Resting and Overtraining: How can you tell when fitness is affected?

[babe20042004]

42M here, and I work out regularly. I upped up the intensity since January 1, and now my routine is weights twice a week (just 40 minutes), HIIT workouts twice a week, and a 1 hour walk daily (sometimes on an aggressive incline on the treadmill, sometimes an extended 1.5 hour walk outdoors). I also do yoga/mobility work, and throw in a 2-hr bike ride once or twice a week in addition.

However I'm heading out of town and I'm curious about this routine on a couple of fronts:

1. Will I lose fitness i.e. power, endurance and muscle mass if I take a one-week break?
2. Is a week off every 6 weeks too much resting?
3. During a week off or rest, is it true rest if one still takes 1-2 hour walks or does yoga/mobility work? Or does that stress the body and ruin the benefit of taking a rest week?
4. Is my workout routine sustainable or is it actually overtraining?
5. In general, how does one know if they are starting to overtrain? Is it just a matter of having 1 or 2 rest days a week?

 

[argem17]

@babe20042004 Ok, so you have 2 weight training sessions, 2 times HIIT, a daily walk, and sometimes some extra activity? Unless you have a physically very very demanding job or are really really lean (bf < 10%), I doubt there is any chance you're overtraining honestly speaking.

It is great, and you have solid activity, but is nowhere near overtraining unless the above specified or you do strange things in your lifting (5 sets, 12 reps of 200kg deadlift etc).

To answer your question
1. No, a week should not drastically impact impact your progress
2. No, but it is not necessarily needed either
3. Depends, but the low intensity steady state exercise should be fine unless your lifting crazy the other 6 days of the week
4. I don't see any signs of overtraining. Basically you're doing 4 workouts per week of two are short cardio. All the others are LISS activities and do not nowhere near consitiution anything near overtraining
5. If you can't sleep, have no energy for longer periods you could be overtraining. I however don't get what makes you believe you would be overtraining

Please note, as species, we are not built for a sedentary lifestyle. So if this is all your weekly activity, which constitutes basically a workout per day (weight or hiit) combined with one hour of walking and sometimes an extra bike ride and mobility/yoga class it perfectly fine and no way you'd have to worry about overtraining. Depending on your goals, I would perhaps even increase LISS activities and weight training (and I have a desk job, but if you're in a physically demanding job (e.g. fire fighter) it would be a different story)

 

[nezsruiz]

@babe20042004

1. I just got back from a vacation and my performance improved when I got home. Your muscles may not feel like they're fatigued now, but they can repair in a way they wouldn't without multiple days off in a row.
2. IMO, a full week off every 6 weeks is overkill from a fitness perspective but may work well from a "life" perspective. If you're taking time off for fitness alone, focus on deloading.
3. A rest week means you're not stressing the body. Choose an intensity of walking or yoga that is easy for you - that often means a casual walk rather than a power walk up a hill.
4. Impossible to know if it's overtraining without knowing how much you push yourself in each session. I personally wouldn't be able to do an "aggressive" power walk and a strength class in the same day but someone at a different fitness level (or a different intensity level) would be fine.
5. You can usually feel overtraining: muscle fatigue and/or more sore than normal. Often it just feels like my legs are heavier and I'm moving through molasses.

 

[kocarkacirx]

@babe20042004 If you have your diet, sleep, and mental well-being in check... You could be doing allot more IMO before you would ever over train.

Weights twice a week is good but why not more?

HIIT twice a week could be fine depending on how hard you are pushing yourself on both the HIIT and the bike ride.

You are not walking very much but at least you are doing those bike rides.

Increase your lifting days, increase your low steady state cardio days. Dr. Peter Attia prescribes probably double the amount of exercise you are currently doing.

 

[uzezi]

@babe20042004 Super annoying questions that get asked basically daily here . And over training isn’t a thing. Under recovering is.