Train Hard, Recover Hard

In the world of strength training and fitness, progress is a delicate balance between stress and recovery. Push too hard without adequate rest, and you risk losing your gains and potentially overtraining. Train smart with proper recovery, and you harness the power of supercompensation for optimal gains. Let’s break it down.

What is Overtraining?

Overtraining occurs when the body is subjected to excessive stress (typically from workouts) without sufficient time to recover. It results in decreased performance, fatigue, and an increased risk of injury. There are generally two types of overtraining:

• Overreaching – A short-term accumulation of fatigue that can be reversed with a few days of rest or deloading.

• Overtraining Syndrome (OTS) – A chronic condition that leads to prolonged performance decline and systemic issues such as hormone imbalances, weakened immune function, and persistent fatigue.

  
  

There are many symptoms of overtraining but perhaps the most obvious sign is decreased performance despite continued effort. Having someone who oversees your training with a keen eye for this type of sign can be an invaluable resource and why literally everyone needs a coach. If you don’t have a coach then make sure you are tracking your own progress in a tangible way. Spreadsheet, app, pen and paper, whatever the method is, if you find that your progress is stalling or even declining then you might need to sit down and re-evaluate your program to better incorporate more and better forms of recovery.

Understanding Supercompensation

This graph illustrates supercompensation from the perspective of a single training session. Notice that training takes us down into a valley where we're at less than baseline and recovery takes us to the hill above baseline (supercompensation). Taken from Wikipedia.

Supercompensation is the process by which the body adapts to stress and comes back stronger. It follows a predictable cycle:

1. Training Stress – A workout depletes energy stores and creates microdamage in muscles.

2. Fatigue & Recovery – The body repairs and replenishes energy, returning to baseline.

3. Supercompensation – With adequate rest and nutrition, the body adapts to a higher level of performance.

4. Detraining – If no additional stimulus is applied, fitness levels decline back to baseline.

   
   

The key to effective training is timing your next workout to coincide with the supercompensation phase (at the top of the hill), ensuring continued improvement without pushing into overtraining. Again, having a coach is an invaluable resource here.

How to Balance Training and Recovery

These strategies are your best defense against overtraining:

1. Progressive Overload

Increase training volume and intensity gradually. Overloading too aggressively can push you into overtraining, while a structured progression allows for consistent adaptation. Read more about progressive overload here!

2. Prioritize Recovery

• Sleep: Sleep is king. Aim for 7-9 hours of high quality sleep each night.

• Nutrition: Eat a quality diet comprised of whole foods. Carbs aren't your enemy! Replenish those glycogen stores.

• Hydration: Drink plenty of water to aid muscle function and recovery.

• Active Recovery: Low-intensity activities like walking or mobility work help promote circulation.

• Periodization: Add diversity and variability to your programming to focus on different adaptations at different times and allow your body extended periods of rest from specific types of training.

  
  

3. Use Deload Weeks

Every 4-6 weeks, incorporate a week with reduced volume or intensity to allow for more recovery and glycogen replenishment. Long distance endurance athletes need more time to deload, two weeks before a marathon is typical. Don't feel bad about taking a week or two to do less! We often need it.

4. Listen to Your Body

If you’re feeling constantly drained, struggling to progress, or experiencing prolonged soreness, take an extra rest day or adjust your training volume. Remember that athletes who practice autoregulation achieve better training results than athletes who don’t.

5. Manage Stress Outside the Gym

Life stressors contribute to overall fatigue in a profound way. Create space for relaxation and spend some time with meditation, breathwork, or light outdoor activity. And make sure to schedule time into each day for ‘Do Nothing' time! This is a big one for me that I really struggle with but makes all the difference when I manage to make it happen. If it’s a rest day and you find that you’re busy all day, jumping from one thing to the next, then it’s probably not a rest day. Remember that sometimes it’s important to ‘Do Nothing’. Put away the phone, turn off the TV. 'Do nothing' if only for a few minutes.

Train Hard, Recover Hard

Don’t get me wrong, training hard is essential for growth and gains, but the mantra should be “Train Hard, Recover Hard”. If you hit the gym hard then you gotta hit the veggies hard too. Don’t stay out too late, eat poorly, and expect to get the results you want or even to feel 100% during your next workout.

Be mindful, listen to your body, and give it what it needs. That might be more reps or it might be an extra day off from the gym. Train hard so you can recover hard so you can train hard again!