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ForEliteAtheletes toFunRunners
22
Listening to
your body =
better results.
Do you TRULY know?
There seems to be a lot of “fitspiration” doing the
rounds on OCR social media these days adopting the
“no pain no gain” attitude.
“Go hard or go home” seems to be the mantra for
many, implying that you have to literally beast yourself
every time you train to get results.
“The harder you train the better your results are going
to be” was a status update I saw only the other day.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for training hard when it’s
appropriate but using this method on a permanent
basis is a one-way ticket to burn out.
There’s a fine line between training and draining.
The average person, these days is walking around
highly stressed, malnourished, sleep deprived and on
top of that, is following a training plan that’s too much
for them.
Contrary to popular belief, training in this manner
all the time will actually put a huge halt on your
fitness progress. In my opinion it is morally wrong
to prescribe hard exercise to an individual that’s not
ready for it.
When it comes to training, the “harder, longer, faster”
method isn’t always better.
If you’re experiencing any of the following
• sudden loss of temper
• restless sleep
• disinterested in sex
• energy levels of a sloth
• frequent colds
• inability to lose fat
• feeling depressed and anxious
• extreme carb/sugar cravings
Then it’s likely that you could be falling victim to
overtraining with your training program. Over training
is a symptom in which the body cannot repair or
regenerate fast enough due to the continuous stress
it’s being put under from constant training.
In other words, you’re spending too much time
stimulating your ‘fight & flight mode’ of your central
nervous system, and not enough time stimulating
your ‘rest & digest’ mode which will affect how you
drop fat & build muscle tissue.
As I stated earlier, most of us are in fight & flight ALL
the time and are very rarely in rest & digest which is
kind of paradoxical when you think about it because
results happen in recovery. We all need recovery to
get stronger, faster & fitter.
Think of your muscles as like machines in a factory.
Every now and then those machines need to stop and
get serviced right? If they don’t then they won’t work
as efficiently and will eventually stop.
Well your body is no different.
Every now and then your body needs to stop or it will
burn out as well which means your results will suffer.
I experienced this first hand a few years ago. I’d train
hard ALL the time thinking more is better. I’d never
structure in proper rest in a training plan and I found
myself getting into the mindset of just “chasing the
sweat”. It wasn’t until I got diagnosed with adrenal
fatigue and depression that I knew things had to
change.
I was draining not training.
I started to change my approach to training. I
scheduled in more rest and I listened to my body
more. I didn’t become so metrically obsessed with
my training plan either. I wasn’t so “rigid” with my
workouts. If I felt like I needed an extra rest day after
a strenuous workout then I’d take it (even if my plan
says “workout on Wednesday”)
RACE: TRAINING
there’s a fine line between training and draining.
Training or
Draining?
Here’s a question for you.
How do you know when you’re training your body in a positive way or simply just draining it?
The VERY
last thing
that person
needs is a
beasting in
the gym.
