're getting enough rest, and your diet is where it should, then you're the only one that can tell if you're overtraining or not. If you have "plateaud" then it's a possibility that you're overtraining or something in your regime needs to change i.e. eat more, rest more, whatever
 
My observation on overtraining (and I have been there a few times) is that if you are making gains by adding weight to the bar, adding muscle to the frame or adding reps to the sets, you are most likely not overtrained.

Generally overtraining has you stopping doing pretty much all of the above. But, there can also be a caveat, as real OTing can come with mood swings, irritability, no fun from anything you do, colds/flu, or whatever your body and emotions may be showing negative signs to or of.

Now there are times when you can overtrain on a specific exercise, say the BP stops producing for you, but you still have more than enough room to move the squat forward/up. That usually happens because they have an exercise that gets more attention, focus and intensity and it peters out before others. The chinup can be an example of this too. An exercise that a lot of young guys like doing, will stop producing or stagnate first, but that does not necessarily mean your body is in an overtrained state. That exercise may just need a break or a new angle or backed down on some while focus is put in another area.

There is a difference too between adapting to the stimulus with no further gains and being overtrained. A true overtrained state or to be systemically OTed, takes a bit to get back out of. Believe me I have been there.
Just adapting might be a situation where you could add some more food/rest or drop the smaller exercises or extra work, in order to recover better from the bigger exercises in the week and see if you keep gaining.

Bottom line is, if you are making gains, recovering well etc., you are most likely not really OTed, but if you are beginning to dread or not look forward to the gym, you may just need a week layoff or break and a regroup dropping the weights some and start to ramp back up over time.

There are a few things in your routine layout that might not be the best or most efficient way to get gains, but if you are enjoying the work, then run with it.
12 weeks is also a 3 month cycle, which is good, I mean I have run 8-10-12-16 weeks cycles, but honestly, if you are feeling bored or as I mentioned, not so amped about the work anymore, it might be time to just reassess and run a new program after a week or 2 of easy stuff.
Now everyone has a bad W/O on occasion too. If they keep up, then it may be time for change.
 
IMO there is no overtraining, just undereating.

I also dont buy into the whole keep your workouts under an hour. Some training sessions of mine are close to two hours and i see no ill effects.

Feed your body proportionate to what you are trying to do, get enough sleep, and train your butt off.
 
Nobody can say if u are over training besides you. With that being said I doubt you are, but if you feel sluggish take a deload week. I recently did this and in two days I felt much better and went back into hellraiser mode. One deload every three months or so is a good practice. And EAT while deloading so u can maximize the recoup time.
 
3clipseGT said:
IMO there is no overtraining, just undereating.

I also dont buy into the whole keep your workouts under an hour. Some training sessions of mine are close to two hours and i see no ill effects.

Feed your body proportionate to what you are trying to do, get enough sleep, and train your butt off.
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While I agree with you that it can be hard to reach and depending on the type of W/O's, age, out of gym jobs or activities and what you are training for, it might be more of an exhausted state than actually overtrained, (see Siff's Supertraining) but the body can reach a point where it will not respond or even begin to digress. To think it can gain at a constant on a linear basis, or to just keep hitting it with a hammer harder while eating more, is not really accurate IMO.
As far as an hour or less W/O's, it depends on what your goals are, what you are training for and what exercises you are doing. I have used W/O's where you were pretty much beat to a pulp in 45 mins and stuff like Bryce Lanes 50/20's is brutal. I have also had some marathon W/O's lasting 2 or so hours.
I will tell you honestly however, my best gains were and continue to be made, doing the big compound exercises and most likely staying under 1-1/2 hours.
 
3clipseGT said:
IMO there is no overtraining, just undereating.

I also dont buy into the whole keep your workouts under an hour. Some training sessions of mine are close to two hours and i see no ill effects.

Feed your body proportionate to what you are trying to do, get enough sleep, and train your butt off.
Click to expand...

True. As long as you get your macro & micro nutrients and sleep in then there is no such thing as over training. I've done 6 months 7 days a week training and seen great results, I also was just working and was out of school so had the time to get my sleep and plan my meals.

2 days a week resting is plenty.
 
Thank you to everyone for the input! My workouts are not stagnant and I have not hit a plateau yet. Still enjoying the hell out of killing myself in the gym! Just doing alot of reading to see if there is something that can be improved upon. Pumps are still incredible and thanks to AE and Erase Pro along with a good diet, size and strentgh gains still continue to increase. Was just curious about how everyone else was training...Looks like my routine is not out of the ordinary. This site is a great resource. Thanks again for your help!
 
PaulBlack said:
While I agree with you that it can be hard to reach and depending on the type of W/O's, age, out of gym jobs or activities and what you are training for, it might be more of an exhausted state than actually overtrained, (see Siff's Supertraining) but the body can reach a point where it will not respond or even begin to digress. To think it can gain at a constant on a linear basis, or to just keep hitting it with a hammer harder while eating more, is not really accurate IMO.
As far as an hour or less W/O's, it depends on what your goals are, what you are training for and what exercises you are doing. I have used W/O's where you were pretty much beat to a pulp in 45 mins and stuff like Bryce Lanes 50/20's is brutal. I have also had some marathon W/O's lasting 2 or so hours.
I will tell you honestly however, my best gains were and continue to be made, doing the big compound exercises and most likely staying under 1-1/2 hours.
Click to expand...

I do agree with the exausted state as i have been there.

Im a volume junky so the more sets i can get in the better but everyone is different.
 
Seein Green said:
Given the intensity of my training it is hard for me to shorten my routine to an hour each visit.
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Intensity doesn't have anything to do with how long you take. In all honesty, a longer workout is generally a less intense workout as you'd reach muscle fatigue + high lactic acid levels far earlier with a high intensity workout and not be able to continue. Drop your rests to 30 sec, and superset exercises next Wednesday to see. You'll clip your time down significantly and be more wiped out. You'll probably need to drop the weights a little, but don't do them as drop sets, do them as with a higher RM. Ie if you normally do sets of 8, use your 12rm weight. If you do sets of 10, use your 15rm, etc.
 
I do not believe in over training . Now , not recovering properly seems similar but it's different . by your weekly split your routine looks okay in terms of "over training" and diet sounds ok. I think you need to realize building muscle simply takes time. Also get your workouts in, in an hour. spending to much time in the gym will hinder gains. try switching the reps to 4 set of 8-10 some people respond to mid -high rep range better then the higher 10-12 . over training only occurs when injury is involved. let me make myself clear .. Lifting chest 3-4 times a week is NOT over training , it's simply not giving your body time to recover. although at lower intensities high frequency training you can exercise your chest 3-4 times a week and get great gains.
 
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