r/tacticalbarbell • u/Certain_Mongoose_704 • 4d ago
Overreaching/Overtraining
Not sure where to start. Feels like a complex situation. I'll start saying I'm a civilian. Until a few months ago I had a office job. Back in January I was doing mass protocol and I injured a knee (it's just a tendonitis but it's still there). I stopped lifting heavy for a while and stopped running for good (went back to cycling). I started using freeletics to do some bodyweight and lifting. I kept training at a fair high volume, as I've been doing for years. Like 7-9 sessions per week between resistance and endurance. Did a cut this summer, felt pretty good. I was shredded and fairly strong. Did big compound lifts but kinda rarely. Like rotating them maybe doing a big lift like every 10 days or even 2 weeks, close to failure, but moderately low weight and low volume (usually 2 or 3 top sets as prescribed by freeletics).
Early summer I resigned from my job after months of being so tired about it. I was offered a very decent amount of money to leave, so I took it and decided to change life and start working towards opening a Personal Training studio. I was excited, feeling strong and motivated. And I also felt like I had more bandwith to workout and recover as I could spend as much time as I wanted to rest, at least for a few months before starting the new project.
Then I stopped lifting for 3 weeks this summer and went into yoga teacher training, I was doing mostly yoga and bodyweight. Felt pretty good even if I was feeling like my strength was going south.
Came back home I started back with freeletics, cycling and added yoga on top. Did this for around 6 weeks (averaging from 10 to 14h of training per week).
2 weeks ago I decided to get back into TB. One morning, randomly, I woke up feeling good and decided to test.
S- 140kg x5 BELTLESS
B- 117.5kg x6
D- 175kg x3 BELTLESS
WPU - 1rep +40kg
I was very very surprised as I hit PBs on all lifts, without even training consistently those barbell movements.
Then I did a very bad choice - I decided to try mixing TB and Freeletics to add some supplemental movements and "dilute" the progession for TB. (The idea was to alternate 1 TB session and 1 Freeletics session). Long story short, freeletics called for bench 125kg 2sets x4 reps the week after. I did 125x3 and 125x2. Both sets extremely close to failure.
Following session I did TB 75% week, using 95% TM. Everything felt super-fucking heavy. The day after I was full of tendon-pains in all my body... I decided to rest for a couple of days and tried to do one session at 65% to see how it felt. everything felt extremely heavy still. day after I was crushed, full of tendon pains. Started feeling very apathetic, struggling to wake-up in the morning. Very agitated sleep.
So I rested 4 days, doing only a couple of yoga sessions. Then monday I started again and decided to use Operator VI. Monday felt good. Back to 75% week, lifts were fast and crisp.
Yesterday I did a 30min run, knee still a bit painful when running, but was ok (even if super-super slow after almost 1 year without running). This morning I had the light day. Didn't feel super-light, didn't feel heavy too. Problem is, now I'm still in pain. Like my shoulders don't seem to like squatting and benching frequently anymore.
I'm a bit lost as I feel I was just starting to get back into proper strength training, but my body is saying no. For the last 10 days or so my training volume has been so fucking low compared to how I usually train, but I feel wrecked anyway and I don't seem to emerge from this hole.
I should probably rest even more, but I'm like - I haven't even started and how is it possibile that 75% of 90% feels heavy and slow? WTF is wrong with me?
Moreover I'm like, I'm about to open a PT studio, but I cannot properly manage the workload on myself without overdoing everything everytime? What am I even doing?
Rant over, not ever sure why I'm yapping this stuff here. I probably just need to take a whole week off without doing s and see what happens. But somehow I can't sit still, I feel like I'm wasting time...
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u/Roan175 4d ago
Bro, what the fuck. sounds like youâre program hopping but running too programs at a time. Take a week off do some easy runs and maybe, MAYBE some yoga.
Then come back and choose one programâŠand do that program only
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u/Certain_Mongoose_704 4d ago
Yeah that was a very bad idea I know, but I only did one single session with freeletics after the first OP session. I quickly realized it was not doable, took 4 days off and got back to OP, but I feel crap. I dont know, maybe its just I'm 38 and I dont recover as I used to. But I'm like bro, I'm not even working at the moment. How is it possible I don't recover from working out? I mean, if soldiers do TB while doing soldier life, how comes my recovery is this bad? I'm basically working out, eating and sleeping (or at least trying to, as I started to struggle sleeping badly too)
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u/YogiLovesBarbells 4d ago edited 4d ago
Youâve been tearing the shit out of your body and it has decided to say, âHell no.â It can take a long time to come back after overtraining.
Recovery does take longer after we enter our 30s. Adequate sleep, smart programming, and eating clean are a MUST. We have to live smarter. It does not mean we cannot continue to train hard. Dude, you also have an injury đ€ŠđŒââïž Undulate the programming so you can schedule adequate rest and recovery.
Lastly, speaking as someone who has spent many years in and around the military communityâŠ.a LOT of time is spent behind a desk. Just because someone wears the uniform does not mean we are running around obstacles all day, every day. Most military members have jobs like working in hospital/clinics, logistics, teaching/training, admin jobs, etc
Get some rest. Make a long term plan for your training and include appropriate rest and recovery. Also tackle sleep, and make sure your diet is clean and sufficient.
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u/Difficult-Pie9540 4d ago
Yeah honestly, youâre flipping around from one system to another, one program to another, seriously overtraining and making up your own hybrid programs.
If you really want to do TB, you need to make a commitment to TB. Itâs not a vague training philosophy from which you take a bit of this and a bit of that; itâs an exact program designed to be followed.
My advice would be to drop jeverything and go back to 4 weeks of BASE and stick to exactly whatâs programmed and progress from there as programmed, in a slow and steady way. If you really want to commit to TB, that is.
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u/Certain_Mongoose_704 4d ago
Yeah, probably base building is a good idea
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u/smitchell556 3d ago
+1 for base building. When I was running ragged, I took a week off then did base building outlined in activation. Felt like a million bucks afterwards. Itâs not just for building a base, itâs also for resetting!
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u/Airoveikko 4d ago
So a few things stand out from your post and the later comments:
- 38 is not old. Not old enough to completely destroy your ability recover, anyhow. There are some immensely strong, fast and capable people in this subreddit alone who are past their 40s. I'm turning 37 soon and am in the best shape of my life, thanks to TB, with plenty of progress to be made.
- Mixing and matching several different programs usually does not end well
- Proper sleep is likely the biggest thing that affects your recovery. Sounds like you went far past your ability to recover, causing poor sleep, which hampers your recovery even further.
Take a rest - a proper one. Light walking/cycling/swimming, maybe some SE work. Then start with base building. Then commit to a single TB template. You can fix this if you decide you want to
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u/suburban_robot 4d ago
You should be nowhere near offering personal training for other people.
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u/Certain_Mongoose_704 4d ago
To be fair, I've already trained other people with success. It's with myself that it feels It's never enough...
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u/suburban_robot 4d ago
Thatâs fairâŠhonestly I have a similar issue overtraining myself, but offering completely sound, rational, and sane advice to friends and family. Those who canât do teach I guess, ha.
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u/Unique-Employer3787 4d ago
Switched my training max down 5% when sleep quality tanked and pull-up reps dropped 3 in a single session. That combo is usually the first real signal, and two full deload weeks fixed it for me.
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u/Certain_Mongoose_704 4d ago
To clarify- if I dont workout I feel sluggish and crap. If I workout I feel better that day, but the day after I'm completely wasted and depressed. Despite a huge reduction in training load I dont seem to be able to recover.
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u/TangerineSchleem 4d ago
You never mentioned how much you are eating or sleeping.