under recovery

Dr. Doug McGuff looks at exercise stimulus from this perspective. ....With regard to the stimulus, the basic issues to be identified are the concentration of the drug and the dosage of the drug. Analogous issues in exercise would be the intensity of the exercise and amount of exercise performed per session. With regard to response, our researchers would wait to record the desired response and note at what point in time this response occurs. The amount of time it takes the response to occur is what dictates an optimum dosing schedule. The key when designing a therapeutic drug is to optimize the concentration so that minimum dosing is required to produce a maximum response. Likewise the key in exercise training should be to optimize intensity so that minimum exercise duration and frequency is required to produce a maximum growth response.

i love this when a scientist finally says something that makes sense but its funny that they never implement it seeing that most athletes are still overtraining all the time...UNDERSTAND his last statement - the least training possible to get the best results!

one of my mentors mentioned this to me years ago...and he stated "NEVER be afraid to over train athletes"...b/c if the nutrition/lifestyle/training stimulus is dialed in, the human body can adapt to unbelievable stressors...

what i now know is that emotions are the first sign that overtraining or under-recovery can occur...when you do not feel that you are ready to smash it, my suggestion is to still do it but understand that you can still focus on movements and not the clock...if you still over some time have low vigor, higher than normal AM heart rate (this is not overly valid for those who carb load but sometimes worthwhile), and do not feel like even training, listen to the body, take 5 days off (walk instead, breathe some more, nap, sleep well, eat well - i repeat; this IS NOT A TIME TO EAT LIKE SHIT!!!)...if after this time you come back and do not have it w.r.t. times/scores/weights but sense that you liked training again and "being there"...this is a good thing that NO science can assess

i frequently do saliva/urine/blood analysis for life long health as well as performance purposes and there is ALWAYS a correlation b/t the testing there and how i feel emotionally in connection to my training...listen to your body! (below is a printout from one of the many times i've been tested at http://www.rmalab.com/ )

Hormone Status Result Range Units Range Applied
Estradiol Within range 3.7 2.0 - 6.0 pg/ml Male estradiol endogenous
Testosterone Within range 76 43 - 135 pg/ml Endogenous testosterone male < 35 years old
DHEAS Within range 7.5 4.0 - 15 ng/ml
Cortisol AM Low end of range 2.8 2.0 - 11.0 ng/ml Sampled within 1 hour of waking
Cortisol Noon Within range 2.7 1.0 - 7.0 ng/ml Noon cortisol
Cortisol PM Low end of range 0.7 0.5 - 3.5 ng/ml Sampled prior to evening meal
Cortisol HS Within range 1.1 0.2 - 1.3 ng/ml Bedtime sample

the positive side here is that just like decreasing volume but keeping intensity high before competitions you will get an uptick interms of intensity when you return if you are not burnt too much, so will it happen after a return from a perfectly prescribed layoff (the only way to know is to try)...so in the end, don't be afraid to go to the dark side, you learn a HELL of a whole lot about your limits (i remember Gonzales saying in his book DEEP SURVIVAL - "to revere pain and fear, to embrace friction, are bedrock skills of survival")...its not fun over there but the other side sure is...