Hey TNation,
This may be a long-ish post, but I hope that youâ??ll indulge me. I donâ??t really have people near me to ask their opinion about my training becauseâ?¦wellâ?¦most of them think that training more than four days a week is crazy. This is a thread about my possible overtraining: Iâ??ll address it in four sections: 1) context; 2) training; 3) observations about training; 4) symptoms.
Context:
Age: 25
Goal: Hypertrophy while not putting on more fat than I can help.
Experience level: as far as weights go, Iâ??m pretty much a beginner. Can deadlift double my bodyweight and squat about as much, bench press about 1.5. 5â??10â??, and about 175lbs at the moment, although I bulked to 200 earlier this year, but took a few months away from lifting after moving to a new city and starting a new job for a summer internship. I was still running at the time, and I make no excuses for not liftingâ??just got too absorbed in my job.
While Iâ??ve only been lifting pretty consistently (one three-month layoff) for about a year and a half or so, Iâ??ve been training seriously for about 6 years consistently. I was formerly a distance runner (and before that an overweight offensive lineman in high school). I love physical training of any kind, honestly.
Current Daily Training:
I wake up at 4am and run/jog for 40 minutes
Eat breakfast immediately after: 7 egg whites, 1lb of veggies, 200cals fat free cheese, 4 (minimum) tbsp peanut butter, bit of oatmeal
Train at 6. Lifting lasts about 1 hour and 40 minutes and involves very little down time, usually using antagonistic muscles to minimize rest periods. I lift every day, with 6 days of the week following a 2 way split that basically tracks OTS BBBâ??s 6 day split, then on Sundays I deadlift and do total body isolation exercises. I can be more specific if you’d like on this front.
Immediately after lifting, I walk on a treadmill at 9 incline at 3.8 speed or so for two miles, sometimes more.
After workout, I do a scoop of whey and 5g creatine.
Then school, then a big dinner every night. Sleep at 9 or so (see below for more on sleep).
Thoughts on training:
I donâ??t think this is a food issue. Iâ??m getting stronger in every core exercise from week-to-week or so. I donâ??t feel physically stressed or tired necessarily, although I never experience DOMS or a â??pumpâ?? at the end of a workout. But part of me thinks that my cortisol levels may just be jacked through the roof and that I donâ??t even notice it anymore. I wouldnâ??t even make an â??Am I overtraining?â?? thread were it not for these symptoms:
Symptoms:
- Serious sleep problems despite taking ZMA, which used to work fine. I strongly suspect that I have some form of exercise-induced sleep apnea, as I wake up probably 6 times a night or more.
- More troubling, Iâ??ve been getting these blood-filled sacks in my mouth after sleeping and sometimes spontaneously while eating (i.e. I wonâ??t have, e.g., bit my tongue or something). Usually occurs in the side of the mouth, but today happened on my tongue during breakfast (bled a lot).
- Sleepy during day (likely related to #1)
- A month ago, I was having a bit of blood in my stools, but that stopped.
Like I said earlier, I enjoy training and being physically active. But Iâ??m starting to think that Iâ??m just running myself into the ground without even realizing it because Iâ??m not even aware of the amount of stress that Iâ??m putting on my body. Iâ??ve been running for years and used to run really high mileage, so jogging for 40 mins or so doesnâ??t seem like a lot, but maybe it really is and I just donâ??t realize it.
What do you guys think? Should I scale back despite the fact that Iâ??m making good progress? My gym time is going really well, but these other signals are troubling. Itâ??s almost like my body is trying to tell me to stop in ways that are collateral to training itself (as opposed to, e.g., seeing my strength decline or something).
Or is this non-training related perhaps? I am a student in a professional school at an ivy league university, so I guess there’s a lot of stress involved (perhaps more than I realize?).
Any thoughts appreciated.
