Sports Psychology meets Physiology: Rest and Performance.

[Synaesthesia]

I'm interested in finding out how to schedule rest in workouts. I have a naughty habit of working out three days in a row, then finding myself burnt out for two or three days. Sometimes I work out too much on one day, and find myself unable to walk for four.

 

What sort of signs should I look for that tell me I should slow down (over the course of a single workout, or in the pacing of how the heavy exercise days are placed.)?

[Neil]

To make sure your not doing to much oyu should be exercising at a rate where you can keep a conversation going, if you can't your doing too much. All so if you perspirate blood instead of sweat or urinate blood that is allso a sign.

[crash]

neil, urinating blood is a sign of severe dehydration, not overworking. anytime you engage in any physical activity you must maintain hydration levels. you can never drink too much water. synaesthesia, you havent described your workouts but it sounds like you may need to split them up to only certain bodyparts each day, an example would be chest, abs, legs, on mon, weds, and fri,. back, arms, shoulders, on tue, thurs, and sat., off on sun. of course that is just a very basic ex. and you can experiment with what combo and what frequency works best for you. By splitting up your routine like this each workout should only take about one to one and a half hours to complete and then each body part has the next day to recover while you train another area....good luck

[ZR440]

Or try one day rest between overall workouts.

 

And you've already experienced the signs that you're burnt out.

[hobbitbob]

URINATING BLOOD IS A BAD THING!!!!!! It often indicates excessive myoglobin breakdown.