Maintenance and Overtrainig questions - new member

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va_bank

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Hi All, Hopefully I'm posting to the right forum...

I'm a 34 y.o male, 5'11'' 170lbs.

About 4 months ago, I decided to get myself in shape when I hit 200lbs mark. I cut out all "bad" foods, put myself on a 2000 calorie diet and started exercising 5-6 days a week, mix of cardio (Norditrack ski-machine and biking when I can) weights. I was doing 30-35 min. of cardio a night, followed by 1 hour of weights, with 1 day off.

The results: I have lost 30 pounds and seem to be gaining muscle. I don't miss all the crap I use to eat at all, finally eat breakfast every day, mostly feel a lot better and the wife is happy. Sounds great, right? But there's a problem.

I seem to have overtrained. Decreased ability to lift, elevated resting heart rate, anxiety, irritability and trouble sleeping. Just to make sure that's what it was I took 4 days off from training over the Father's day weekend and by Monday felt great again. Then Tue. and Wed. ran and lifted (different muscle groups) both days and mowed a big lawn on Thursday. On Friday (today) I'm feeling some of the symptoms again - but I really want to work out tonight.

My questions are:

1.) Do I need to stop for a while? If so, how long?

2.) How can I design a reasonable routine to maintain fat content and continue to slowly gain muscle. I don't need to be a body builder, just want to stay in shape.

3.) Is 2000 calories too little? IS my body rebelling against combination of diet and excercise?

Any other suggestions are also welcome.
 
It could take you 2 or 3 weeks of rest in order to get rid of the effects of overtraining.

You're lifting way too much if I read that correctly... If you want to lift 4 days a week, do an upper/lower body split, I find 4-5 days of cardio and 2-3 days of weights works best for me and I rarely feel I'm overtraining.
 
Thanks for the quick answer - but I should add something.

I know it's wrong, but all the weight training I do is for upper body only. I know, I know... I do chest, triceps and abs on one day and back shoulders and biceps on the next. I rotate between the two. My lower body seems to be doing OK just with the ski machine and biking, so don't really pay much attention to it.
 
I know exactly what your saying about lower body, I don't do it either, between karate and years of carrying excess weight my legs are tree trunks... try this,

do 4 days a week, do chest, shoulders, tris on day 1, back and bis on day 2, rest, then repeat, then rest 2 days... Give those muscles time to recover.

I like doing shoulders with chest and tris because chest and shoulder exercises hit the triceps too. If you want to keep your schedule, then get 3 days rest in there. You make gains at rest, so maximize the rest.
 
aevans410 said:
I know exactly what your saying about lower body, I don't do it either, between karate and years of carrying excess weight my legs are tree trunks... try this,

do 4 days a week, do chest, shoulders, tris on day 1, back and bis on day 2, rest, then repeat, then rest 2 days... Give those muscles time to recover.

I like doing shoulders with chest and tris because chest and shoulder exercises hit the triceps too. If you want to keep your schedule, then get 3 days rest in there. You make gains at rest, so maximize the rest.
Click to expand...


This is miserable advice!

Your are going to make the best gains if you are working your largest muscle groups with your whole body. i.e. Legs!

Full body routine 3 days a week. Move cardio to non lifting days and take a day or two off each week. And for God's sake work your damn legs.
 
I was trying to help him stop overtraining, not trying to maximize his gains. I'd like to see him do 2-3 days full body, 3-4 cardio, and rest as much as possible. I took it that he wanted to lift 4 days, not do legs, and not overtrain. Its his routine, I was trying to fit something into what he does. In an earlier post I said I do 2-3 days a week weights and 4 to 5 days cardio. He came back with clarification so I tried to make something fit his clarification.
 
Overtrained.

Don't forget your core muscles. What good is a strong upper and lower body if they aren't tied together with a strong core. Someone mentioned goals earlier...and that's what drives any training plan. Sounds like the basic goal was to not be wasted/over trained? Most guys figure they have to beat the hell out of themselves to get results. Not so. Someone here mentioned you get bigger/stronger while resting. That is the best advice. Train hard but rest harder. Training is not like working overtime down at the plant. There is what we call the law of diminishing returns when it comes to training. After a point more is not more....it is actually less. I could go on but I guess we all get it...problem is applying it when we are training. Cheers and happy weight lifting to you. :SaiyanSmilie_anim:
 
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