Please forgive me if this has been covered before. My searching didn’t turn up what I was looking for. What does undertrained mean? How is it defined? How does one know they’re undertrained and how does one know when they’re no longer undertrained?
Undertrained is a term representing an individual at a particular time who has acquired less fitness adaptations than the individual or standard they’re being compared to.
Thanks Jordan. With respect to a beginner and weight training, what is that standard they are compared to?
Individuals who have been training longer than them and who have amassed more fitness adaptations.
Thanks Jordan. With that in mind, is it accurate to say that you’ll always be considered undertrained depending on who you’re compared to?
Not necessarily, as we shouldn’t conflate performance with fitness adaptations necessarily. Additionally, we use the terms “trained” and “undertrained” to compare individuals who have been training for awhile and those who are newer, e.g. where there are fairly large discrepancies. We try not to use it amongst individuals in the same cohort, as you can’t really say someone is more trained than another person just because their performance is higher.