Testosterone? - Page 2

Blair Lowe · 12-14-2010, 04:20 PM

Yael Grauer had a good link once upon a time towards figuring out what possible hormone or supplement could help your sleeping program. Neurotransmitters and all that.

Rasmus Thomsen · 12-15-2010, 02:55 PM

You can try to experiment with halving the volume of your workouts aswell instead of doing complete rest.

Garrett Smith · 12-16-2010, 05:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chad Cilli

x2

Dr. G really helped me out fixing this for myself. I had low test levels, high cortisol levels. I was overtraining and under recovering. The high intensity work just isn't sustainable. Don't get me wrong, I understand the role of HIT, and I do see the results that it can elicit, but over a longer timeline, it just runs you down.

Take time off now by choice. It's much better than the alternative, like when you catch back to back flus and then start getting stress fractures left and right.

Chad, you may want to post a link to the thread where we were initially dealing with your situation...

Mahir Barbaro · 12-16-2010, 09:52 AM

I would definitely read that.

As far as resting, or not training, goes, how long should I take off? Is it the kind of thing where I could take a couple weeks off, and then start up again, or could I do something where I cut out most workouts but keep 2 days or so of moderate training?
The hard thing here is that I have required Navy PT 3 times a week (MWF). I can only describe the workouts as circuit training, but for about 35-45 minutes. For instance, every time we start off with a 10 min warmup run, we stretch, then go into something like weighted lunges down and back on a bball court, pushups for a minute, shoulder press (very light weight) for a minute, and some form of situps for a minute, and then a minute rest. Then we repeat about 5 times.

Unfortunately, I prefer to either strength train or 'endurance' train (basically just run, sometimes intervals), so I tend to not count the Navy workouts as my workouts for the week. But I guess something has to give, and I'm pretty sure it wont be the Navy.

Garrett Smith · 12-16-2010, 10:06 AM

I would do the minimum possible for now. More sleep (and better sleep) and more protein & fat.

Imagine you're a bear preparing to hibernate. Expend less energy and consume more.

Chad Cilli · 12-16-2010, 01:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Garrett Smith

Chad, you may want to post a link to the thread where we were initially dealing with your situation...

http://www.performancemenu.com/forum...ead.php?t=5639

That's probably the most "all inclusive" of my threads.

I know what you mean about not wanting to count PT as your workout, I always feel like if I didn't lift then I didn't workout. So... yeah, I'm guilty of the same mindset. But the PT is still breaking you down, and it's just adding to your workload. You'll have to forego the extra weight training and endurance work for a while, but in the longer run, you'll be better off for it.

I'm not trying to "scare" you into scaling back your training, but just speaking from my experience, it's definitely something you should take seriously. Once your body gets really out of whack, things like stress fractures happen much easier and then you'll really regret not cutting the volume sooner. I know I really regret not acting sooner, my foot still isn't 100%.

Mahir Barbaro · 12-19-2010, 07:23 AM

I often make the same excuse with myself Chad. The 'well spec ops guys go through training way harder than this, so there's no reason I can't keep going' reasoning. Pretty crazy that your body went haywire like that. I guess since I'm not at that point, I can just scale back to only Navy PT (it's required), and work on sleep and nutrition.

Haha, I just realized my new year's resolution is going to be to exercise less. Which is a shame because January comprises some of the funniest moments in the gym all year (and most frustrating when you can't find the space to walk through the gym).

On a side note, I've realized that 'pre-workout drinks' are very dangerous when it comes to overtraining. I'm aware of the bad stuff that are in them, but the fact that they can take you from exhausted and unmotivated to killing yourself in the gym is pretty crazy. I noticed this a couple weeks ago when I ran out of the one I was taking, and I could barely get myself into the gym twice that week. Definitely the 'enabler' of overtraining.