As a victim of both weight loss plateaus and overtraining, I’ve done my homework (suffered separately & researched accordingly). This may sound interesting, but they may coincide . Now wait, before you jump out of your chairs and start questioning my character and credibility, this is all collected data and tedious research. I recently had a new client at Fit_nex who was overweight and previously lived a sedentary lifestyle up until about 5 years ago. She started running religiously and hired a personal trainer. Her newfound regime resulted in a weight loss of 50 pounds. She is now in extraordinary shape and has maintained it for over a year. Some days she ran four to five miles and worked a resistance training session. Yet she has not lost any more weight or seen any inch reductions in over a year. I started working with her exclusively this past month and I introduced her to kettlebells, sandbags, and basically any tool or exercise that recruits multiple muscles in a movement; as well as “south-beach lifestyle”. She immediately dropped 6 pounds and trimmed inches off of her frame and has had strength gains evenly distributed throughout her body. Despite the results I was still a little disturbed about our progress. I’ve only been working and re-educating her for a month mind you, but 15 to 20 pound drops in the first month is the norm for the majority of overweight clients( a lot of water weight, due to phase 1 south beach diet). We have not had any problem keeping off the initial drop in weight and still progressing with a one to two pound loss each week after. So as I was on my way to play basketball at 8pm, after already completing 100 kb snatches , Dave Whitley’s (The Iron Tamer’s ROP)10 minute swing workout (45 seconds work, 30 seconds rest) and rolled for two jiujitsu classes, when I realized that I may be going down the overtraining path once again . My workout regime previously consisted of a three mile intense run and sprint, morning jiu jitsu class and gym for resistance and plyometrics, a protein shake break and then two to three hours of evening jiujitsu classes; Never taking an entire day off for recovery. I lost 70 pounds and hit a wall (injuries ensued , and no more weight loss). I was also not sleeping well and it was brought to my attention that I may have over trained. As I continued driving on my way to go play basketball I realized that I may be headed down that road again. The following day I approached my client and asked her when was the last time she had given her body a break ( talk about the pot calling the kettle black). She informed me that the last time was January or February; Of last year!!! I believe we have isolated the issue and definitely a problem had surfaced with her progression due to her overtrainning. So after dealing with some initial resistance and withdrawals we have come to a cease fire in exercise ( temporarily), but we will keep you posted and informed on any progress.
It makes sense that when I overtrained my body, I certainly pushed myself, (pedal to the metal) and after a certain point it was relatively easy to push that pace and it became a daily habit. It just seemed normal. My body rapidly adapted and would not burn calories as easy as it did initially; On top of that I was not taking any time off to recover. I was not consuming enough food which also contributed to my plateau in weight loss. That is why six, eight, or even 12 week cycles are recommended and used by many elite athletes. Each week progressing in strength and intensity with rest days worked in, tapering off at weeks four or five, then checking for improvements, and then recovery for a week.
If you just shoot to the top, train b@!!$ to the walls, no rest and recovery, you will lose weight, improve cardio and strength, but eventually you will taper off and no doubt hit a plateau. Not to mention, be highly susceptible to injury and illness . In conclusion steady progression with three to four steps forward then one step back, is the recipe for constant and steady improvement.
Aaron Gonzales
Fit-Nex Training
