Over Training? not enough calories? help please

[donovantrial]

Hey Guys
I’m new here and looking for some tips to aid my training as I keep hitting a wall, let me explain.
I have been cutting/losing weight since October/November 08 until now, through lots of exercise and what I think is a well controlled diet. However lately every 2 weeks or so I have got serious cravings for fatty foods and eating to the point where my stomach hurts so much I cannot move. I have no idea why I get these feelings. Between October and January/February I managed to lose 10kg dropping from 90.3 Kg down to 79.6Kg I weigh myself every morning before breakfast. Since then I have been getting these cravings and feeling tiered and my weight has slowly started to increase again. This last 8 days I have also suffered from a chest infection so have been taking antibiotics, yet I have no energy to achieve anything and have spent most of the days sleeping on the sofa. When should I start training again?
I’m 23 and a Great Britain trials rider, my site patrickdonovan.co.uk shows more what I do, unfortunately my sport isn’t big enough to get dieticians, coaches etc so it’s all done on my own back. I have a pretty good knowledge of diet, physiology etc I am studying it at Loughborough Uni.

As for training at the peak I was doing 3 sessions a day, Cardio before breakfast, training on the
bike in the day and weights in the evening. I have tried to cut this back a little recently. As for rest days I really struggle to find anything to do to take my mind off training. The goal of the training is to cut fat while building lean muscle, I know this is not an ideal combination but lets see.

A typical training week would be,

Monday: 7am, 40minute run, 8.30 pm weights (arms, 1 hour 30)
Tuesday: 7am 40 minutes swim, 1pm bike training (4-5 hours), 8.30pm weights (legs, 1 hour 30)
Wednesday: 1pm Bike training 6-7 hours, then gym staright after for core/ab work, 1 hour 30
Thursday: 7am 40 minute run, 8.30pm weights (arms, 1 hour 30)
Friday: 7am 40 minute run, 1pm bike session (4-5 hours), 8.30 pm weights (legs, 1 hour 30)
Saturday: 7am 40 minute swim, 6pm weights (abs/core, 1 hour 30)
Sunday: 9am bike session 6-7 hours, 6pm weights (arms, 1 hour 30)
Saturday is my attempted rest day but if I try and do nothing I just eat.

As for diet I like to think I’ve got it pretty sorted but maybe it is lacking calories or supplements the main thing I have been reading up on is Iron deficiency and have been toying with the idea of getting some.
Typical Diet:

6.30 am: <competitor product>, Protein Shake with skimmed milk. An orange, vitamin c tablet, HMB tablet.
7.40 am: 60g oats with raisins, 1 whole egg and 3 egg whites scrambled, apple.
10.40am: 170g fat free yogurt with 200g tinned fruit, peaches or pineapple.
1 pm: 130g of fish or chicken breast or steak(rarely), 50g wholegrain rice, 200g chopped frozen vegetables. <competitor product>. Piece of fruit.
5.30/6pm: Salad, lettuce, red peppers, red onion, spring onion, half a small avocado, 1 tomato, 1 tin of tuna, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Piece of fruit after.
8pm: pre training, <competitor product> made with skimmed milk. <competitor product>, HMB
10pm: post training shake <competitor product>, HMB.
10.30pm: 125g Quark.
11pm: ZMA capsules
It changes ever so slightly day to day depending on times of training sessions etc. I’m wondering if there is enough calories and also whether there is too much salt. There’s also a lack of red meat I can only have steak maybe once a week so maybe the iron supplement would be good?
Any help would be great, what to do on days off to rest, how to stay focused, how to cut my number of training sessions down? My Goal is to win a competition in Spain on the 2-4th May I have 2 competitions in this country the 2 weekends before that to prepare, so maybe some kind of program for the next 5 weeks?

[dope540]

welcome to the forum.

please read the forum rules. as you are new, i have removed the competitor products you mentioned. other mods may not be so lenient.

just had a skim over and it does look like over training.


have you tried doing full body sessions 3-4 times a week instead. the body works as a whole unit.

you do more sessions for arms than legs, and thers no work for chest and back. a good strong chest and back will help protect you if any accident occurs.

get some fats and meat in you.

[donovantrial]

sorry I should have read the rules more closely.

I do train back and chest, these would be arm my arms days, I split into, upper,lower and core body workouts. A few years back I used to do all round body workouts, do you think returning to this would enable me a few more rest days? maybe split my current upper and lower body workouts in half and mix them? Is training one muscle group just once per week enough? I have read conflicting reports on this.

[dope540]

upper and lower or full body splits would free up a few more days for rest.

the routine and diet in the first post could be one of the reasons you were getting ill. you were simply not giving your body enough time to recover.

as long as you keep the intensity high, hitting a body part once a week will work- google up HIT, Mentzer, Dorian Yates.

i'd go for full body. we were designed to move as one whole unit.

[donovantrial]

Hey Guys Thanks for all the fantastic replys, I have been working on my routine of the last few days and this is what I have come up with, serously cutting back on the cardio and adding a rest day. Let me know what you think, bearing in mind my goal is to get cut, add a bit of muscle and increase explosive power, at the same time improving my cycling performance.



I have tried to incorporate the T-nation Neanderthol man workout into my scheme.



Saturday: Weights (round 11/12am to allow 24 hours)

Sunday: Trials Training 6-7hours

Monday: Rest Day

Tuesday: Weights + HITT training on the rower at end of workout (11/12am again to allow rest before wednesday)

Wednesday: Trials Training 6-7 hours

Thursday: Weights (pm session 2/3pm)

Friday: AM Cardio session (run) 30 minutes, PM Trials Training 4 hours



As the Neanderthol Man workout is over 4 days, I plan to rotate my wrkouts, so I will operate the 4 workouts on a cycle over the 3 weights days. I have added a few extra lifts to the ones outlined on their site they are as follows.



Workout 1



A1 Pronated Medium Grip row (Lat Bar) 6x10x40kg

A2 Pec Stretch Performed between the sets in A1 (2minutes)



B1 Face Pulls 3x10x17.5kg

B2 Decline Barbell Extensions 3x10x6Kg

B1 and B2 to be a superset with 60 seconds rest after each set



C1 Rear Delt Fly 3x10x8kg

C2 Lower Pulley external Rotations 3x12x5Kg

C3 Dip Shrugs 3x15

Again a superset



D High to Low cable wood chops 3sets per side x 10

15 second rest between each side



E Bicep curls only down to 90 degrees supported on a bench 5x5x24kg



F Cable cross overs 5x5x21kg



Workout 2



A Supine Bridges 3x15



B1 Snatch Grip Deadlifts 6x6

B2 Illio Tibial band stretch (2minutes)



C Barbell Step-ups 4sets each leg X 10



D1 Dead Bug Twists 3x15

D2 Side Hip Thrusts 3x15



E Squats 5x6



F1 Swiss ball lifts 3x12

F2 Weighted crunches 3x12x15kg

F3 medicine ball switches 3x15 each side

superset all of F



HITT Using a rowing machine 5 minute warm up, 30 seconds flat out 1 minute rest x10 then 5 minute cool down.



Workout 3



A1 Decline Close Grip bench 6x 3,2,1,3,2,1

A2 Chest Supported T-Bar Row 6x6

A3



B1 Single Arm low Pulley cable row to abdomen 3 sets per side x 10

B2 Pec Stretch



C1 Dumbell External Rotations, elbow supported at 90 degrees 3x10

C2 One arm prone lower tapezius raise 3x10



D Saxon Side Bends 4x6



E Dumbell Press 5x5



F Full range Bicep curls 5x5x20 kg



Workout 4



A1 Heels Elevated Rock Bottom Front Squats 6x 3,2,1 3,2,1

A2 Warrior Lunge stretch



B1 Walking lunges 3x8 per leg

B2 Illiotibial band stretch



C Dumbell ISO Split squat 60 seconds per leg, one rep



D1 Pull throughs 4x12

D2 Pull Down Abs 4x12



E1 Dumbell Dorsi Flexion 2x20

E2 Calf stretch



So what do you guys think to this workout, too much, not enough? Can you see anywhere it is possible to add another small session on the bike prehaps? I like to do relatively little on Saturday if possible as I compete on a sunday, so i'm either travelling or trying to rest.



Thanks Again

[sendos]

Woah, CORETASTIC! Personally i think you're doing a ridiculous amount of core work! But what you've actually got in there looks pretty good, you've obviously put a lot of thought into it. But the structure of each workout looks a bit random, i'd group all the core stuff and the prehab exercises like external rotations etc at the end of each session and have your money shot exercises at the beggenining. Workout 2 for example would look like this:

Workout 2


A1 Snatch Grip Deadlifts 6x6

A2 Illio Tibial band stretch (2minutes)


B Squats 5x6

C Barbell Step-ups 4sets each leg X 10

E Supine Bridges 3x15

D1 Dead Bug Twists 3x15
D2 Side Hip Thrusts 3x15

F1 Swiss ball lifts 3x12

F2 Weighted crunches 3x12x15kg

F3 medicine ball switches 3x15 each side

[sendos]

Also your diet looks extremely low in calories for your activity level! you need to get some food in you!

[stronglikewood]

Yep agree with the other guys, you need more food and more fats. Swop skimmed for full fat, add fish oil, red meat and eat the whole egg. Diet looks like it has healthy foods though, just needs more especially if you have plateaued and are feeling rough. You might want to bump up the oats and rice portions aswell, as you do a lot of training.

[Nicholars]

Thats a pretty poor routine / diet tbh, and ridiculously overtraining! You cant expect to gain any muslce or barely even maintain it doing that amount of running swimming cycling etc! and also 3 hours a week doing your abs is very ott!

[donovantrial]

ok, so any suggestions?