Over training

[Clancy]

Hi Cathe,
I am going to give a slight bit of background because I am not sure what my problem is.
I am 46 1/2 yrs old, have 24% body fat and am in good health except for allergies. I have been working out for about 2 yrs and have lost 50 lbs. I consider myself a high intermediate to low advanced exerciser. I recently bought a step that had Cathe's All Step video included. I have since been watching and recording her on FitTv.
I can do her shows, I do have to admit, not the weights she uses but not too much lower.
About 8 hours later, this seems to happen with my legs only, not my upper body, I find my legs really tired and as a consequence, so am I. The next few days, I can hardly drag them around as they feel like lead pillars. I try to alternate the cardio with the weight training but found this problem with just the cardio alone. After a few days of just step, I find my legs tired, not really sore but just heavy and tired.
I don't know if I should give it a rest or keep trying to push through. I read somewhere this may be overtraining. I want to be able to follow the program she laid out in the post on how to loose 20-30 lbs and am discouraged that I may never be able to get to that level.
How can I get to that level of fitness without falling into overtraining. Also, what do you do about overtraining once you have done it?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
Clancy

 

[Jane P]

Clancy,

I'm glad you posted. I thought I was the only one. I also find that when I do a strength workout for the legs, I cannot do step (especially Cathe's step) the next day. I just can't do it. I am also in my late forties. I've read that as you get older, your muscles take longer to recover. I have tried to work through the fatigue, but I just end up tripping over the step and risking an ankle sprain.

I now do two step workouts and one leg workout a week. In between I do upper body. When I want extra cardio, I do moderate walking. This seems to stretch out the leg muscles after all the bending of doing step and squats etc.

Another solution is to combine leg work and challenging step into one workout the way Cathe does in Body Max or Power Circuit. I always have to take a rest day after doing Body Max though, because it's so challenging.

 

[clareMc]

Clancy:

this does not sound like overtraining to me, rather you suffer the normal bodily reaction to taking up the intensity of your workouts. I am experiencing it too today. I took up the poundage of the weights I used for lower body training yesterday and today my body fels tired, heavy and slightly achey. This is perfectly normal. All you have to do is decide how to react whilst also allowing your body sufficient time to rest and reuperate. Remember: it is during resting that the body gets stronger.

You can choose to do a lower intensity cardio tape, so that you retain flexibility in the muslces and just warm them through. This can often help, I use this technique sometimes and it can cut down on the resting time due to intense muscle soreness. Or you can concentrate on doing an upper body tape while the lower rests and get back to cardio tomorrow. Or you could just swim or walk, much more gentle activities, or choose simply to rest and take a nice hot bath to ease the muscles.

And remember that whenever you take up the intensity, it will take a couple of weeks for your body to adjust, but when it does, you will feel so strong and powerful!

Good luck and try not to get too dispirited!

Clare

 

[Soosan]

Have you considered adding yoga into the mix? It has many benefits, and, IMO, nothing beats it for improving flexibility, an oft neglected component of fitness.

 

[Clancy]

Thank you for writing back. You know, every time I kick up the intensity this happens to me, so maybe it is normal.
I was beginning to wonder if I would ever be able to get through it and do these advanced tapes with ease. Well, maybe not ease but at least not be dragging afterwards.
I really appreciate your responses and advice and I just wanted to let you know that. I will try your recommendations.
Clancy