Ask yourself: Are you training or competing everyday?
This is a very important distinction to make in your own programming. Too often I see individuals thinking they are training when in fact they are actually falling into a competition mentality, and quite often without even knowing it. They just think they are training hard and if you’re training hard, more progress will be made. Not necessarily wrong but you need to take the right approach.
Generally speaking the less experienced you are in the sport of fitness, the more time you need to spend in a training plan, and the more experienced you are the more time can be spent in a competition plan without incurring negative consequences.
Don’t get me wrong, experienced athletes are still at risk but if properly trained and progressed to that level you can mitigate a lot of the risk factors and are less likely to experience burnout and overtraining.
Competing too much and too often can open the flood gates to a number of problems, most notably — overtraining.
Overtraining (def): occurs when an athlete ignores the signs of overreaching and continues to train. Many athletes believe that weakness or poor performance signals the need for even harder training, so they continue to push themselves. This only breaks the body down further.
What are the signs of overtraining?
⁃ Decreased Performance
⁃ Elevated resting heart rate
⁃ Extended/prolonged muscle soreness
⁃ Extended/prolonged fatigue
⁃ Persistent or reoccurring injury
⁃ Loss of appetite
⁃ Lack of motivation/dreading training
⁃ And more…
More severe signs/symptoms:
⁃ Persistent or reoccurring illness
⁃ Overuse injuries
⁃ Joint pain
⁃ Weight loss
⁃ Excessive muscle soreness
⁃ And more…
Goolsby, Dr. M. A. (2021, August 16). Overtraining: What it is, symptoms, and recovery. Hospital for Special Surgery.
https://www.hss.edu/article_overtraining.asp
How to avoid overtraining and maximize your training:
With some attention to detail in your training plan, like reading and understanding the intended stimulus and have the wherewithal to regulate/scale one’s own training based on how you feel that day, you can avoid a lot of the negative consequences listed above.
So what’s the difference between a Competition and Training Mentality?
Competition Mentality (def): performing workouts with the sole purpose of obtaining the best score possible while sometimes disregarding the appropriateness of the workout based on your individual fitness level, capacity, and/or .
Examples include: repeatedly completing online qualifier workouts or competing often at in-person competitions, or opting to do the RX version of a workout when the Scaled version would be more appropriate to elicit the intended workout stimulus.
Far too often, I see athletes spend their time in a competition mindset and bounce from one injury, ache, pain, etc. to the next. They shift their programming to allow that injured area to recover and then a new area sprouts up because they don’t adjust their volume or intensity and a new area gets overloaded.
This doesn’t happen to everyone, or come about as quickly as it may seem, but I’ve seen it enough times in my 15+ years coaching CrossFit, College Sports, and the everyday fitness go-er, that it happens more often than you think.
Most, if not all, of these athletes would benefit more from a training mentality approach with appropriate stimulus prescriptions and load/intensity considerations to their programming.
Training Mentality (def): performing workouts with the goal of achieving the desired stimulus and improving a single or few individual weaknesses.
Examples include: Athletes taking the time to read and pacing instructions, intended stimulus, and proactively modify the workout to ensure the stimulus is to be met. Your place on the leaderboard doesn’t necessarily matter.
If you want to continue to see progress and get better in all aspects of fitness (and health), you have to learn how to run your own race and execute your training plan as intended, keeping your fitness level and goals in mind.
Slow progress is good progress. You’ll be able to perform when you want to and spend less time beat up, injured, and/or avoiding training because it’s become too much on the body and the mind.
If you don’t know how or where to start — that’s where TWP can help!
Hiring a qualified coach will help you reach your goals faster. You’ll benefit from individualized programming, detailed information regarding workout intent and desired stimulus, and access to a dedicated coach who can answer any questions you have along the way.
If you’re ready to take that next step and better your training — email me today: patrickfrank.coach@gmail.com and let’s get started!
#letsgetafterit #trainwithpatrick