Overtraining Doesn't Exist

Over at the "Iron Samurai" (see my "links" section), Nick Horton has a post that I wish I would have written myself. It's entitled "Overtraining Doesn't Exist."

I imagine the title alone would enflame many of your H.I.T. pundits or others who may think that Mike Mentzer was actually on to something.

Here's a portion of the article:

I’m going to say something many people in the fitness industry will get pissed at me for. But I believe it to be true (within reason).

OVERTRAINING DOESN’T EXIST

That’s bullshit, of course. Overtraining is a medical syndrome that some people do get themselves into. But… it is EXTREMELY rare, and YOU have never had it.

I want you to avoid ANY thought of overtraining. In all of the years I have been coaching, I have not EVER overtrained a single athlete. Ever.

CNS fatigue is not overtraining.
Feeling tired is not overtraining.
A loss of appetite is not overtraining.
Being massively sore is not overtraining.
Watching your numbers and performance fall is not overtraining.

All of that is part of the adaptation process. You are SUPPOSED to feel like you are getting your ass kicked during a loading phase. If you didn’t, you weren’t loading hard enough.

Lifters always come up to me saying that they have been feeling tired and sluggish, and they wonder if it is time for a deload/taper. My answer is nearly always NO.

Why? Because feeling like shit is part of the point.

You don’t get stronger by only doing light weights that feel easy, do you? Of course not. You force your body to deal with weight that is actually TOO heavy to do comfortably to FORCE the issue. That’s what progressive resistance is all about.

Loading and deloading are simply applying those progressive resistance principles on a grander scale. A well-designed loading phase FORCES your body to adapt to a stressful situation. Without a massive amount of stress you don’t get to have massive gains. Sorry, that is just reality.

Slow gains are very common in the gym in large part because people don’t do enough work. My programs produce infamously fast gains because I make people do more. It’s not magic, it’s nothing special, it is just focusing in on the ultra basics in a big way.

Do work, son.

And here's a link to the full article:

http://www.theironsamurai.com/2013/09/06/qa-overtraining-doesnt-exist/

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