CANADIAN PHYSIQUE ALLIANCE FEBRUARY 2019 | Page 74

What is overtraining?
According to the
dictionary, overtraining
in an athlete is when a
person exceeds their
body's ability to recover
from
strenuous exercise. Overt
raining can be described
as a point where a
person may have a
decrease in performance
and plateauing as a
result of failure to
consistently perform at a
certain level or training
load; a load which
exceeds their recovery
capacity.
We won’t dive deep into
overtraining as that is a
different topic for a
different article.
The point we want to
gather from this, is that
overtraining has a great
potential to vary from
individual to individual
based on each person’s
recovery abilities.
Although it varies, what
it has in common
amongst individuals, is
that no matter who you
are, if this point is
reached, your body will
show you the signs.
Overtraining is so hard to
gauge though as every
person has different
genetics and lifestyle. But
what should be seen as
common practice is that
we should all maximize
our methods of recovery
in order to be the best we
absolutely can be.
In the fitness industry, we often hear
about the nervous system. The
problem is, not many people know
much about it. Our nervous system is
comprised of nerve tissues that
control activities in the body. The
central nervous system is what
controls many functions in our body
like breathing, having our heart pump
blood, digestion, metabolism and
basic bodily processes. There are two
main states that the autonomic
nervous system can function in. They
are the parasympathetic state and the
sympathetic state.
Why is all this
important to know?
Because in our
current society, we
live in a constant
state of stress.