Recovery and Rest

[drCurvin]

This will probably seem like a straight-forward question with an obvious answer but truthfully it is my greatest training challenge.
The fact is, I cannot predict when I will recover from a workout.
Recover for me = soreness gone with reasonable tone and a decent pump.
The root of the problem has it's origins in my early teens - I was a swimmer and back then we trained 2+hrs, 2x / day, and we trained to exhaustion.
The theory at the time was that the only way to get faster was to train to exhaustion and then go to physical failure. (for ex, M. Phelps)
It was an effective method for some, and one of my teammates did eventually win an olympic gold medal.
I don't have that kind of athletic talent and I'm not an olympian, but I spared no effort.
Today, I still train like an animal. It's hard to control. I'll do a 45 min to 1 hr cardio and then 10-20 sets of weights to failure + TRX + bag work.
The situation is compounded by the fact that I went from high school straight into the USMC, where operating exhausted is required, and I actually had an advantage over my teammates in that regard.
I work a fairly regular job now, but have to walk 5+ miles per day (i'm a hospitalist).
Saturday (2 days ago) I did squats + cardio, and took yesterday off for a family function.
Today I'm sitting at my computer and out of nowhere my chest, lats and biceps feel recovered and "pumped".
Where did that come from ? Honestly.
I know when I am truly overtrained now because it substantially disrupts my sleep cycle. Other than that, I have no clue where I am in the training cycle.
Any thoughts ?

 

[asooneyeonig]

First, your body is a liar! lol but seriously. You can feel worn out, not sleep much, ache at the start of a workout and have the greatest session ever. Sleep patterns is one way to tell if your body needs rest but stress from life and work can cause sleep interruptions as well.

Your body can handle far more than you think it can. Unless you are doing 2 a days with little to no water, eating way under maintenance, sleeping for just a few hours, have a high stress job, etc, then even if you feel like hell you can workout.

I know Hugh frequency programs can mess with people at first. After a week or 2 the can feel like they can barely workout but get them a month in to it and suddenly they hit PRs every week and feel more rested and less sore. There is a dark week that will break most people and pushing past it is hard.

Most people will under recover but almost no one will ever over train. The body stops moat people long before they ever get to that point.

Maybe you need some scheduled delays in your plan. Try every 7 or 8 weeks and see if that helps you to come back feeling better. If not shorten the work weeks. Some great plans have deloads every 4 weeks, some do 10 or even 12 weeks. What you will notice is the workload is different. The larger the work load the sooner the deload needs to happen.

If you want to monitor when you need a break also keep an eye on your blood pressure and resting heart rate. Some people need to have a couple of bad workouts to know. In time you should be able to know before your workouts duck or just get on a proven plan with deloads built in. They are proven for a reason.

 

[drCurvin]

Response appreciated.
Planned deloads sound like a good start. I rarely miss workouts and frequently will do 5+ / week which is probably too many.
Maybe on deloads I'll go to yoga or just walk and stretch.
I'm still uncertain how to have a consistent "pump".
My wife is Brazilian and is a great cook - our meals are typical Brazilian fare - almost exclusively - potatoes, rice, lean meat, egg plants other veges. No sugar. Very little fat. Nothing fried. ...