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No
exercise or training program proceeds completely free of difficulty. There are certain problems you're
bound to encounter and, therefore, should be on the lookout for. Thorough knowledge of the
potential problem is half the solution to it. If you know what to be on the
lookout for, you're less likely to take the wrong path to begin with.
It's
discouraging to lose your forward momentum when you're already well into a
serious powerlifting program, and an injury or a miscalculation in the
amount of training you need to do can hurt you in more ways than one.
Young,
strong, enthusiastic athletes tend to overdo it once in a while. They want to train hard and
fulfill their potential. They
want to be the best they can be.
Sometimes they don't know when to stop. They don't know when enough is
enough. Or, they're just not
willing to admit it, so dedicated are they to fitness perfection.
Well,
that's great attitude, but excess, in anything, can lead to distress. Too much of anything is no good
for you. And that most
definitely applies directly to the sort of intense loads borne by young
powerlifters trying to get into contest shape.
Overtraining: Overtraining is
not exactly what it sounds like.
It doesn't always mean that you have trained too much, but that
perhaps you have trained for too long at the same level. Or, commonly, it can mean
that you've overdone it with one or two exercises (e.g., too much weight,
too frequently).
Conditioning yourself to respond in an optimal manner to every
test of fitness and strength you can apply can be extremely
rewarding...for a while. And
then, as you continue to live up to your own expectations, you hit a stale
period, a state of poor performance, and skid into a slump.
If
three or four workouts in a row seem to be sub-par you may be in a state
of overtraining. You may have
let other factors, along with your leveling out of limit strength,
influence the way you feel, react and train.
While
the main culprit causing overtraining is overuse -- called "cumulative
microtrauma" -- often there is no one identifiable factor. Overtraining can sometimes be
attributed to several factors that converge at the same time.
You
must be able to respond well to stress, not just physically, but mentally
and emotionally. Therefore,
there are other, non-training related, elements that affect your
conditioning, some in ways that you don't even perceive.
Problems in the
following areas could have an effect on your training:
1. Academic/studies
2. Financial status
3. Family
4. Sexuality
5. Personality conflicts
6. Schedule conflicts
7. Poor training facilities
8. Monotony in training or
lifestyle
9. Poor diet or sleep habits
10. Inadequate coaching
11. Lack of encouragement
12. Time-consuming or strenuous job
that interferes with your workouts
13. Drugs
14. Poor coaching or personality
conflicts with coach.
15. Inflicting too severe exercise
stress upon your body. This
is by far the MOST significant cause of overtraining!
It
used to be believed that there were two different types of physical
overtraining, 1) Addisonic Overtraining and 2) Basedowic
Overtraining. Nowadays,
however, it is believed that the symptoms for each of these two
types are what gave rise to the names, and that both stem from a common
cause, "cumulative microtrauma." This is just a
fancy name for getting a whole bunch of tiny (mircoscopic in size) "tears"
in your muscles and connective tissues through high frequency severe or
improper training.
The
first, "Addisonic" overtraining, is named after "Addison's Disease" in
which the adrenal and pituitary glands are malfunctioning. Some of the symptoms of this form
of training resemble the disease.
This form of overtraining usually affects older or advanced
athletes, and includes a slight overtired feeling, yet no increase in
sleep needs, no weight loss, unusually low resting pulse rate, normal
metabolic rate, higher blood pressure, but normal temperature and no
psychological changes.
In
"Basedowic" overtraining, like "Addisonic" overtraining, the name is
derived from a disease ("Basedow's Disease") in which the thyroid function
is too high. While no
disease, Basedowic overtraining symptoms include: easily tired, reduced
appetite and weight loss, need more sleep, fast resting pulse rate, higher
temperature and blood pressure, slower reaction time, and inability to
perform skill movements. This
type is more commonly seen in strength athletes and explosive athletes
such as sprinters, jumpers and lifters. It also occurs in young athletes,
less advanced athletes, and in easily excitable ones.
Here are the signs
to look for and the ways to monitor yourself for overtraining
symptoms:
Avoiding Overtraining:
1.
Develop a schedule that doesn't stress you
2.
Develop a rational training program
3.
Conform your workouts to cycle training principles
4.
Vary your training methods
5.
Sleep 8 hours a night
6.
Practice sound nutrition
7.
Use appropriate supplements
8.
Make the athlete/coach connection and work together
9.
Take 1 or 2 naps a day.
A 20-minute nap is all it takes to rejuvenate and energize
you.
10. Find a sports
medicine clinic or practitioner who can help you monitor blood pressure,
white blood cell count and other symptoms of overtraining.
11. Let logic rule
your training -- not ego!
12. After workouts,
whirlpool affected muscles. Then
massage them vigorously for a minute or so. Use the "buddy" system for the
vigorous massage.
Injury-Free Training:
Every
time you climb under a bar crammed with pig iron plates, you risk the
ultimate nightmare that all powerlifters dread -- injury. An injury can do more than put a
crimp in your training program or sideline you for a few weeks. It can severely limit or end your
lifting career.
In
short, there's nothing worse than an injury, so it's very important to
devote time and attention to safe training practices and methods of
conditioning that will keep you injury-free.
Your
muscles and joints undergo an amazing amount of stress in even the
simplest of sports and athletic movements. So, you can imagine the stresses
they undergo while powerlifting!
Therefore, no unnecessary chances should be taken.
One
irrefutable motto for preventing injury is: Strong muscles and connective
tissue can prevent injury.
Here are some further factors which can ensure a state of overall
fitness that protects your body from the problems every athlete
risks.
Guard
against muscle weakness or imbalance: If you build one muscle more than
another you risk injuring the weaker muscle. For instance, if you're a runner
and want sprint speed, you'll work on your quadriceps. But if you build great strength in
the quadriceps without also building strength in your hamstrings, you have
what is called a muscle imbalance, and you leave yourself open to a
hamstring pull.
In the
same manner, powerlifters often develop lower-back muscle problems because
they neglect their abdominal muscles, which are crucial to back
support.
Flexibility Counts: When you strengthen or enlarge muscles you
also tend to increase their tone, and that sometimes limits
flexibility. To keep your
muscles from getting too tight, you must have an ongoing flexibility
program as part of your training.
If you develop a muscle without also stretching for flexibility,
and strengthening your muscles while they are in the stretched position,
you leave yourself open to injury.
If you simply stretch without strengthening, you can often leave
yourself open to injury as well.
There
are many other common causes of sports injuries and sports scientists have
identified many of these.
Sometimes poor body mechanics, spinal imbalance, poor nutrition,
dehydration, drug use or problems related to these areas can lead to
injuries.
But two special
areas of potential injury must be looked at more closely.
1. Congenital
weakness: You spine is a key
factor in body mechanics. Its
shape and resilience to stress are important. If you have too much curvature you
could strain you back muscles.
Also, malformed vertebrae in the spine can lead to muscle
injury.
Some
people are born with these kinds of structural problems, and that is what
is meant by congenital weakness.
Such weaknesses are liable to appear anywhere in the body -- not
just the spine. Often, a
coach, health instructor or doctor can help you identify these problems
and then work out a program for you to stretch or strengthen the necessary
muscles so as to lessen the possibility of injury.
The
same kind of problems exist with "knock-knees" and pronated (inward
drifting) feet. Corrective
devices have been developed to treat these conditions.
2.
Overtraining: Lack of
progress or susceptibility to injury means something is wrong. If this happens you must take a
close look at your training.
You should never advance so quickly in your powerlifting routines
that you experience high levels of pain. Also, if you train too long and/or
too often, your muscles won't have a chance to adapt.
The
single biggest problem with athletes is that the quality of their training
is lacking. It’s also true
that sometimes they don't train enough. Sometimes it’s also true that they
train too much. All
three are related in that scientific methods of avoiding problems while
making optimal progress are readily available.
All
progress must be gradual!
Your conditioning efforts are not like a "silver bullet." They won't give you immediate
success at your sport, and they can indeed hamper your progress if you
push too hard too soon. Take
your time, be scientific and thorough, and -- above all -- stick to the
cycle training program! You
must avoid overtraining!
As long as you consistently follow an
integrated training program, working out hard, but wisely, adding
flexibility exercises where necessary, following sound nutritional and
supplementation guidelines and getting sufficient rest, you'll achieve
your strength goals much faster and be come better able to keep yourself
in top condition.
The
better condition you're in, the easier it is to recover from an injury, or
to avoid one in the first place.
Remember to dedicate yourself to the health of your body as much
as to the performance of your sport.
Above all, NEVER
lose your PASSION for STRENGTH!
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Frederick C. Hatfield, Ph.D