Overreaching vs. Overtraining
When it comes to exercise, rest and recovery, we often hear the term overtraining thrown around in the gym, but the reality is the vast majority of us are not at risk of overtraining. If you work out hard multiple days per week you may be at risk of overreaching. Overreaching is an acute condition (short-term) that can lead to overtraining, a chronic condition (long-term), if not properly managed. Overreaching often leads to increased metabolic stress placed upon the body during certain training phases. Many coaches program with an understanding that their lifters will and should enter into this phase. When an athlete enters this phase of overreaching, training volume is often decreased substantially for a short period of time to allow regeneration and recovery, which is a process called supercompensation. This cyclic approach to training has been at the foundation of modern strength and conditioning programming across many sports. https://barbend.com/7-physiological-symptoms-of-overreaching-strength-athletes/
On the extreme end, overtraining / overtraining syndrome (OTS) is a state of chronic overreaching. An athlete may enter this phase when symptoms of overreaching are ignored. Often, this stems from a lack of the basic physiological symptoms that are present during overreaching periods.
A condition of overreaching is common in athletes with an incidence ranging from 5% to 60%.However, overtraining syndrome (OTS) is much less prevalent. Overreaching is a state of excessive volume or intensity of exercise resulting in decreased sport-specific athletic performance. When training loads reach an athlete’s individual “tipping point”, he or she can be considered overtrained or overreached. With appropriate rest and recovery (and the absence of excessive stress), performance can be increased despite overreaching with the athlete suffering only a temporary performance impairment. Generally speaking, athletes train to increase performance. Performance increases are achieved through increased training loads. Increased loads are tolerated only through interspersed periods of rest and recovery—training periodization. Overreaching is considered an accumulation of training load that leads to performance decrements requiring days to weeks for recovery.
Overtraining syndrome is a specific and severe condition when overtraining without adequate rest and recovery leads to performance decrements that last >2–3 months coupled with a mood disturbance.
Symptoms of Overreaching:
Through the understanding of the following symptoms of overreaching, athletes and coaches alike can monitor and tweak programming to ensure ongoing success and increased performance over time
Altered Heart Rates and Blood Pressure
As systemic stress is placed upon the body during intense training, recovery becomes crucial. During periods of poor recovery, increased sympathetic activity is present (increased heart rate, increase blood pressure, increase catecholamines and cortisol at rest), which all further add stress to the body. Although heart rate variations can occur at anytime, when seen with other symptoms, altered heart rates at given workloads may suggest increased sympathetic stress (circulatory, cardiac, and neuromuscular systems), indicating potential overreaching.
Poor Sleep Patterns
Disturbances in sound sleep can result from numerous of factors. However, in the presence of other symptoms, poor sleep habits has been shown to indicate increased physiological stress, altered hormonal levels (increased catecholamines and cortisol), and mood imbalances.
Decreased Performance
Decreased maximal heart rate, decreased work capacity, increased perceived exertion levels, and altered blood lactate variables all contribute to diminished performance during a period of overreaching. By recognizing the these ongoing symptoms, athletes and coaches can alter loading, training volume, and rest cycles to restore and allow for supercompensation to occur.
Mood Imbalances
Increased stress has been correlated with increased anxiety, depression, lack of motivation, insomnia, and irritability. Monitoring one’s mental mood state during hard training periods will allow lifters to correlate other symptoms to determine if they are entering into murky waters. The additional external stress lifters may place upon themselves when trying to achieve a certain performance goal can further add to frustration, mood imbalances, and stress. It is important for coaches and athletes to understand the role that cortisol and mood imbalances can have on physiological and psychological health during intense training cycles.
Diminishing Immunity
Increased stress due to heightened sympathetic activity can wreak havoc on the immune system. Protein breakdown and increased cortisol have been shown to weaken the immune system, leaving lifters susceptible to sickness, equating in loss of training days and further stress upon the body.
More Susceptible to Injury
Systemic fatigue, frustration, and joint/muscular weakness may lead to potential injury during times of poor recovery.
Symptoms of Overtraining
As discussed above, when acute overreaching is prolonged, chronic symptoms may be revealed, indicating overtraining, which often results in heightened detrimental effects and increased recovery times (greater than 2-3 months)
True "overtraining" is a complex, severe medical condition in which symptoms last for months or even years that can even end athletic careers.
It may be hard to know when you’re overtraining, but feeling like you aren’t recovering between sessions or experiencing overall fatigue and difficulty pushing yourself during workouts can be indicators of overtraining. Many of the signs of overtraining are the same as the symptoms of overreaching, with the key difference being the duration of time symptoms persist.
Training related signs of overtraining:
Unusual muscle soreness after a workout, which persists with continued training
Inability to train or compete at a previously manageable level
"Heavy" leg muscles, even at lower exercise intensities
Delays in recovery from training
Performance plateaus or declines
Thoughts of skipping or cutting short training sessions
Lifestyle-related signs of overtraining
Prolonged general fatigue
Increase in tension, depression, anger or confusion
Inability to relax
Poor-quality sleep
Lack of energy, decreased motivation, moodiness
Not feeling joy from things that were once enjoyable
Health-related signs of overtraining
Increased occurrences of illness
Increased blood pressure and at-rest heartrate
Irregular menstrual cycles; missing periods
Weight loss; appetite loss
Constipation; diarrhea
https://www.hss.edu/article_overtraining.asp
Can you “Overtrain” from lifting alone?
While overreaching and overtraining have been abundantly studied in endurance athletes, it has yet to be seriously investigated in the context of strength training. True overtraining is highly unlikely (if even possible) for strength athletes and is characterized by significant persistent symptoms, made worse by outside life stressors. So, if you are feeling run-down but you're not about to peak for a competition, you might be in an overreaching state. A deload period will help you get back on track.
The Takeaway: While many of us in the gym talk of overtraining, true overtraining is a severe, complex medical condition in which symptoms last for months or even years that can even end athletic careers. The term overtraining is often misused for overreaching. If you are working out hard multiple days per week (whether in weightlifting, endurance sports or a combination of the two) make sure to take adequate rest and recovery days to avoid overreaching.