Overtraining and Undertraining

[Nidan Melbourne]

Now you all may of heard these terms before, either on here or somewhere else.

It is important as martial artists to be aware of these terms, as we are susceptible to being affected by one or the other. As is anything sport and health related.

Undertraining is where you are training less than what you are supposed to, and can have a negative impact to your health. You may not become injured, but is similar to being inactive or sedentary.

Whereas Overtraining is defined as doing way too much training or doing something to excess and without sufficient rest. Athletes are often at risk of this especially around competition time.

The potential risks are burnout mentally, and also putting your body at risk of injury. These risks may appear as either very minor or severe, often as athletes or non-competitors not caring or taking extended amounts of time off.

But how do these impact us everyday martial artists?

It impacts us where we don't look after our level of training, too little or too much.

[singularity6]

I was under-training before I started taking my TKD class 2 years ago. While I wasn't sedentary, I certainly did not get enough physical activity to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Once I started TKD, I found I was getting injured (shoulders pop out, strains high up in my hip and neck.)

I started PT on the shoulders, but the hip and neck still bothered me quite a bit. I kept stretching, and I tried leg lifts and kicking exercises try to get my hips strengthened. Well, the kicking exercises threw my back out.

What's the point of all this? Well when it came to my hips, I was probably not over-training, but I wasn't training properly.

I just had this thought - The internet is a wonderful thing, but it can cause:

Under-training - spending too much time on the internet

over-training - spending too much time trying to look like a fitness model

improper training - Hey, I should do that kicking exercise I saw that young'ish 5th dahn doing on YouTube.... Owww...

[Spartacus Maximus]

The key is maintaining a personal balance of activity and recovery time. Personal means the training must be specific to one's physical capacities and goals. The other essential point is that training must be consistent and at regular intervals. Too much too soon is overtraining. So is training to collapse or failure without require recovery. The same can be said of doing anything before one is ready.

[singularity6]

The key is maintaining a personal balance of activity and recovery time. Personal means the training must be specific to one's physical capacities and goals. The other essential point is that training must be consistent and at regular intervals. Too much too soon is overtraining. So is training to collapse or failure without require recovery. The same can be said of doing anything before one is ready.

i.e., moderation is key!

[bushido_man96]

Stress-Recovery-Adaptation.

First, stress the body enough to trigger an adaptation. Then rest for the necessary amount of time, and after you have rested, your body should have adapted to the training you did.

That's the easy part. Tougher is implementing the plan. When one first starts off training in a Martial Art, less could be more. Start off with two classes a week, and get your body acclimated to the training. Once your body has adapted, add another class, and the benefits will keep on coming.

[sensei8]

In my almost 53 years on the floor, I'm quite sure that I under/over trained more than I care to remember, and admit for one reason(s) or another. As singularity6 has said..."moderation is the key".

Knowing when one is doing one or the other saves a lot of unnecessary time across the board. Oftentimes, I ignored the signals, in which, I paid for it dearly across the board; an expensive letter, for sure, to learn.

Whether it be from exuberance or not, they, from time to time, still occurred.

Knowledge and experience helped me to taper myself across the board.

[DWx]

Undertraining is easy but I don't think most of us ever reach the point of genuine overtraining.

Overtraining is where training load exceeds recovery capacity. We're talking persistent fatigue, muscle soreness (+72 hrs), poor physical performance, coupled with mental fatigue.

[singularity6]

Undertraining is easy but I don't think most of us ever reach the point of genuine overtraining.

Overtraining is where training load exceeds recovery capacity. We're talking persistent fatigue, muscle soreness (+72 hrs), poor physical performance, coupled with mental fatigue.

I had that a couple times. The most recent bout was in June. I had just returned to TKD (6 month break, almost no training during that time.) Our second class was a heavy leg day - 1.5 hours of kicks. I decided to do a brisk 3.5 mile hike (some decent hills) the day after. My legs were pretty useless for 2 days, and still sore after 4.

[Alan Armstrong]

Everyone is over training and undertraining, due to not finding that middle ground balance 100% of the time.

Martial art priorities will change and evolve differently for each of us depending on goals and needs also age and health circumstances.

Finding and keeping in that middle training ground to keep growing, is good enough for a hobbyist like me.

[sensei8]

Sometimes, I over/under train on purpose; that's my decision alone; seems to have worked for me all of these many, many years.

Am I wrong, either way?!? Well, again, the decision either way is still my decision!!