|
“Cumulative Microtrauma is the common link in
all forms of overreaching/overtraining.”
“In
order to perform optimally, athletes must be adequately trained. However,
if athletes train too intensely and/or too often, they may be susceptible
to short-term and/or long-term decrements in performance capacity as well
as myriad reported physiological, medical, and/or psychological symptoms
of overreaching and overtraining. While the etiology of overreaching and
overtraining is completely understood, understanding the theorized
pathophysiology, physiological and psychological markers, and possible
ways to reduce the incidence of overreaching and overtraining may serve to
decrease the prevalence of overreaching and/or overtraining in
athletes.”
This preamble appeared in the flier announcing the
International Conference on Overreaching & Overtraining in Sport:
Physiological, Psychological & Biomedical Considerations, held July
14-17 in Memphis. All I can say is, Mamma mia! Scientists -- those
intrepid sleuths of Academia -- have a neat way of pontificating, don’t
they? I went to this conference, and learned a thing or two, so they do
know some real neat stuff!
If we can accept the tenets of the quote
above, then we can infer that both overtraining and overreaching are
caused by stress. Lots of different stressors out there folks! Also, the
various symptoms of overreaching and overtraining ("markers") are equally
multitudinous. Too many questions!
· What stressors?
· What
markers?
· And, just how "prevalent" are overtraining and overreaching
anyway? Enough to cause alarm?
· And, wouldn’t "decreasing the
prevalence" be a simple matter of eliminating or (perhaps more
appropriately) reducing the stressors in one’s life?
· To what degree?
If you reduce the stress too much, won’t you "undertrain?"
These
questions may seem to you to be bordering on the trite, but I assure you
they are not. They are the essence of training science as we know it! How
much stress, what kind of stress and how often to stress, they are the
questions for which all of us seek answers every day of our
existence!
So let’s look for answers systematically (there are some,
you know!). First, let’s talk about stress. Then about how it causes
overreaching and overtraining, and what to look for as markers. Finally,
how can we control it.
Interrelated
Stressors:
Every
day of our lives we are all bombarded with a variety of stressors. More
often than not, these stressors are of low enough "intensity" or so subtle
that they don’t affect us negatively in the short term. But most take
their toll over time, you can book that! What’s worse, of those that do
have a more immediate negative effect, their intensity is often compounded
by the mere presence of the many other stressors. For example, any number
of environmental stressors can have physical or physiological
consequences. And one’s psychological state is inextricably intertwined
with one’s biochemistry.
Consider some of the more common stressors,
with an eye toward how they interact to aid or hinder our training
efforts, and especially how they can affect overreaching and overtraining
(defined below).
Environmental
Stressors Stemming From:
·
Excessive Heat Or Cold
· Excessively High Or Low Humidity
·
Excessive Altitude (Above Or Below Sea Level)
· Challenging
Terrain
· Ultraviolet Irradiation
· Environmental Pollution
·
Poorly Designed Clothing
· Poorly Designed Equipment
· Airborne
Pollen And Other Allergens
· Poor Training
Facilities
Psychological
/ Sociological Stressors Stemming From:
·
Job, Problems
· Depression
· Mental Illness
· Neurological
Disorders
· Pain
· Aging
· Anger
· Fear Or Anxiety
·
Problems With Academic Studies
· Shaky Financial Status
· Family
Problems
· Sex Problems
· Personality Conflicts
· Schedule
Conflicts
· Boredom
· Lack Of Encouragement
· Psyching Up Too
Frequently
· Pressure To Perform
· Lack Of Adequate
Coaching
Physiological
/ Biochemical Stressors Stemming From:
·
Environmental Stress
· Psychological Stress
· Anatomical /
Structural Stress
· Aging
· Disease
· Myriad Genetic Factors
·
Sleep Disorders
· Poor Nutritional Status
· The Use, Misuse And
Abuse Of Prescription Or Recreational Drugs
· The Use, Misuse Or Abuse
Of Herbs (Phytochemicals) And Nutritional
Supplements
Anatomical
/Structural Stressors Stemming From:
·
Surgically Altered Tissue Structure
· Injury-Induced Alterations In
Tissue Structure
· Environmental Stress
· Physical Defects
· Poor
Genetics
· Aging
· Overuse Stress
· Poor Exercise Technique
·
Ill-Conceived Training Program
· Exertional Stress (Especially
Eccentric Muscle Actions)
· Too Much Training Volume
· Too Much
Training Intensity
· Too Much Training Duration
· Too Much Training
Frequency
As a general rule-of-thumb, you want to eliminate or (if
you can’t eliminate it, minimize the ill effects of) all stressors except
the last five. These, you want! But ONLY if you can CONTROL them.
Now,
we’re getting somewhere! There are at least seven Laws of training we all
must obey if we want our training efforts to pay maximum dividends, and
I’ve spoken of them in several recent issues of Muscle & Fitness. The
one overriding Law of all forms of training in regards to controlling
stress to make it work FOR you instead of against you is called the GAS
Law.
General
Adaptation Syndrome ("GAS"):
The
GAS is comprised of three stages according to its originator, Dr. Hans
Seyle:
1. The "alarm stage" caused by the application of intense
training stress,
2. The "resistance stage" when our muscles adapt in
order to resist the stressful weights more efficiently, and
3. The
"exhaustion stage" where, if we persist in applying stress, we do not
recover or adapt. Easily inferred is the notion that you must rest between
severe bouts of weight training to allow both recovery and
supercompensation to occur. In the short run (days or weeks), failing to
do so causes an "overreaching" syndrome, and, in the long run (months), an
"overtraining" syndrome.
It is these two syndromes that interest
me. What are the markers of each, are they actually different form one
another, and how can we avoid or reduce them without actually
"undertraining" in the process? These questions are of critical importance
to you in successfully achieving your maximum ability in sports, fitness
or bodybuilding. First, let’s take a look at the working definitions of
the terms "overtraining" and "overreaching" that the scientists used at
the Memphis conference.
Overreaching: An accumulation of training
and/or non-training stress resulting in a short-term decrement in
performance capacity with or without related physiological and
psychological signs and symptoms of overtraining in which restoration of
performance capacity may take from several days to several
weeks.
Overtraining: An accumulation of training and/or
non-training stress resulting in a long-term decrement in performance
capacity with or without related physiological and psychological signs and
symptoms of overtraining in which restoration of performance capacity may
take from several weeks to several months.
Well!
Circumloquitousness is not one of the attributes the conference organizers
were lacking in, that’s for sure! The definitions they used, in case you
didn’t see it, are identical except for the time factors involved. Both
are induced by training stress.
Not to worry! While, at first blush,
the term "overreaching" conjures images of training-related trauma that
causes tissue damage, in actuality that only happens to bodybuilders if
they lift too much weight or do too many reps or sets. So, assuming that
you don’t go that far (few bodybuilders do on any consistent basis,
primarily because fatigue intervenes), the low-level overreaching that
bodybuilders typically do may be regarded as just another term for
"adaptive overload." It is what is needed to force an adaptive response to
be initiated in your body. But, once you have overreached, you must pay
attention to the GAS Law! Continued overreaching -- indiscriminate and
continued overload over time -- eventually leads to the far more serious
syndrome, overtraining. It looks like
this:
Program
Design Errors in Overtraining:
There
was consensus among most of the lecturers at the conference that training
protocol errors are by far the most common factor in overtraining. While
there is no question that the ill effects of too much training stress is
easily exacerbated by the presence of concomitant stressors (menioned
above), all we can do is attempt to minimize the others and control the
training stressors.
Factors such as excessive training volume and
training intensity, over time, can accumulate to produce decrements in
strength, speed, explosiveness, endurance and skilled (motor) performance.
So too can consistently poor nutritional status, lack of rest, choice of
exercises, order of exercises, or lack of variation in exercise.
But,
by the time you’ve observed such symptoms, it’s too late. Consider these
common examples. Is it better to treat obesity (the marker being excess
storage of adipose tissue) or avoid it in the first place? Is it better to
take your car in for periodic checkups or fix it after it’s broken down
(whereupon the marker becomes whatever it was that broke)? No, fellow iron
freaks, the best approach lies in avoiding the appearance of such markers
in the first place.
The markers of such performance decrements may vary
among the following (to name a few):
· Altered Endocrine
Profiles,
· Increased Catecholamine Output,
· Psychological Profile
Changes
· Cardiovascular Manifestations (hematological alterations,
iron status, protein status, and fluid and electrolyte balance)
·
Plasma Concentration Reduction Of Pituitary Hormones,
· Changes In
Pituitary/Hormonal Secretion Patterns,
· Changes In Endocrine Profiles
On Muscle Metabolism,
· Changes In Serum Amino Acid Concentrations And
Its Effects On Serotonin Synthesis,
· Musculoskeletal/Orthopedic
Problems (cellular aspects of overtraining with emphasis on muscle, bone,
and connective tissues)
· Immune Suppression And Accompanying Illness
Rates (natural killer cell activity, neutrophil function, lymphocyte
proliferative response, and other measures of immunity),
· Appetite
Suppression.
These were among the markers of overtraining that were
presented in the Memphis symposia. Clearly, each has its own set of
stressful sub-problems (and therefore sub-markers) which may have
potentially devastating effects on performance. These effects may manifest
themselves over time or more immediately. But the main point is that, with
few exceptions, these markers cannot be easily or readily identified by us
-- we who train regularly. Muscular or joint pain, appetite changes,
psychological changes and decreased strength, speed and explosiveness are
quite noticeable, however, and these markers are the main ones we’ve
relied upon over the past few years to determine our own training status.
The others, well, we’ve left them to the A-Team
sleuths.
The
Most Interesting Tidbits From The Memphis
Conference:
Peter
Snell, Ph.D.
(UT Southwestern Medical School):
Dr. Snell spoke about long, moderate
intensity running being well tolerated and beneficial beyond any form of
interval training in producing beneficial training effects among middle-
and long-distance runners. He cited many examples of how interval training
is abused by runners, and how it causes
overtraining.
William
J. Kraemer, Ph.D. (Pennsylvania
State Univ.):
Most of the research on overtraining has focused
primarily on endurance athletes, and that the markers for an overtrained
state among anaerobic athletes (strength athletes) are quite different in
many instances, and that overtraining is certainly more prevalent than
among aerobic athletes. For strength athletes, the acute training
variables, 1) choice of exercises, 2) order of exercise, 3) volume of
exercise, 4) the training load and 5) rest must be manipulated carefully
to avoid overtraining. Special reference was given to the inverse
relationship that must occur between volume and load if overtraining is to
be avoided. He repeatedly insisted that it is typically "training
mistakes" that carry us there. These mistakes are easily avoided through
careful periodization procedures being put in place in one’s
training.
Michael
Stone, Ph.D.
(Appalachian State Univ.):
Dr. Stone presented interesting research he
and his colleagues did with the members of the US Junior Weightlifting
team (mean age of 18 years) at Colorado Springs. A serendipitous outcome
resulted from the USOC’s allotment of too little time to adequately force
these youngsters into an overtrained state. Stone and his colleagues
challenged the lifters severely by imposing a wicked triple-split weight
training regimen upon them for a full week. Volume, relative intensity,
exercise intensity, exercise selection and rest were increased to what the
researchers believed would be intolerable levels of stress. The result was
that none showed any signs of overtraining or overreaching. Instead, they
tolerated the training exceptionally well as was evidenced in improved
stress-related markers (physical and biochemical) across the board. After
a three week taper period, 75 percent of the youngsters posted personal
records (as compared to the control group, 75 percent of which posted
lower-than optimal attempts). Overcompensation had taken place after this
three week taper more than had occurred in the conventional peaking cycle
used by the controls. His response to questioning on this point was that
US lifters simply do not train hard enough, making the point strongly that
had he carried out the triple-split system much longer than the allotted
week’s time, they would probably have overtrained. Judging from the
abysmal placing of the male contingent of US weightlifters in
international competition, Stone is probably right about the lifters
undertraining -- it certainly has been my personal experience that this is
so. Stone, as Kraemer, concluded that periodization is both the key to
avoiding overtraining and improving peak performance. "Stress is Additive"
was one of his central themes.
Andrew
C. Fry, Ph.D.
(Memphis State Univ.):
Unlike the field research designs used by Drs.
Kraemer and Stone, Dr. Fry and his colleagues conducted a more controlled
laboratory experiment. He had his subjects perform high volume/high
intensity squats on a "Tru-Squat" apparatus which effectively isolates the
quadriceps. After conducting a pilot study which showed decreased
isokinetic strength and motor performance (but no change in 1RM), he
greatly amplified the stress, resulting in significantly reduced 1RM,
motor performance and isokinetic strength measures. Furthermore, there
were only a few significant changes in the endocrine markers Dr. Fry
monitored, and they were quite different from those typical in endurance
overtraining studies, citing some important differences between
intensity-related stress and endurance training-related
stress.
W.
Benjamin Kibler, MD (Lexington
Clinic):
He presented his "operational" definition of overtraining as
"physiological, biochemical and anatomical stresses causing cellular
tissue breakdown, which lead to a decline in matrix production and
homeostasis. The "material" failure which causes overtraining stems from
cyclic or repetitive movement, tensile overload, vascular deficiency
and/or hormonal imbalances. Mechanisms of the process were cited as being
calcium ion influx, proteolysis and eccentric
loading.
My
Personal Observations:
First,
I heartily agree with Dr. Kibler’s analysis. On the other hand, there’s
too little evidence to flatly accept or reject the others. I sat next to
Dr. Stone during this presentation, and his comment was that Dr. Kibler
had aptly described "overuse," although such homeostasis decrease and
tissue disruption could also accompany overtraining. I can’t WAIT to be
enlightened more on this distinction! Makes one wonder what the difference
is between overuse syndrome and overtraining, and also between
overreaching and overload!
In the talks over beers that ubiquitously
accompany such symposia, it became quite clear to me that the only way
overtraining among anaerobic (ATP/CP and glycolytic athletes) is ever
going to be fully understood is 1) when longitudinal studies are done by
researchers who are highly experienced in the art and science of
resistance training, 2) when a team approach is used to gather data on
athletes from all levels of experience across the US and in other
countries who are experiencing overtraining/overreaching symptoms and then
retrospective analyses are carried out in a joint effort to determine root
causes, and 3) when the information gleaned from these field studies is
taken into the laboratory for scrutiny and ultimately validated in further
field studies.
Concluding
Comments:
By
far the most commonly referenced cause of overtraining is "cumulative
microtrauma." Cellular damage from an overreaching episode that gets worse
and worse over time (remember, stress is additive). There are two ways to
cope with cumulative microtrauma. You can avoid it, or you can treat it.
If you have to treat it, it’s too late! You avoid it NOT by avoiding
lifting or by avoiding a small amount of (normal) cellular destruction,
but instead by not letting microtrauma accumulate! You do this
through:
· Sensible, scientific weight training and light
resistance systems of training which employs a carefully devised
"periodicity" or "cycle" method
· Varying your training methods
·
Sensible, scientific application of the many therapeutic modalities at
your disposal (especially whirlpool, heat, ice, massage and soft tissue
care (e.g., myofascial release / massage techniques)
· Sensible,
scientific nutritional practice
· Sensible, scientific nutritional
supplementation
· Using good technique in your lifting
· Getting
plenty of rest
· Taking advantage of various psychological techniques
which promote restoration (especially meditation, visualization training,
hypnotherapy or self-hypnosis techniques)
· Avoiding all the other
stressors in your life that can become problematic to your training
efforts (whether environmental, psychological, sociological, biochemical,
physiological or anatomical in nature).
So, it all boils down to a
simple plan. Most of the coaches of elite athletes in the USA will tell
you that the single biggest problem with their athletes is not that they
don't train enough, but that they train too much. I used to believe this
too. Now, after years in the trench myself, I disagree. I think they can
tolerate MUCH more training and benefit commensurably from it. This is
definitely true of bodybuilders. First, you must "periodize" your training
adequately. All progress must be gradual and orderly. What you do must be
predicated upon what you've just accomplished. No system of training is
like a "silver bullet." None will give you immediate success at your
sport. Indeed, sticking to one program can actually hamper your progress.
Take your time, be scientific and thorough, and -- above all -- follow the
guidelines listed above. It's the best way to avoid
overtraining!
|
