Exercise Science Rule Number One: All the good rules have limits. When it comes to competitive athletes, dedicated effort separates the best from the worst, but what about Golds from Silvers? Recent research now suggests that much of the extra effort put in by extreme athletes is not only being wasted but can be detrimental to their performance. In this article, we shine a cautionary light on the paradox and suggest ways for you to avoid the potential perils of over-training.
Aside from his controversial analogies and admitted hormone supplementation, the formerly youth-afforded star of 1977s “Pumping Iron”, Arnold Schwarzenegger, imparted undeniable words of motivating wisdom, “…if you’re training hard, he may be training twice as hard”. But how much of Arnold’s more-is-more approach still fits in with our modern understanding of exercise physiology, and within what limits?
WHAT IS OVER-TRAINING?
According to exercise physiologists, over-training syndrome (OTS) is a physically debilitating condition resulting in severely compromised health and capacity to perform. Over-training athletes typically present with chronic symptoms of fatigue and exhaustion. Further testing often reveals abnormal hormone production, poor results in performance and psychological tests as well as numerous biochemical indicators of immune system suppression.
The immune system is particularly susceptible to extreme training loads and is the downfall of many athletes as they resume training after long seasonal breaks. As a resuming athlete’s week rapidly fills with training sessions, the persistence of a normal lifestyle often leaves little time for the additional recovery required by an overloaded body.
OVER-TRAINING VS. UNDER-RECOVERING
The American College of Sports Medicine now recognises that inadequate recovery is one of the most significant components responsible for the OTS. It’s quite normal for athletes to experience a short-term drop in performance after training, as long as it doesn’t last more than a few days. What over-trainers (OTs) tend to get wrong is the balance between exercise and recovery; not appreciating that exercising harder requires substantially more rest and refuelling.
An effective recovery strategy can be simplified into two components: 1) Sufficient Eating and 2) Sufficient Sleeping. Both components should be addressed by all athletes and their trainers, particularly those breaking from and re-entering training at different stages throughout the year, as is the norm with seasonal sportsmen and women.
EFFECTIVE RECOVERY BROKEN DOWN
ONE – ADEQUATE RESTFUL SLEEP
Studies show that a lack of restful sleep is a strong predictor of depression, respiratory illness and chronic fatigue. One study found that keeping otherwise healthy military participants awake between the hours of 10pm and 3am lead to suppression of components of their innate immune system, dramatically increasing susceptibility to respiratory infections. Military troops effectively serve as good research models of over-training athletes due to their prolonged periods of high training-to-rest ratios.
Although there are seemingly few hours left for sleep in the routine of an over-exerting athlete, a key priority must be to routinely schedule eight to ten hours per night without exception. Admittedly, early morning starts and late dinners following evening training make this quite a difficult hurdle to jump consistently, but remember: It only takes one night of a suppressed immune system to cripple months of hard work.
Published earlier this month, research conducted at the University of Pennsylvania also reported that restricting restful sleep leads to unhealthy weight gain directly due to a greater consumption of fattier foods in late-night hours. Even though sufficient eating is paramount to effective recovery, what’s on your plate is just as important as how much is on it.
TWO – ADEQUATE NUTRITION
A common mistake made by “over-trainers” is eating too little of the right foods, too late after training. In regards to sports nutrition, it’s important to consider both scaling and strategy.
Recommended daily intakes (RDIs) are excellent, if you’re sitting still reading recommendations all day. However, if you’re an athlete training more than once a day, your nutritional needs are understandably quite different.
Gym-culture writer and director of international clothing label FKN GYM WEAR, Ben London was once recorded as saying, “You can’t eat like an insect and expect to train like a lion.”
Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as counting calories when it comes to warding off symptoms of over-training. Not all components of your diet are depleted equally when you exercise intensely.
EXAMPLE: At rest, your metabolism relies predominantly on stores of fat. Unlike sugars and other carbohydrates, fat requires oxygen to be broken down. As a result, fat is effectively useless once you start huffing and puffing at training. Therefore, a typical athlete’s requirement for fat intake doesn’t differ much to that of a couch potato.
Although all athletes should consult with a dedicated dietician aware of his/her specific training regime, immediately post-exercise, a typical athlete’s nutritional priorities should look something like this:
- Restore depleted glycogen with carbohydrates
- This speeds up the endocrine system’s switch into “rebuild mode”
- Ensure that amino acids are available in your blood with a rapidly digestible protein meal/supplement
- Meats, nuts and legumes are great normally. However, immediately following training, a mix of protein sources that digest quickly and slowly may be more beneficial.
- Top up the electrolytes, vitamins and minerals lost with a balanced meal of fruit, vegetables, grains, nuts and meats (where possible – preferably fish and occasionally red meat)
- This is where an athlete starts to transition back into the basic nutritional needs of the regular Jo(si)e Blow. Although many vitamins and minerals allow for efficient energy use at training, most are conserved even during exercise.
As for the specific amounts of each nutritional component required for your training regimen, the personalised advice of an accredited sports nutritionist is an essential tool in your arsenal against the symptoms of over-training.
Arnold got a lot of things right throughout his bodybuilding legacy. Training harder does have the capacity to separate you from your competition. A few of his released statements just missed out the much-needed fine print (in a mandatorily thick Austrian accent, no less): “If you’re recovering hard after training, he may be recovering twice as hard.”