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Sharing The Secrets: December 8th 2000
| Making Your Dreams Come True... |
| "Sharing The Secrets" |
| December 2000 |
By
Larry Scott |
|
|
Larry Scott & Associates
(http://www.larryscott.com)
- - - - - Friday - December 8, 2000 - - - - -
1 - Overtraining
2 - New Message Boards Up And Running
3 - Brother Iron, Sister Steel
1 - Overtraining
Hello friends,
While looking through one of my files the other day... I came across this
old "article" I had put together. I thought this might be something that
you would enjoy reading about in the newsletter.
This article is comprised of excerpts taken from a very well researched
piece reported in the Journal of Applied Sports Science Research
1991,Volume 5, Number 1 pp 35-50. In the interest of space I have not
included listing of the references, but they can be obtained by referring to
the original more extensive article.
There appear to be two types of overtraining, which may be defined as
follows:
1. Monotonous program overtraining: In this type of overtraining, there
is a loss of performance due to the consistent, unvarying use of the
same type of exercise during training and not because of overwork or
excessive fatigue.
2. Chronic overwork type overtraining: Chronic overwork results when
the duration of the period of overwork is sustained too long or repeated
too frequently thus preventing the athlete from generating an adaptive
response to the training stimuli.
This adaptive response, labeled "the General Adaption Syndrome" (GAS)
as postulated by Selye has three phases: (a) the alarm stage, in which
the body recognizes and reacts to the stress; (b) the resistance stage,
in which the body is able to adapt and handle the stress without damage
developing; and (c) the exhaustion stage, in which the body's defense
systems are overwhelmed. When overtraining has reached the exhaustion
stage, it can manifest itself in several ways.
Symptoms
Psychological: Lack of motivation, anxiety, depression, irritability,
lack of self confidence, fatigue and inability to concentrate may
accompany overtraining. In many sports especially anaerobic sports,
(bodybuilding) increased anger-hostility may be observed. Changes in sleep
patterns may also develop. Symptoms of insomnia can include going to sleep
later each night, waking up frequently and a reduction of REM sleep and
total hours of sleep. Loss of appetite could also be a result of
overtraining.
Body mass body composition changes: Decreases in total body mass and
lean body mass have resulted from both acute and chronic overwork. It
should be noted that during exercise, protein synthesis is depressed while
protein degradation is unchanged or is increased. Thus during the
actual exercise session itself, the body is experiencing a negative protein
balance. In other words the body may be undergoing a state known as
catabolism. Training may increase the need for protein in the diet. Recent
studies have suggested that either intensive aerobic or anaerobic
training can produce a negative nitrogen balance. A negative nitrogen
balance depending upon the severity and duration, can produce losses in lean
body mass that could include both structural and enzymatic proteins,
antibodies and other necessary proteins. This could increase the chances
of some pathology (injury, disease) developing.
Related to the observation of a negative nitrogen balance
with high volume training are studies suggesting that intensive
training increases the need for specific amino acids, especially branched
chain amino acids. Animal studies clearly demonstrate that BCAAs can donate
nitrogen to pyruvate. Pyruvate can be formed from glucose or from
other amino acids. Pyruvate and BCAAs can be combined: Pyruvate + BCAA ->
Alanine + Alpha-Ketoacid
Alanine as a nontoxic carrier, transports amino groups to the liver as
part of the gluconeogenic process. Felig and Wahren have shown that
exercise can greatly increase this process. It appears that both liver
and muscle can catabolize significant amounts of amino acids.
Biochemical and Nutritional Changes
Vitamins and Minerals: Vitamins act as co-enzymes and minerals are
co-factors. Both are important in a number of synthetic and energy
producing reactions, and are important for optimum and maximum physical
performance. A few studies suggest performance can be increased though
vitamin supplementation. However, most studies have found that performance is
not increased by ingesting additional vitamins.
Research has established that diets deficient in vitamins and minerals
produce decrements in physical performance. Therefore, it is possible
that intense or high -volume training could produce deficiencies in some
vitamins or minerals, which could contribute to the symptoms of chronic
overwork. Zalessky has presented evidence suggesting that multi-vitamin
therapy enhances the performance and general well-being of athletes
with a low work tolerance.
Dietary Carbohydrates:
Because of the relationship of dietary carbohydrate to muscle and
liver glycogen stores and the protein sparing effect of high concentrations
of muscle glycogen, dietary carbohydrate is an important factor to
consider in physical training. Carbohydrate poor diets or training programs
that chronically deplete glycogen stores may be a strong contributing
factor in some cases of overwork. The percentage of dietary calories
derived from carbohydrates should be a bout 55 to 60 percent for athletes
in hard training.
Lactate: Lactic acid is the end product of fast (anaerobic) glycolysis.
Lactic acid is buffered in muscle and blood to form the salt, lactate.
Measurement of lactate in serum or blood can be used for near immediate
feedback in a variety of field tests.
During recovery, lactate is oxidized by muscle or converted to
glycogen by the liver and muscle. Muscle glycogen depletion or a decreased
carbohydrate diet can also lower serum lactate concentrations during
exercise. One possible aspect of chronic overwork is reduced muscle
glycogen resulting in lower serum lactate concentrations. Thus, a drop in
serum lactate concentrations in response to a given work rate could be an
indication of chronic overwork.
Methods of preventing Overtraining
Prevention of overtraining is largely a result of proper variation.
Several authors have discussed periodized methods of varying volume,
intensity and mechanics of training in order to reduce overtraining
potential.
Close monitoring is essential. A record including body weight, diet,
resting heart rate and subjective feelings of general health and
subjective ratings of how difficult training felt can be recorded by the
athlete in his training log. Measures of blood pressure at rest and post
exercise can be taken. Measures of hemoglobin can be regularly measured.
Drops in hemoglobin may indicate overwork. Lactate can easily be measure
pre and post exercise by using a finger or ear prick and commercially
available lactate analyzers. Infections, if present may necessitate
discontinuance of training. The infections should be treated and the
athlete gradually returned to normal training levels.
Summary
There are two type of overtraining that may be characterized by the
following symptoms:
TYPE I Monotonous Program
1. Plateauing or loss of performance
2. Decreased Motivation
TYPE II Chronic Overwork
Psychological Manifestations
1. Decreased Motivation
2. Increased irritability
3. Depression
4. Insomnia
Changes in Body Mass/Body Composition
1. Decreased body mass
2. Decreased LBM
3. Increased percent fat
Cardiovascular Abnormalities
1. Increased resting, exercise and recovery HR
2. Increased resting, exercise and recovery BP
3. Increased number of PVCs
4. ECG abnormalities
Miscellaneous
1. Decreased muscle and liver glycogen concentrations
2, Variable exercise serum lactate concentrations
3. Chronic Fatigue
4. Plateauing or loss of performance.
2 - New Message Boards Up And Running
We have added a new feature here at http://www.larryscott.com -
The LSA Message Board and the Bring Your Body To Life Message
board have both been fully upgraded. Come and post messages
for other board memebers or Larry Scott himself to read and
comment on.
New features now include a system that remembers your vital data
so you don't need to retype it each time you post.
A searchable database of messages.
An email alert when someone has responded to your posting.
New messages are marked for you.
Many, Many more facets... if you have a question that just can't
be answered by anyone or a training tip, comment you'd like to
share... please come and post them and try out the new board
features.
To reach the LSA General board follow this link
(http://www.larryscott.com/lsaboard.html)
To reach the specialized "Bring Your Body To Life" board follow this link
(http://www.larryscott.com/bodyboard.html)
3 - Brother Iron, Sister Steel
We have a great new book here at Larry Scott & Associates. Long
time friend of Larry's - Dave Draper has just released the long awaited
"Brother Iron, Sister Steel". Read this book and see why Larry has
so much respect and admiration for this great man...
"Brother Iron, Sister Steel is a private journey into bodybuilding as
only Dave Draper, former Mr. America, Mr. Universe and Mr. World
can tell it. Training techniques, exercise descriptions and nutritional
strategies form the book's foundation, but what glues this book
together are Dave's personal experiences and insights, humor
and candidness, all of which speak to the heart and soul."
Follow this link to order...
(http://www.larryscott.com/index.cgi?item_num=brotheriron)
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Come and visit us today at http://www.larryscott.com
David Tester
mailto:dtester@biophase.com
http://www.larryscott.com
http://www.bodytolife.com
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