I truly believe that many athletes at all levels are functioning day-to-day in an over-trained state.  But it may not be that detectible because everything is relative.  Place a group of idiots in a room, administer an I.Q. test, and one of them will out-score the others and look impressive even though still an idiot.  Over-trained athletes competing against each other is the same: one will defeat another regardless of margin of victory yet the over-trained state will go unnoticed due to fact the ultimate goal of victory was accomplished.

The main culprits of this affliction are 1) the limited 5-day work week traditionally used to plan training, 2) the training components of strength training, sprinting, agilities, interval running, and/or sport practice sessions that need to be scheduled and 3) the pressure to win.  All the lifting, running and practicing are crammed into the traditional 5-day workweek with the goal of out-preparing the next opponent.  How is the body expected to recover from all of these stressors with the inadequate recovery time available in this period?  The human body has both limited energy and recovery ability and must recuperate from not only one demanding training component but from multiple stressors, possibly on the same day or on adjacent training days (i.e., strength training and conditioning work).  To really compound the issue, proper dietary intake and sleep are essential in the recovery process.  But, unless you live on another planet other than I do, you know that athletes can fail miserably here.  Many skip breakfast, have poor food selection when they do eat, and some frequently sleep only 6 to 7 hours each night.  Add poor nutritional intake and inadequate sleep to a training week crammed with all forms of physically demanding/energy depleting activities and you have a real problem.

Let me offer a very interesting quote by Michael E. Houston in an article entitled, “Gaining Weight: The Scientific Basis of Increasing Skeletal Muscle Mass” from the Canadian Journal of Applied Physiology, 24(4):305-316:

“Adequate recovery between training sessions is extremely important since the effects of resistance training, especially with significant emphasis on eccentric muscle action, may persist for 5 days or more.”

Now, think about that.  If it may take up to 5 days to recover from the stresses of a single strength training session (eccentric emphasis or not), what are we doing going back for more two or three days later if total recovery and consequent adaptation to previous demands has not yet occurred?  To compound the issue, add energy-depleting conditioning work on non-lifting days and it can really lead to over training.

There is a biological time-line that must be followed for full recovery to occur.  Take the example of receiving an incision on a finger from a sharp knife.  The wound must be given time to fully heal.  Do you think within 24 hours it will be fully healed?  Absolutely not.  Maybe at the 48-hour mark it will be starting to make good progress, but most likely not fully healed.  It may take at least 72 to 96 hours to fully heal even with proper care and attention.  Similarly, if physical training is resumed before the body is fully recovered, the potential adaptation to the previous workout may be cut short, yielding less-than-maximum results.  The time-line for recovery can be facilitated somewhat by proper nutrition and good sleep habits, but even a minimum amount of time (multiple days) is mandated to even approach full recovery.

The point to stress here is if optimal adaptation and gains are desired, a specific biological time-line must be followed after completing any stressful training session.  Interfering with this time-line with additional stresses and/or not allowing enough time for the healing process will limit desired results.  Therefore, sport coaches and strength and conditioning coaches both need to understand the following when designing training programs or practice plans:

1. A properly performed strength-training workout should leave an athlete depleted and unable to maximally perform other activities, especially after a hard leg-strengthening session.  In fact, the chances of becoming injured may increase when running-type activities are performed immediately following a demanding leg-strengthening workout.  Depleted leg muscles from strength training are not capable of maximal contractions and may not withstand the extreme forces incurred when planting, turning, cutting, jumping and sprinting in practices or in conditioning sessions.

2. Similar to #1, any conditioning-type workout will leave the athlete fatigued and depleted, making the performance of subsequent work less than maximum.  If one had to strength train the legs and condition on the same day, it would be better to run first then lift.  However, the energy needed for the leg workout would naturally be less-than-maximum.  I recommend avoiding any leg strength-training and running on the same day.   If one had to, though, a better run/lift combination would be upper body strength training (no legs) and then conditioning.  Lifting upper body prior to running would be less taxing and allow for a better quality conditioning session.

3. Energy is required to not only perform any workout or practice session, but also to
recover from and adapt to it.  If you perform one demanding workout and then engage in a second demanding activity before full recovery has occurred, the energy required to complete the recovery process for the first workout will be used to fuel the second session.  This can very easily delay overall recovery and adaptation, thus leading to an over trained state.

4. As stated previously it may take a number of days to fully recover from a stressful training session.  When developing training programs it is important then to balance the stresses of both strength training and conditioning with designated complete rest days.

What is the ultimate solution to the over training and recovery problem?  First, scrap the traditional 5-day plan that does not account for recovery.  If using a 5-day plan, be sure to schedule a complete day of rest, preferably mid-week (Wednesday).  Secondly, implement a system that varies at least every two weeks using a different training format for each week.  Finally, spread the training stresses over the established training period.  Assure that adequate recovery occurs between each training session regardless of the particular day of the week.  This may present realistic scheduling concerns, but with proper planning and scheduling it can be done.  The key is to schedule exposures logically over a given period of time that allows enough recovery from one stress to the other.  This will require a reduction of training sessions, but over an entire training period (i.e., 10 week out-of-season program) there will be enough exposures to produce measurable gains.

To provide actual examples of the aforementioned suggestions, let’s compare traditional and non-traditional out-of-season training formats to show how reduced volume and built-in recovery days need not create panic amongst the more is better crowd.  Examples 1 and 2 are traditional formats that include a high number of exercise exposures, fewer recovery days and the potential to over train.  Examples 3 through 6 are typified by fewer exposures, more recovery days and a lesser potential to over train. All of the following examples cover 10 weeks, or 70 days.
 

WEEKS    SUN       MON          TUES            WED          THURS          FRI             SAT
1 to 5         OFF      Lift Upper        Lift                OFF            Lift Upper       Lift              OFF
                                Body &          Lower                                 Body &        Lower
                                   Run              Body                                     Run            Body

6 to 10       OFF      Lift Upper         Lift               OFF            Lift Upper        Lift             OFF
                                 Body &         Lower                                 Body &         Lower
                                   Run              Body                                     Run             Body

NUMBER OF STRENGTH TRAINING SESSIONS: 40
   (upper body @ 20 and lower body @ 20)
NUMBER OF RUNNING SESSIONS: 25
TOTAL NUMBER OF EXERCISE SESSIONS (run and lift): 65
NUMBER OF FULL RECOVERY DAYS (including weekends): 25
RATIO OF ACTUAL WORK DAYS TO FULL RECOVERY DAYS: 45:25
 

WEEKS         SUN        MON         TUES          WED       THURS           FRI             SAT
1 to 5              OFF            Lift             Run             Lift              Run               Lift              OFF
                                      Full Body                       Full Body                         Full Body

6 to 10             OFF            Lift             Run             Lift              Run               Lift              OFF
                                      Full Body                       Full Body                         Full Body
                                        & Run

NUMBER OF STRENGTH TRAINING SESSIONS: 30
   (both upper body and lower body together @ 30)
NUMBER OF RUNNING SESSIONS: 25
TOTAL NUMBER OF EXERCISE SESSIONS (run and lift): 55
NUMBER OF FULL RECOVERY DAYS (including weekends): 20
RATIO OF ACTUAL WORK DAYS TO FULL RECOVERY DAYS: 50:20
 

WEEKS         SUN        MON         TUES          WED         THURS         FRI            SAT
1 to 10            OFF          Run              Lift             OFF              Run             Lift             OFF
                                                         Full Body                                           Full Body

NUMBER OF STRENGTH TRAINING SESSIONS: 20
   (both upper body and lower body together @ 20)
NUMBER OF RUNNING SESSIONS: 20
TOTAL NUMBER OF EXERCISE SESSIONS (run and lift): 40
NUMBER OF FULL RECOVERY DAYS (including weekends): 30
RATIO OF ACTUAL WORK DAYS TO FULL RECOVERY DAYS: 40:30
 

WEEKS         SUN        MON         TUES        WED         THURS        FRI            SAT
1,3,5,7,9         OFF       Lift Upper       OFF          Lift              OFF        Lift Upper       OFF
                                    Body & Run                 Lower Body                   Body & Run

2,4,6,8,10       OFF       Lift Lower       OFF          Lift             OFF         Lift Lower       OFF
                                        Body                        Upper Body                         Body
                                                                            & Run

NUMBER OF STRENGTH TRAINING SESSIONS: 30
   (upper body @ 15 and lower body @ 15)
NUMBER OF RUNNING SESSIONS: 15
TOTAL NUMBER OF EXERCISE SESSIONS (run and lift): 45
NUMBER OF FULL RECOVERY DAYS (including weekends): 40
RATIO OF ACTUAL WORK DAYS TO FULL RECOVERY DAYS: 30:40
 

WEEKS         SUN          MON           TUES          WED           THURS           FRI           SAT
1,3,5,7,9         OFF         Lift Full            OFF             Run               OFF            Lift Full         OFF
                                         Body                                                                            Body

2,4,6,8,10       OFF            Run               OFF          Lift Full            OFF               Run            OFF
                                                                                   Body

NUMBER OF STRENGTH TRAINING SESSIONS: 15
   (both upper body and lower body together @ 15)
NUMBER OF RUNNING SESSIONS: 15
TOTAL NUMBER OF EXERCISE SESSIONS (run and lift): 30
NUMBER OF FULL RECOVERY DAYS (including weekends): 40
RATIO OF ACTUAL WORK DAYS TO FULL RECOVERY DAYS: 30:40
 

WEEKS            SUN            MON           TUES           WED          THURS           FRI            SAT
1,5 & 9        Lift Full Body      OFF               Run              OFF      Lift Full Body        OFF            Run

2,6 & 10            OFF       Lift Full Body        OFF             Run              OFF       Lift Full Body      OFF

3 & 7                  Run              OFF         Lift Full Body     OFF              Run              OFF       Lift Full Body

4 & 8                 OFF              Run               OFF       Lift Full Body       OFF             Run             OFF

NUMBER OF STRENGTH TRAINING SESSIONS: 18
   (both upper body and lower body together @ 18)
NUMBER OF RUNNING SESSIONS: 17
TOTAL NUMBER OF EXERCISE SESSIONS (run and lift): 35
NUMBER OF FULL RECOVERY DAYS (including weekends): 35
RATIO OF ACTUAL WORK DAYS TO FULL RECOVERY DAYS: 35:35
 

PERSPECTIVE
We know that to make muscles stronger or enhance cardio-respiratory fitness, an overload to the system must be created.  Overload simply means it must be forced beyond its current capacity.  Also keep in mind that progression is vital, meaning that each succeeding workout in sequence needs to be systematically more demanding.  Finally, giving the body time to fully recover and heal from these demanding overloads is critical.  With this in mind, examine the previous out-of-season examples in terms of the amount of work and amount of recovery relative to the total number of exercise sessions within the 70-day period (both energy-depleting strength training and conditioning).  It should be quite evident that the fewer number of exercise exposures performed, coupled with a similar number of recovery days, would be the optimal choice.

To put this into perspective, imagine you were required to strength train HARD and condition HARD ten times each (20 energy-depleting sessions total) over a reasonable period of time.  Undoubtedly, you could enhance your genetic potential if you trained progressively each of the ten sessions as long as you fully-recovered after each.  Now, look at the number of strength training and conditioning exposures in the previous examples, the number of full recovery days, and the ratio of actual workdays to full recovery days as noted below:

FORMAT                      ACTUAL           FULL                   STRENGTH                CONDITIONING
                                        WORK       RECOVERY              TRAINING                    EXPOSURES
                                         DAYS            DAYS                   EXPOSURES
#1 – Traditional                  45                   25                        20 x upper                              25
                                                                                               20 x lower

#2 – Traditional                  50                   20                        30 x full-body                         25

#3 - Non-traditional            40                   30                         20 x full-body                         20

#4 - Non-traditional            30                   40                         15 x upper                             15
                                                                                                15 x lower

#5 - Non-traditional            30                   40                         15 x full-body                         15

#6 - Non-traditional            35                   35                         18 x full-body                         17

If ten sessions of quality strength training and ten sessions of quality conditioning will result in good progress, imagine then the results possible with the number of exposures offered above the non-traditional training formats (3, 4, 5 and 6), especially coupled with a greater number of recovery days.

For example, in #4, 15 upper body and 15 lower body strength sessions are plenty of opportunity to induce strength gains in a single out-of-season period.  Also, 15 conditioning sessions are more than adequate to increase cardio-respiratory fitness.  Note that 40 complete rest days are scheduled here to facilitate recovery from the 30 actual training days making this a sound training plan.

Example #6 uses 18 full-body strength-training sessions and 17 conditioning sessions coupled with 35 complete rest days.  Again, a more-than-adequate number of exercise exposures with plenty of built-in recovery time to allow for optimal adaptation.

Compare these to the traditional examples # 1 and #2.  In #1 there are 20 upper body and 20 lower body strength sessions, 25 conditioning exposures, but only 25 complete rest days in the 70 day plan.  Over training may be more likely here.  Similarly – and possibly quite worse than #1 – example #2 is characterized by 30 full-body strength sessions, 25 conditioning workouts but only 20 complete rest days.

As you can see, more is not always better when it comes to physical training.  Properly planned overloads in the weight room and at the running venue must be logically placed over a training period along with all-important built-in recovery days.  Train your athletes hard, but also train them intelligently.