It’s about the 5th most common reason that people fail out of a body for life challenge, but none is more devastating to the trainee than suffering from overtraining effect. It can take literally months to recover enough to get competitive again, and in some cases can result in other complications.

WHAT IS IT? Overtraining syndrome is REAL. And it is much more than just getting tired after a workout or a week of hard work. It is the collection of chronic physical problems that comes from a lengthy period during which the trainee exceeds the body’s ability to recover. Without adquate recovery time and nourishment, the body simply deteriorates rather than gets better. 

HOW DOES IT LOOK? The classic symptoms of overtraining include: fatigue ( I call it the “swimming in glue” feeling), non-restorative sleep or inability to sleep, muscle aches and pains that don’t go away, headaches, irritability and depression, loss of desire, depressed immune system causing constant colds and other illnesses, and even increased incidences of injuries. Other common symptoms include increased heart rate at rest, and soft tissue swelling due to water retention. Other diseases, especially auto-immune type things like fibromyalgia, or rheumatoid problems can really get fired up during an episode of overtraining as well.

WHAT CAUSES IT? In BFL trainees, the most common cause of overtraining syndrome is excessive cardio and excessive anerobic activity unrelated to the regular BFL routine. Examples? Doing cardio every day for 30 minutes or more, kick-boxing classes every other night, spinning classes in addition to cardio, PUMP classes every other night. The list of possibles is endless, but essentially the BFL routine by itself will not cause overtraining effect. Another thing that causes overtraining  to happen quicker than it otherwise would is dietary deficiency–starving yourself or eating fewer meals than necessary. In essence, being in too big a hurry to get fit again will result in overtraining syndrome.

HOW LONG DOES IT LAST?  It depends on how far along it has gotten before action is taken. It may be as simple as just taking a few extra days off, drinking plenty of water, and sleeping in for a few days. It may and often does require several weeks of rest from regular physical activity and increasing the diet needs, especially low glycemic carbohdydrates to help the body heal.

HOW TO AVOID IT? Do your challenge by the book. Resist the temptation to take the quick fix, or to invent your own version of Body for Life. Above all, be reasonable in the amounts and types of activity you engage in during your training times. I’m not saying you can’t go for walks or play an occasional soccer or golf game–I’m talking about other strenuous activities.

Above all, remember that the other exercises you really want to do–they’ll still be there when you finish your challenge. AND, you’ll be in shape to do them as well!
 

New Body For Life Trainees ask lots of questions. And they should. This is a “strange” program for most of us. It’s unique and different to eat 6 small meals a day, and to exercise for only about 4 hours a week or less and to still see terrific changes.

Most of the questions are in the nature of “How” and “What.” Questions such as, “how do I know if I’m eating the right amount of food?” Or, “How long before I see results?”  The “what” questions are along the lines of “What is the right way to do this exercise?” Or, “What if I want to move free day?”

Where it gets sticky is when the questions start with “why.” Things like, “Why do we only have 20 minute cardio sessions–I’m used to a lot more?”  Or, “Why should I do this just by the book since I read somewhere that all the champions did lots more and different kinds of workouts than in the book?”

The reason these questions pose a real problem is that they show a lack of trust on the part of the newbie. They show an actual suspicion that the person thinks they are being given less than the best way to do this plan, and that someone is holding out on them. Or, even worse, the questions tend to indicate that the trainee thinks that he or she knows better how to do a transformation than Bill Phillips, who spent ten years actually developing this plan for public presentation!

I can’t blame anyone for wanting to ultimately customize their fitness program. I have done it myself,in order to accomodate several physical problems from injuries. But, I STRONGLY SUGGEST that doing that first twelve weeks BY THE BOOK is the best way to ensure that your challenge is the best it can be.  To be sure, some champions used techniques different than the book. However, for many of them the book had not even been written. As for the rest–those who did things differently–there is really no good way of knowing whether they would have actually done better had they followed the book. And for most of us, doing the challenges by the book was the right way to do it. We found the 60 minutes of cardio to be plenty, provided it was done with the intensity that it deserved. And we found the exercise worked spectacularly if it was done with intensity, with regularity, and combined with the strictness of the diet.

I have made a lot of mistakes while doing body for life. My first mistake was doing the challenge for the shallowest of reasons. The one that I repeated often was tinkering with the diet, trying to get along with different types of foods and supplements, and trying to get by with fewer than six meals. But always, I came back to the basics, because they worked the best. 

It really all comes down to trust. Either you trust that this plan works, or you don’t. And if you don’t have that level of trust and confidence, chances are excellent that you won’t have the strength of will to stick with the challenge long enough to see if it really works, and you won’t really have disciplined and systematic approach, the wholehearted commitment, that it takes to make it really work.

Ask all the whats and hows you want. But, go light on the whys until you’ve really done that twelve weeks the way it should be done. After all, if the other things you thinking about substituting worked well, you’d already be fit, wouldn’t you?