I am getting ready to star the new rules of lifting for women training program. I am worried about what I read in the book about overtraining. I take a boot camp class at my gym on tues. and thurs., and I really love it an don't want to quit. Before I have been doing weights mon/wed/fri and the class tues/thurs. Alwyn suggests skipping the intervals in his workout and doing the interval class the next day and then taking a day off. So the schedule would be mon. weights, tues. class, wed. off, thurs. weights, fri. class. I can't do this since the class isn't offered fridays.
What about mon. weights, tues. class, wed. off, thurs. class, fri. weights? does it make a difference if the weight days are too far apart like that? I want to get the most out of this program, but I hate to give up this class that really challenges me and makes me feel good. But it seems crazy to work so hard only to hinder my results by doing it too much.
Any suggestions on what my plan of action should be? So far I haven't had any bad results working out every day. I haven't made enormous progress, but I have definitely made some and don't feel like I have any overtraining symptoms.
There's more to overtraining than simply how much you're working. There's how much rest you get, how much you eat to support your work, how much stress is in the rest of your life... etc.
Do what works for you, evaluate how you feel, and if you start to feel like crap change it.
You're looking at three rest days a week. If you lift 2 days, mon and friday, you have three days between mon and fri and two days between fri and mon.
How is that different from two days between mon and thurs and three days between thurs and mon?
Is not. So you're good however you want to do it, aren't you?
Are you doing anything on weekends? If not, then why not lift M/W/F and do your class T/Th and take S/Su off? If you're too tired or feeling badly, you can drop the Weds lift out, but... as long as you get at least one good solid rest day each week, you should be ok. How intense is your boot camp class?
Taking off weekends is what I was doing before, and I'd like to continue with that, but the book seemed to act like 5 consecutive days was too much, so I didn't know if I need to have a day off in the middle of the week. The boot camp class is very intense with lots of sprinting, pushups, and other body weight exercises for 45 minutes. I guess if I feel ok doing 3 days of weights and 2 days of class, then I should just stick with it. Some of the wording was just making me think even if I didn't feel that awful from it, it would mean making less progress as far as muscle development.
I feel like I was in the same position a few months ago when it hadn't occurred to me to ask myself what my goal was. I was pushing myself in a lot of different ways, and feeling like I wanted to keep doing all those things AND start some heavy lifting. But really just go with what makes you happy. Are you training for some specific event or goal? Otherwise, what does it matter if you aren't optimizing your results--just so long as you are maintaining the integrity of your health and not compromising your ability to have fun both in and out of the gym.
Now that I have switched to primarily weight training (and some yoga on days off if I'm feeling antsy), the classes that I used to take are now sort of like special treats. If I feel like I need a little vacation from my routine, I get to take a class--yippee!
I'm saving the classes at this gym for a very special occasion:
I'm not training for anything specific. I just used to play a lot of sports and now with a desk job I'm wanting to get back into being more active. It does make sense to just keep doing it until it's not fun anymore.
I guess the only reason I hesitated at all was that I go at 5am so I can get my workout done before work. No matter how much I enjoy the class, if I could sleep in two days a week and have the same results, I'd be crazy not to!
From some quick online searching, it looks like overtraining has some serious symptoms, none of which I am even close to having, so I think doing 5 days a week is fine. Thanks for all of your advice, and if anyone disagrees let me know.
If you're only working out 4 days a week and are otherwise sedentary, you're gonna be fine. Unless you're starving yourself or are severely stressed, there's just not enough work there to worry about.
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