C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

How and Why Planned “Overtraining” is a Key to More Size and Strength      At some point, “overtraining” became a bad word in the world of strength training and muscle building.  Basically, or so the thinking goes, one of the keys to making continuous progress is ensuring that you never overtrain.  Many of the greatest strength athletes, not to mention strength coaches, of all time, however, thought that not only is overtraining not bad, but that it’s also a necessity once the lifter reaches a certain level.      My original strength mentor was the late and great strength coach Bill Starr.  Starr wrote several articles on the need for overtraining.  He believed that, in order to make continuous progress, you must do “too much” for a certain period of time—the so-called “overtraining” period—before backing off after that.  It was during this “de-load” period when the athlete makes the most gains, but those gain...

Some Thoughts on Understanding and Avoiding Overtraining      When it comes to the state commonly referred to as “overtraining,” opinions vary. They run quite the gamut, too.  Some lifters are so bold as to declare “no such thing as overtraining exists.”  On the polar opposite, flip side of that you have the typical “hardgainer” advice that more than just two workouts—hell, maybe more than just one hard session—per week will lead to “OVERTRAINING.”  For some reason, the latter group typically capitalizes “overtraining.”  I guess that’s to show the rest of us overtrainers just how scary of a subject it can be.  The truth, of course, and you may have already surmised this, lies somewhere in between those two extremes.      There are three areas , I believe, in which overtraining occurs.  They overlap but are still particular enough that they each deserve their own mention.  You can overtrain your movemen...