How can I stop overreaching?

Medical Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hello,

I’m 21 years old, 6’0 220 pounds, and I plan on getting an actual coach (hopefully here) in a few months when I start my job after I graduate.

I’ve completed SS, and I’m currently doing a general 4 day split where I cycle intensity lifts followed by volume lifts (got the program from Andy Baker).

Every few months I get a point where I can’t eat, can’t sleep, feel restless, low motivation and have mild depression/anxiety - I then have to take off a week or two. After having this occur a few times (went to the doctor first time it happened) I’ve concluded this is 100% due to my training, and it’s incredibly uncomfortable.

This is how I feel now - I’m taking this week off.

I’m the type of person that grinds really hard through my workouts, and if I’m tired I still train as hard as possible. The problem is I make great progress, and if the weight gets hard I just try harder, so my weights are always going up. My program seems to go great then out of nowhere I have trouble eating breakfast and sleeping - then these horrible symptoms come.

I eat a ton of food, and sleep as much as possible with a college schedule, don’t drink much, etc. I do however study a lot - but I know that should matter too much since you both are Med students.

Do you have any advice? How can I stop this from happening before it starts?

Do you think something is wrong with me? I feel like I’m the only one who is horrible at recovering - you don’t believe this could be a sign of MS or something do you? From what my primary care physician told me I’m perfectly healthy.

2

If it’s 100% due to your training, perhaps you might consider a closer look at your programming? I don’t know what Andy has you doing, but he might be a better person to ask, since we don’t know what you’re actually doing in the gym.

Routinely “grinding really hard through workouts” suggests that the intensity may be too high, however.

3

Thanks for taking the time to reply - I really appreciate your help.

How do you personally determine if you need to take time off? I see videos of yourself training - it looks incredibly intense. Are your training sessions always all out ball-busters? How does your nervous system handle something like that?

I saw your post about your wife getting to train pretty regularly recently - what exactly was she doing before? How do you, your wife, and Jordan all program a dynamic program that is flexible with physician work schedules?

I watched a recent video of me squatting and I realized that any weight above 350 the bar goes forward too much, and my back into flexion. Do you think perhaps doing heavy sets with bad form could cause much more fatigue than necessary?

Thank you very much.

4

I have taken exactly 1 week off from training in the past 7 years. Otherwise I haven’t had the need to do so, because my training is designed to regulate and manage fatigue. My training sessions are therefore never “all-out ball-busters”, because that’s a great way to end up in your situation of feeling exceptionally beat down and wanting to quit. My nervous system has adapted, just like everything else.

My wife essentially wasn’t training before, because she was working upwards of 100 hours a week (or more), and training wasn’t a high enough priority at the time. Her schedule has how improved (temporarily) and she’s been able to train fairly normally, 3x / wk. When my schedule gets difficult, my sessions get compressed, I sleep a bit less, and I might use some alternative strategies to get work in (AMRAPs, Myo-reps, timed rest periods, etc). Autoregulation with RPE is an excellent tool for managing fatigue in this situation.

Yes, squatting heavy with poor form can cause more fatigue than necessary.

5

Your responses are incredibly helpful - Thank you.

If you don’t mind, I have two more questions

  1. In terms of coming back, should I just start training again when I don’t feel exhausted anymore or should I just go ahead now and start even though I’m beat down? Should I complete a one rep max again and base lifts off of that?

  2. Where can I learn more about Autoregulation with RPE – and how to alter programs to manage fatigue?

Thanks again.

6

  1. I would start back now, but start light. Attempting a 1RM in your current situation would be extremely unwise.

  2. You can start with the Bridge eBook, as well as a number of resources at the Reactive Training Systems website.