What's the best way to recover from overtraining?

[CallmeIan]

I just experienced perhaps the most frusterating thing to happen to a bodybuilder; cutting a whole workout short due to overtraining. This is real overtraining too. So that means I'm going to have to start from scratch and take a rehabilitative course of action. The problem is, I've never had to do this before, I just know it's what needs to be done.

Here are the pros and cons to my situation:

PROS

Only my soleus is overtrained. The rest of my body, especially my upper body is gaining strength and size just fine.

CONS
My soleus is in overtrained mode from sprints, weights, and jump rope. I know I'll have to omit the sprints until a FULL recovery happens. That means no cardio. Do I just cease all cardio? I don't want to, so all I can think of is stationary bike (no calf involvement there). But I'm sick of stationary bike.

Any ideas on forms of cardio that have little to no calf involvement would be great. Thanks for the help.

 

[jynx]

dude you cant get overtraining in one muscle. you have just worked it out too much. overtraining affects your cns, mental health, and physical health. its more than just a sore muscle.

 

[CallmeIan]

Overtraining can be extreme like that, but if you have a muscle, even if it's just one, that is constantly sore and never receives adequate recovery, how is that not overtraining? It's right there in the word itself: over - training. So don't blast me when everything I wrote makes perfect sense. If you actually read what I wrote you could figure out that jumping rope, sprinting and on top of that also trying to fit in weight training, your soleus is going to be pretty damn sore all the fucking time. So now I need to re-think my training split. And in the mean time, hopefully get some real advice from somebody who actually has some to provide.

 

[Die$eL~Man]

take 3 days off

 

[Conrad415]

^^agree

 

[Die$eL~Man]

also cheat on your diet.....

 

[jynx]

Overtraining can be extreme like that, but if you have a muscle, even if it's just one, that is constantly sore and never receives adequate recovery, how is that not overtraining? It's right there in the word itself: over - training. So don't blast me when everything I wrote makes perfect sense. If you actually read what I wrote you could figure out that jumping rope, sprinting and on top of that also trying to fit in weight training, your soleus is going to be pretty damn sore all the fucking time. So now I need to re-think my training split. And in the mean time, hopefully get some real advice from somebody who actually has some to provide.

someone's getting a bit defensive. check it out: Overtraining - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

its not as simple as saying over + training = im sore all the time. its more of a total body thing. if it were "real overtraining" you would not be gaining size and strength in your upper body. your workouts would be declining in all areas. but yeah 3 days off would be a good place to start like Die$eL~Man said, but i wouldnt stop working out upper body if i were you - since you are gaining like you said. stretch it out, foam rollers are great, and sleep.

 

[CallmeIan]

Wow, really? You should probably take a step back for a minute and think before you speak so you won't continue to stubbornly hold onto false information.

These are direct quotes from your Wikipedia link:

SYMPTOMS OF OVERTRAINING

"Microtrauma to the muscles are created faster than the body can heal them."

"Persistent muscle soreness"

Those are classic symptoms of overtraining. Just because every single symptom isn't there doesn't mean what I'm experiencing somehow is not overtraining. Clearly you don't know anything about diagnostics, otherwise this fact would be crystal clear to you.

I've decided that I'm going to take a week off of training my calves. In the meantime I'll do moderate intensity stationary bike to take care of my cardio and rely on massage, warm water and a proper nutrient intake to help speed up the recorvery process. Once one week has past, I'll start by doing really light seated calf raises every few days. The idea is to gradually build a stronger foundation. After a week or two of light to moderate rehabilitative calf training I'll then try to go for a short run and see how they feel. If everything feels okay, I should be back to sprinting within 3 to 4 weeks. I just need to keep the sprinting, rope jumping and direct weight training spaced far enough apart from now on.

I joined these boards because I thought there would actually be some experienced real athletes here to provide solid advice. In my mind, steroids meant you've been training for long enough to reach your natural limit, thus having plenty of experience bodybuilding. But it's looking like I was wrong about these boards. It's mostly just a bunch of inexperienced guys that have nothing better to do with their time than sit at home on steroid message boards.

It looks like if I want some real training advice via the internet I'll have to pay for it. I'm going to buy a one month membership from gregplitt.com and hopefully get some advice from a guy that knows what the fuck he's talking about.

 

[jynx]

Im not the one whining about a sore muscle am I? Go cry to your massage therapist. You're obviously looking for love and affection, not advice.