overtraining? how do i beat this?
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Wednesday, January 07, 2009 1:08 PM
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#1 )
I just read an article on the aspects of over training , first i noticed some side effects that are listed in the article that i have. but thought i had them for another reason
*Chronic fatigue - i thought i felt this cuz i have bad sleep patterns and dont get enuf , mostly from an anxiety thing im working thru.
*Injury - my shoulders are messed , they basically dont exist when i do pull ups or lat pull downs , no matter how slow , controlled or low the weight is my left shoulder/ collar bone pops .then when i sleep on them , the next day im sore as hell.... i dont know if this is from over training , my shoulders are genetically messed , ive been training now. 20 months.. and only recently started to consistantly train my shoulders , before i never did cuz they were so weak i hated doing them i just did the classic newbie stuff , arms and chest , since i started i rarely miss time at the gym . but the only important thing for me was chest bis tris , everything else i just neglected...
* Lack of ability to get a pump - when i train back , i try all kinds of exercises , weights , reps ect , and rarely get a pump , ill get fatigued in that muscle , lets say i do a set of rows , i dont feel the pump in my lats then try to do a pull up ill maybe get one , so its like i hit the muscle, its tired , but theres no pump????? i always seem to hit the secondary muscles in every exercise more then the main muscle even when i concetrate ( pec fly- shoulders hurt , bench - shoulders ,anything for back , all in bis and ironically front delts which is wacked cuz i thought it was only rear )this is one reason ive almost quit a million times cuz even when i bring a newbie tot he gym and show them stuff , it works for them they feel it , and ill try and feel nothing in that muscle .. especially db rows.
*soreness in joints and muscles - i know the feeling of a good soreness , like wow i got a good work out , but alot times i get this bad soreness like , i did something improper. , ive been realy trying to focus on form ... but its still happens so i think i overtrain . its mostly in my joints tho! more so then muscles anyway
* lack of desire to train ( cuz of lack of progress or even going backwards ) get ten reps on a good weight for lets say bench , next week i try i get 3-4 reps less , feel tired. then next week im back to normal , but i dont seem to progress more , i wanna bench 225lbs 4-5 reps in the next 6 months
, right now im at 185lbs for about 2 reps unspotted , probably 3 on a good day. can i achieve that goal?
* ive lost weight but my diet sucks , my appetite is up and down. ill eat enuf for a few days then not enuf for a week , i dont know what my bf is but i want to lower it while gettin bigger so im trying to clean bulk. i live off of cheeseburgers and basically only drink pop , and im not fat just have a little bit of love handles , so ive cut those two things out completely , only water and some juice after the gym. hopefully that takes care of mos the fat.
and i guess i have insomnia and depression abit , but thats cuz of my anxiety im workin thru and working out has helped it tremendously except when i look in the mirror and dont have the results i want or should have , ive been platued like 6 months , lost alittle weight , but got alittle stronger strangley... but my weight is platued , strength up abit
ok now i read about too many sets , i stick normally to the 3-4 sets 8-10 reps for every muscle , i cant do compound stuff for the reason that my range of motion sucks , my legs are sooo weak ... even little guys push more then me and my lower back is weak and screwed, family trait. i am gunna start training legs this week but i can basically only use machines because i try squats lunges and i always bend my hips as i go down , so its like i lean forward , ahh hard to explain but my friend says i do it wrong , i go down like an inch then basically start to lean with my back , and i seriously can not do it!!!!!!! even with no weight at all , the only way i can do it is holding onto something... dunno fi my friends wrong and its ok the way i do it or im just messed.
anyway this guys set list was like this
Legs (Hams/Quads) 12-15 Working Sets
Back 12 Working Sets
Chest 10-12 Working Sets
Shoulders 9 Working Sets
Biceps 4-6 Working Sets
Triceps 4-6 Working Sets
Calves 4-6 Working Sets
Forearms 2-4 Working Sets
and it says working sets meaning u can do a few warm ups , i do maybe one warm up or two before i start that muscle but dont warm up before each exercise. but heres the thing , i stay in these ranges for every muscle except bis and tris.. i do about 9-12 sets for those and those are the only muscles that dont bug me , i mean sometimes i get stupid cuz ill get stronger so the next day ill go in the gym and do a few sets of curls the day after i trained them cuz i m just excited im strong.
but as for the the rest i stay in these ranges...... so how am i over training?
anyway its been 20 months , ive negelected inportant muscles now for the last 4 months im triaing serious , diet is a work in progress but summers coming and if i dont achieve my goal and look like damn good ill either quit or do something drastic.... im not one for supplements much but i mean , i can only take so much failure.
ive gone from 145lbs(im 5'11-6 feet) , to about 180-185lbs .. dunno about the bf% , but not bad , im not a fat kid most people see me as a bulky guy that works out.... well myf riends anyway that are use to seeing me skinny , it hasnt been a complete failure , i am bigger , stronger , more sore but feel good about myself , except come summer time im more embarassed to take my shirt of cuz people now expect me to be ripped or really muscular... and im not that much.. plus i just keep getting bad stretch marks in weird places , right where the bi and delt meets.. so gross... anyway guys im sorrry this was soooooo blooody long but if u made it thru this whole thing can u gimme some advice , i dont wanna lower the sets for bis and tris unless u guys think i should i pretty much have no probs with them as far as soreness , i dunno if theyre growing are not , they could be .
p.s idont stretch at all really beyond shoudlers and tri ,.. all simple stretches dont seem to wrok i dont feel it... like i said it feels like im hitting something else , i stretch tris i feel it in my delts , im messed! , help!