Do I have the lowest work capacity ever?

It seems like the story of my life is whenever I consistently train I get sick. I feel like this is case 75% of the time.

Well, I'm sick again and I just was a couple months ago.

Last week I started to have trouble sleeping on nights that I had trained. Then yesterday was the first day of my highest volume week of the month. I could barely sleep all night and now I wake up sick.

Now, I want you to tell me if I train too much.

Here's the program I have been following for the last two months:

Exercise selection = One leg, push, pull, core, integrated with the appropriate FSP's that I have been able do to given my elbow limitations (for a while this was none then only front lever for while so I actually havn't been doing that much training on FSP's)

Frequency = Monday, Wednesday, Friday

Volume for each exercise. Monthly cycle =

Week 1: 3 sets on mon, 2 sets on wed, 3 sets on fri

Week 2: 2 sets on mon, 2 sets on wed, 2 sets on fri

Week 3: 4 sets on mon, 2 sets on wed, 4 sets on fri

Week 4: 1 set on mon 1 set of wed, 1 set on fri

Intensity = 3-5 reps with one in tank on FBE's, and half max hold on FSP.

In addition to this, I have probably only done 1 day per week of BJJ.

I think I am going to switch to fluctuating intensity instead of volume to see if that helps, but I'm almost certain that I have overreached even on this sparse program which I specifically did just so I wouldn't overreach.

Two questions here.

1) How difficult are your work sets. If you're overreaching in those movements and pushing to close to your limit that could be a problem. We did a research project where we put various trained D1 athletes through a session of only 10 singles and this was enough if over 90% of their 1RM to put them into overreaching. There are very very few exceptions we saw. Those were elite pro athletes aswell.

2) This is even more important how is your diet, sleep etc. Recovery is king.

Every athlete has their own work capacity.

(1) The vast majority of my work sets are 5 reps @ approximately 80-83% 1RM. Some core work I do higher reps (10 or so)

(2) I get 8 hours of sleep per night but for the exceptions I noted above. Diet has not been optimal, but still pretty good.

Canthar,

Since it sounds like you have some formal training/education, can you recommend any lay person reading on the mechanics of recovery and work intensity/volume?

Thanks,

Zach

canthar said:

Two questions here.

1) How difficult are your work sets. If you're overreaching in those movements and pushing to close to your limit that could be a problem. We did a research project where we put various trained D1 athletes through a session of only 10 singles and this was enough if over 90% of their 1RM to put them into overreaching. There are very very few exceptions we saw. Those were elite pro athletes aswell.

2) This is even more important how is your diet, sleep etc. Recovery is king.

Every athlete has their own work capacity.

What was the weekly volume for the group you researched?

My initial impression here is that your body is just not coping well with the current volume at that intensity. Work capacity is something that does improve over time, but it takes time. You really need to be patient. I would cut back on your work over 80% and see how you feel. You could do this in a couple ways. One is to limit the work at that end to only one set for each movement and do the remaining closer to 72%. The other way would be to limit it to one day during weekly cycle. I prefer the first method as it helps your body learn the movement better

zachc said:

Canthar,

Since it sounds like you have some formal training/education, can you recommend any lay person reading on the mechanics of recovery and work intensity/volume?

Thanks,

Zach

Zach,

If you're mainly training with BtGB I would stick with it. Coach's text is very well written and the programming in it is excellent. In regards to being more specific with recovery and intensity, the texts can be fairly complex. There are so many factors that are involved. Researching periodization would be a good start. Some of the books I like are Science and Practice of Strength Training by Zatsiorsky, Science of Sport Training by Kurz and Pavel has both Power to the People and Beyond Bodybuilding which are much easier to read if you're just getting into it.

I have to say, Canthar's pretty much put it all out there. One thing to keep in mind is that if your intensity and volume doesn't seem to be greater than other people of your level, but you seem to be getting wrecked whereas others seem to be fine, while you do need to back off and perhaps do more of a GTG type workout, where work is split pretty evenly throughout the day, you should entertain the possibility that your body is preoccupied with something else. If it's not stress, there is probably some sort of issue that you are simply not aware of, and it is consuming bodily resources.

If you haven't had a full work up, it might not be a bad idea. If you have, and western medicine can't help you, I'd absolutely find the best eastern practitioner you can and see them. It is an entirely different perspective that has equal success rates to western medicine. This is not well publicized here, but it is documented and you can find the overall results for yourself. What this means is that there are other ways to handle things, just as there is in physical training, and that when one doesn't work for you it's time to investigate other possibilities. I have seen the results first hand, though I have not been personally exposed. It's pretty surprising, honestly.

Just food for thought.

Thanks a lot Canthar. I'm not just doing BtGB though, it's part of a larger program. I posted about it in new thread so as not to hijack this one.

thanks,

Zach

Do you have problems sleeping all the time or was it just recently? Because I'm sure you'll know all your recovery occurs in your sleep and if it's low quality sleep them your body simply wont cope. I have to switch between nights and days once a month and if I ever fall sick it's then because I don't always sleep as well during the day. If that's the case, I know it sounds like an old wives tale but milk really is brilliant before bed. I used to have a lot of problems sleeping and swear by milk before bed now.

Do you notice any change with the seasons?

It may be you need have a very light week every 4-6 weeks or so for recovery perhaps peaking your cycle a little sooner and then lay back for a week.

If practice is cutting into your sleep, do you practice at night? It could be that a more space between bedtime and practice time will help that, although with real life that can be tough.