The Training Stress Balance
In endurance sports, the sweet spot of adaptation and super-compensation can be tricky to identify and remain within. Many athletes fall into the trap of training too much or too hard, and the risk of overtraining is much greater than the risk of under-training as you will see when I get into this topic.
I am going to list the common characteristics of training too much, training adequately, and not training enough. I suggest looking over these characteristics and consider if you’ve ever experienced any of them throughout your own training. My end goal is that you can better understand the cause and symptoms of overtraining, and keep your training in the sweet spot where you are training hard, adapting, and getting better as an athlete as the weeks, months, and years go on.
It is important as an athlete to be able to recognize these signs for yourself, as no one know’s your body better than you. Communicate with your coach if you notice you are heading down a wrong road to get back in the sweet spot quickly.
Here is my list of identifiable factors that indicate whether you are training too much, too little, or just right.
Training too much or too hard for what your body can handle right now:
Motivation for your workouts and goals is strongly diminished or nonexistent
Recovery from a single training bout takes more than 7+ days, or in the worst cases, weeks and months
Experiencing excessive muscle soreness to the point where it is uncomfortable walking up a flight of stairs
Your arousal level is very high and your nervous system is stuck in the “on” position (9-10/10). Arousal can also be very low if you are overtrained, in the case that your nervous system has become exhausted
You end most training sessions feeling like you emptied every last resource your body has, ending completely smashed with nothing left in the tank
You are consistently struggling greatly to keep up with the workout pace/power targets (overwhelm)
You have doubts in your head of whether the workout is the right one for the day given how your body is feeling
Your training stress is so great that it is negatively impacting your ability to cope with other life stressors such as work, relationships, or traveling
With consistent training in this zone, you overtrain and continue to get less fit as an athlete as you dig yourself into a hole. You don’t get fitter due to excessive training stress beyond the body’s ability to cope with it
You are constantly getting sick or are experiencing UTRIs (upper respiratory tract infections)
You have very little or no libido
You find yourself to be overly anxious but don’t know why
You have no energy for things outside of training
Yesterday’s training was worse than normal
Your mood is irritable and you are “snappy” towards people
Your sleep is disrupted and you wake up in the night or struggle to get to sleep (insomnia)
You appetite is off (often a sign to fuel more)
Your performance is steadily decreasing because your nervous and endocrine systems are exhausted, and your body is less responsive to catecholamines
Too much volume, intensity, frequency, or monotony
You are dealing with debilitative fatigue
Training adequately for what your body can handle right now:
Adequately motivated for your workouts and goals with normal ebbs and flows
Recovery from a single training bout takes 1-4 days
Some muscle soreness but you can still climb a set of stairs without concern
Your arousal level is manageable and within a 6-8/10 range
You end a training session feeling like you could have done slightly more and you have a little left in the tank to train again tomorrow
You feel challenged but capable of the workouts (flow)
You feel energized about taking on the training for a given day and you feel that your body is ready to take it on
You are able to tolerate life stressors outside of training stress
With consistent training in this zone, you adapt and get stronger as an athlete. You get fitter as the body absorbs the training stimulus you provide it
You are consistently healthy
You have some libido, but it comes and goes
You are confident and present
You have adequate energy for most tasks outside of training
Yesterdays training was normal
Your mood is pleasant and mostly stable
You have a consistent sleep schedule and get/stay asleep relatively easily
Your appetite is stable and the foods you normally enjoy satiate you
Your performance is steadily increasing because you are allowing enough recovery time between hard sessions to adapt
Training at an intensity, volume, frequency, and variety level you can tolerate
You are dealing with facilitative fatigue
Not training enough: (Most athletes need not to worry about this)
Indifferent about your workouts and goals
Recovery from a single training bout takes 24 hours or less because the stimulus is weak
You feel springy and bounding up a flight of stairs with ease (a sign of being recovered with freshness)
Your arousal is lower which may make it more difficult to train
You end a training session feeling like you did not do much and you have a lot left in the tank
You are in complete control of your workouts without feeling like you are ever being challenged (boredom)
You have no doubt in your mind that you can complete the workout and know that you won’t be challenged at all
You are not stressing your body enough, but you can more easily tolerate other life stressors
With consistent training in this zone, you are not providing the body a sufficient training stimulus to respond and adapt stronger to. You don’t get fitter due to inadequate training stress.
You may be consistently healthy but are not adapted to a high level of fitness
You have abundant libidio
You are apathetic about training
You have more than enough energy for things outside of training
Yesterday’s training another day of light training
Your mood is stable
You have a stable sleep schedule that is not disrupted from extreme training stress
Your appetite is stable and you may have a lower appetite due to less training
You are steadily losing fitness because your training stimulus is not enough to elicit a super-compensation response above baseline
Too little volume, intensity, frequency, and variety
You are not feeling any fatigue
Summary:
There is a lot to keep in balance when it comes to optimal training, which is what makes training to optimal performance so difficult. Clearly, the risk of training too much far outweighs the risk of training too little. These are all the markers I have identified that can hint to you whether you are training adequately or too much. You do not need to always check in with every single characteristic, but when obvious signs of overtraining start to rear their ugly head, it is important to take immediate action and lean on the side of caution before you dig the hole too deep. If you do notice many signs of overtraining, the remedy will be adequate rest and recovery until the symptoms go away, and you can resume training again.