Overtraining Part 3: The Systems of the Body

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In this post I will give brief explanations on how and why the various systems of the body can become overtrained.

Part 1     Part 2

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Overtraining The Endocrine System

In Overtraining Part 2: Understanding Overtraining, I discussed the different forms of stress and the systems of the body it affects.

I also stated “essentially all stress is handled the same way by the body”. What this means specifically, is that the body reacts with the same “fight or flight” response to nearly all stressors.
So… when the body receives a stress, regardless of form, in most cases it will produce the hormone cortisol. Cortisol itself is not inherently bad. Without it we would not be able to handle the craziness of an average day in the modern world. However, like nearly everything that can benefit us, too much of it starts causing problems.  With all of the unnatural stressors we face every day, intense exercise could prove too difficult to recover from.

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Overtraining The Nervous System

Performing high neurologically demanding exercises and workouts (i.e. anything done with near-maximal speed or using near-maximal load) is generally going to tax the nervous system more than a similar workout using less speed or less load.  Performing too many exercises of high neurological demand in a workout, or not allowing the nervous system to fully recover between workouts high intensity workouts, is likely to result in overtraining of the nervous system. To get a better understanding of the nervous system, check out The Parasympathetic Secret by clicking HERE.

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Overtraining The Skeletal System

Perhaps a typical weekly training split..

Monday: Chest, Triceps.
Tuesday: Back, Biceps.
Wednesday: Legs.
Thursday: Shoulders.
Friday: Arms.

If this resembles anything similar to your weekly training split, consider what this break up would look like from a joints and skeletal system perspective.

Monday: Shoulders.
Tuesday: Shoulders.
Wednesday: Legs.
Thursday: Shoulders.
Friday: Shoulders (perhaps a lighter shoulder day, though).

If you are having shoulder pain when you lift, it could have absolutely nothing to do with your ratio of pushing to pulling exercises or weak rotator cuff muscles, and everything to do with the fact that you beat up your shoulder joints in literally 80% of your workouts.

Also, consider the example of jogging 5 days a week where the exact same stressor is placed on the joints thousands upon thousands of times of times in a row.

Continuous and repetitive stress on the skeletal system is ideal for creating over-use injuries down the road.

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Overtraining The Muscular System

Blasting a particular muscle group once per week in an attempt to create muscular damage and soreness can often lead to overtraining of the muscular system if appropriate rest/recovery methods are not taken. Check out Are You Sore? by clicking HERE. Also, if the 30 minute and 2 hour post-workout windows of increased nutrient uptake are not taken advantage of, recovery can be severely compromised and even a “lighter” workout can lead to overtraining the muscular system.

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Overtraining The Digestive System

Eating foods not in alignment with your metabolic type, eating non-whole foods, eating the same foods every single day, and/or eating foods you have sensitivities/allergies to, you can overwork and damage your digestive system, leading to a variety of different problems that can show up anywhere in the body.


The Interconnected Systems

As I wrote in my book review for The Source on Paul Chek’s, “How To Eat, Move, and Be Healthy”, every system of the body is interconnected and dependent upon the others. By overtraining one system, you are putting additional stress on all of the other systems. Appropriately training the body as a whole unit, with all of its systems taken into consideration, will prevent overtraining of a specific system, and thereby preventing a “weak link” in the human chain.

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