Overtraining - Truth or Myth?

We’ve all seen that guy at the gym training for hours, sometimes twice a day, and you can’t help but wonder … does he live there?

In this example, I will use a dear friend of mine that has always trained the way he did, “Redggy Jupiter”. So Redggy wakes up in the morning every day at 7:00 am sharp, gets to his office, finishes his day at 1:00 pm, and starts his first session of Crossfit, followed by hot yoga, followed by another hour or two of isolation training. This is equivalent to about 5-6 hours of training, 7 days a week! That is the definition of overtraining; killing yourself day in, day out, at the gym for months.

Obviously, the question is: Am I overtraining?

I believe that 98% of the people that think they’re overtraining their muscles have an illusion of overtraining. I don’t believe in training a muscle group once a week, or in the 3-4 exercises per muscle. Most of my training consists of 5-6 sets for the same muscle group. But you have to watch what you eat as well! Your nutrition plays a big role in how the training reflects on your body. Nutrition is actually 80% of the hard work. Now let’s answer your question by some points you can ask yourself to know if you’re overtraining…

Do you wake up sluggish in the morning and you have to drag yourself out of bed to eat your breakfast?
You barely start training at the gym and you’re so tired that you can’t continue?
Are you weaker than usual?
You’re suddenly losing weight fast?
You’re getting sick and injured more often?

These are the red flags of overtraining. If you don’t have any of these symptoms, I say man-up and get your ass back to the gym!