Fight or Flight

[okie]

I enjoy learning from older folks!

[Bagger Lance]

I enjoy learning from older folks!

Easy there Oklahoma, I just had my 49th two days ago. I'm still cranky and my T-levels are on the rise.

One of my training buddys in the Gym who is 8 years my senior asked if I was going to Chucky Cheese for my birthday.
To celebrate the occassion and shut up my training partner, I came within 15lbs of my lifetime best bench press that I hit in my early 20's

Sick... I know, but somehow it made me feel better about my age.

[okie]

One more trip around the sun and you are half a century! Good job on fighting the law of entropy!

[Vickie Lake]

So Bagger, You almost started with a question but obviously you know the answer. You never have to raise your stress if you are happy with the status quo. But for most of us, as with my writing and publishing challenge, I had to adjust my schedule to get the most productivity for my efforts. So at 3:00 a.m. I get the most done. The inherant stress that I could have felt burried under would be giving up my evenings, some dramatic television. Initially I felt deprived but a little bit of calm, mature consideration and I was happy to give up these things in light of the satisfaction of a more important goal. That is the real secret, if there is one. Here's a great and short little mind game to play whenever you are adjusting your life to accomodate a new demand, be in invited or not. I will place this in light of the scenario I painted since I think most people will agree that a 7:00 bedtime and 3:00 arisal is unusual.
After I found a solution to my sleep and writing problems I still felt like it would be a stressful adjustment. So I used this method to realign my thinking into something positive and calm.

My stressful thinking: I will hate going to bed so early I can't have any evening phone time, the only time for most of my friends, and I can't watch "my favorite programs" and it's still light outside when I go to bed."

Question One: Is this true?
"We'll yes, I will be going to bed at infantile hours, missing my shows, and it is light outside."

Question Two: Is it all really true?
"Well no, I actually like going to bed early, I usually only watch TV because I don't feel like doing much else since I've been working with clients since 6:00 a.m. I don't really care that much about the TV shows as I miss them anyime a friend invites me to dinner or comes over for a visit or a book I'm reading is at a good place. Frankly, I love sleeping in on the weekend after the sun comes up so what's the big difference?"

Question Three: How do you feel when you think the stressful thoughts?
"I feel deprived and controlled by my busy life. I feel like I am limited by my own choices and like I expect too much out of life."

Question Four: How do you feel when you aren't thinking about it?
"I think it is luxurious to lay down in bed with no responsibility to anyone at a wickedly early hour of the night. I absolutely love getting the writing accomplished as I have always wanted to finish my manuscript and feel like I am making real progress. I also love that I write more usable text in two hours that I used to get when I would force my tired mind to sit at the computer from 7:00-11:00 every evening. I frankly think watching the television, and somebody elses made up story, a waste of time even if I'm not watching the silly game and reality shows. I feel in complete control, achieving my goals and able to adjust my schedule when ever I feel like it serves my life best."


Ok this may seem silly but it is a tried and true method. And now I don't have to think about it any longer I just accept my adjustments and the stress inducing demand is not longer a negative issue. I also have to do this with training because it is important to me I am happy to make the necessary sacrifices to make it safe and effective.

It is really all about acceptance of what is. Do the best to orchestrate the most peaceful environment in light of the new demands and then accept the reality. I swear it gets easier with practice. Staying focused on the difficulty and the negative is a practiced mental exercise also. Take your pick.

Vik

[mrodock]

It is really all about acceptance of what is. Do the best to orchestrate the most peaceful environment in light of the new demands and then accept the reality. I swear it gets easier with practice. Staying focused on the difficulty and the negative is a practiced mental exercise also. Take your pick.

Vik

So much wisdom, thank you for sharing Vickie. And all the best in your pursuits.

[mrodock]

Vickie,

I am a beginning lifter and I have made some good progress in the last 7 weeks. I have gone from 150 to 168 pounds. And by working out 3 days a week on compound lifts I have improved my strength.

My 5 rep maxes:
Overhead press: 90 pounds to 125 pounds
Back Squat: 135 pounds to 270 pounds
Deadlift: 165 pounds to 275 pounds
DB Snatch: 50 pounds to 75 pounds
Bench Press: I messed this up initially and am now starting to make progress.

So here is the question. I have noticed in the last couple of weeks I have been extremely fatigued, negative, and barely able to get through my workouts. I might be getting dangerously close to overtraining (I'm still able to progress every week on weights though). I think I will start a deload week but I don't know how much to deload without really losing too much. I just want to deload lower body because upper body seems to be moving along alright still and doesn't seem to be causing too much fatigue. Would a 75% deload week be about right?

Thanks!

Matt

[Matt]

If you've been hitting it hard for seven straight weeks, it's probably time for a break. I know it's tough -- you feel like your whole daily routine is out of whack without the gym -- but it helps in the long run. So, for you, a good week of rest and recuperation is likely a good idea. You don't have to sit around all week, but just stay away from the weights.

When you start to look at the bigger picture of your training, you can begin to schedule in "deload" weeks. This can mean taking a few workouts off, or perhaps cutting volume by half for a week (reduce the amount of sets you're doing for each exercise by half).

The point is to give your body a chance to rebound -- to let your fitness catch up with your fatigue. Excessive fatigue, as you seem to be noticing, makes you underperform and lose the motivation to work out.

Let us know how it goes!

[Vickie Lake]

Mrodock,

I must tell you I haven't heard the word deload in a while and I would definitely not recommend a 75% reduction. I have some questions. I need to know how many sets and at what weight you build to your 5 rep max. Are these all of the exercises you are doing? Are you doing this workout three times a week? How much do you weigh? How old are you. Do you know your bodyfat percentage? Is this seven week beginning the only time you have done any ongoing strength training? Do you have a trainer? How did you choose your program? What are your objectives?

You hit the nail on the head, you are overtrained. The first sign I look for is apathy with regard to going to the gym or reaching your goal or even staying focused during the workout. Assuming you are over trained you have no choice but to take your workouts down a notch. Next week allow yourself two days between workouts. When I see your whole program I can advise you about your weight, rep, set orchestration.

Are you getting enough sleep? How is your nutrition? Are you doing cardio/aerobics also?

I hope you'll provide this information so I can give you an answer for the other viewers to see. So often people will ask questions that might help others but then we don't get the whole picture.
Most of our viewers don't train with this level of weight so they have no reference point.

I am a real believer in split routines and this includes compound motions. You should alternate between high intensity workouts and lower intensity workouts. This allows you to keep working but slips in some extra recovery. There is also some imbalance in your weight allocation. I don't see any lat or rhomboid work represented here. Hope that's an oversight.

Matt is very experienced but I must clarify that your fitness won't catch up with fatigue unless you change your training protocol. The purpose of training with overload is to raise your fitness level, the bodies ability to perform and recover more efficiently. Since your benefits from training don't happen in the gym but in the period of time afterward when the body heals the microtramas, you have to be sure that your rest period is sufficient and healing is complete before you begin tearing down the muscle again. [Not allowing enought time to rebuild is one of the main reasons people complain about not getting bigger or stronger. They tear down and start to rebuild but then tear down again before the new muscle response occurs. Robbing Peter to pay Paul] This enormous fatigue that seems not to go away and interfers with your workouts is a clear indicator of adrenal fatigue which is a precursor for excess cortisol production. (I still have to finish that part of my post). And taking off more than a few days means that you must reevaluate your program and your goal timelines. A five rep max, based on the information you illuminated, indicates to me that you are maxing out every workout. Nobody will recover from that, especially if they have a real life with work and family and sports.

Vik