Paleo Magazine Express May 2014 | Page 8

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TOO MUCH E X E R C I S E

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[THE SCIENCE BEHIND
OVERTRAINING ]

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IN SIMPLE TERMS

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urely you know the symptoms:
fatigue, bad mood, weight gain,
anxiety, loss of sleep, low body
temperature, chronic muscle
soreness, and an inability to complete
your workout. Any athlete, or person
determined to alter their body composition,
has likely experienced the effects of
overtraining. Since expecting your body
to make physical changes as a result of
stress-inducing activity (such as exercise)
takes time, overtraining is simply not
allowing your body the proper rest
duration. That is in the simplest terms.
The truth is, there is a laundry list of
other potential causes and processes
that eventually cause overtraining.

After hard training, given proper rest and nutrition,
your body will adapt, through a process called super
compensation. Depleted glycogen stores and damage
to mitochondria are only two variables one must
consider when determining a proper rest and recovery
period. The complex part is that there is not a single
set time that will allow maximum recovery for athletes.
It could be 24 hours, 48 hours, or longer. There are
many factors at play here, such as the condition of the
athlete, the cellular damage done, sleep, adequate or
inadequate nutrition, stress, stimulant intake, etc.
One of the best approaches to losing weight,
and more importantly, “leaning out” (a colloquialism
commonly used for the loss of body fat), is to lift heavy
weights, walk, and rest. Obviously a proper diet is
needed here as well. But the key factor in this method
is keeping cortisol low. Cortisol is commonly referred
to as the “stress” hormone, and any rise in cortisol
will potentially lead to weight gain. An interesting fact
to consider is that limiting calories increases chronic
psychological stress and cortisol production , which has
been shown to lead to weight gain .

TOO MUCH METCON
A common problem seen in the CrossFit community
is too much exercise. Quite frankly, the “3 days on,
1 day off” model is too much, especially in cases of
poor programming. If you are training for the CrossFit
games, then by all means follow this model. With
proper sleep (8-9 hours per night) and great nutrition,
you will likely see stellar results. But for the vast
majority of us, this is not what we are training for.
Jobs that are stressful, children, lack of sleep (very
few people actually get 8-9 hours per night) and
de-conditioning or injuries prevent most people from
seeing stellar results on a “3 on, 1 off” model. And
why is this? Because it is simply too much. Because
8 May 2014 eNewsletter

CORTISOL (HYDROCORTISONE) STRESS
HORMONE, MOLECULAR MODEL
© CAN STOCK PHOTO INC. / MOLEKUUL

cortisol levels are sky high, which leads to poor
adaptations in physiological responses, neuronal
responses, etc.
So how much is too much? It has been shown that
exercising 4 times per week, for 30 minutes per day,
leads to optimal weight loss . Now, it is important to
remember that there is never a SINGLE prescribed
amount that will provide optimal results for you. That
amount is simply a guideline. What is telling, is that
this amount of “prescribed” exercise is LESS than the
typical “3 on, 1 off” model of CrossFit.
In a 2012 study of rats , 3 weeks of overtraining
caused a 38% reduction in performance. However,
some of the rats actually exhibited an INCREASE
of 18% in performance. This serves to show that
the level of training that becomes counterproductive
is highly individualistic. Keep in mind that these
rats were also not exposed to ANY environmental
stressors, nor were they sleep deprived. What is
also very interesting to note, is that the rats who saw
an increase in performance from the overtraining,
actually saw lower levels of mitochondrial activity,
even when compared to the control group, who
were not exercising at all. This shows the harm of
overtraining at a cellular level, even in the presence of
perceived benefits.

IN MORE COMPLEX TERMS
Since overtraining is classified as a neuro-endocrine
disorder , this means that your body cannot repair
itself properly after exercise, due to disruptions in your
hormones. Your hormonal system and autonomic
nervous system must co-exist and operate with fine
accuracy. Otherwise, you run into problems. Decreases
in testosterone, and increases in waste products, such
as lactic acid, are all common when over trained.
Your hormones run your life, for better or worse.