How much training is too much?

[Fattest_animal]

I've been adding stuff in my training routine for the past 2 weeks or so and everything seems fine. As long as I take a nap in the afternoon I'm good to go until late at night.

Take note that I'm still in school and single, but a normal day looks like this:

wake up at 5-5:15 am
crossfit from 6 to 7 am
class from 8 to 12 am
swim from 12 to 1 pm
class from 1 to 4-5 pm
nap from whenever i get home to 6 pm
gym from 6:30 to 7:45 pm
bjj from 8:30 to 10 pm
study / shower / eat / sleep 11-11:30 pm

Before you flame me for the crossfit, I do it as cardio. I don't do retarded weights and I stop whenever I need to. If done right I think it's a decent training to be honest.

I'm mostly doing this for fun and see where my body goes with this. My goal isn't to be huge (although it'd be cool as fuck) as my job requires me to be as athletic / fit as possible (in my opinion).

So yeah, how much is too much?

 

[Evom1]

Not enough sleep first off

Second what's your caloric intake?

And third what are you running for gear and gh?

Those three things basically determine your recovery. You're sleeping 6hrs a night? And then maybe a 1hr nap? Cut our the crossfit and get 2 more hours of sleepb

 

[Fattest_animal]

Yeah I felt at first that I didn't have enough sleep, but the nap in the afternoon fixed that issue for me. The only time of the day I'm really "beasting" it is in the gym in the afternoon (after the nap). Rest of the day I'm cruising and doing moderate effort.

It's at around 3,000 right now. I didn't calculate my macros, but the cal intake should be around that.

Well, like I mentionned I was just done with my PCT, so I'm now on my time off. My last (and first) cycle was 100 mg test p eod and 40mg var. My next cycle, in January, I will be adding Mast P to the equation.

The nap time varies to be honest. It's always at a minimum 1 hour. I sometimes finish class earlier, so I get home and nap for longer. Some nights (tuesday for exemple) I don't have bjj, so I head to bed around 9:30-10. I'm also forcing myself to become a "morning" person. Gives me more time to get shit done.

 

[Leancuisine]

Naps are saviors. I would go a handful of days without sleeping more than a couple 15-20 Min naps and I felt completely fine and alert the whole time.

Sleep is very much so user dependent. If you feel fine, sure keep doing it. When I would train for sports I was a firm believer in one sport specific training session for 30 minutes, then weight lifting for 30 minutes.

Would rather do 1 hour of intense training sessions versus 4-5 hours of mediocre ones.

 

[canucklifter]

I had a triathelete buddy who trained 4-5 hours every day. His caloric intake was huge to maintain that, but his goal was crazy endurance and so the training matches his goals.

It doesn't seem like your goals are very specific - you want to look fit and you enjoy training. What you're doing is going to do that. If you had a more specific goal: put on lean mass, lose bodyfat, maintain 6 minute mile for 10 miles, then your training is probably sub-optimal. But 'looking fit' is pretty broad, so yeah, doing a bunch of random stuff is probably fine. IOW, doing a bunch of stuff is probably not going to prevent you from 'looking fit' - but it would prevent you from putting on mass, building crazy endurance, etc.

 

[Dw725]

Your body will let you know if it's too much. Training will take a negative hit first. Then day to day activities.

I don't believe you can't over train on gear. Ive heard people say that, but I'll be first to tell you, I've done it.

When u start seeing performance take a hit, it's time to make adjustments.

For me , it usually comes down to sleeping more, or making sure my sleep quality is up to par, or eating more.

Final option is to reduce training load.

 

[Fattest_animal]

Well this week I skipped the crossfit in the morning as there has been pretty big heat waves where I live and, for some reasons, sucks the life out of me. Was sleeping super heavy too... Kept swimming and lifting though. Sums up my week until now. Next week it should cool down, so I'll be good to go.

I do have a goal and it is to stay active and more. It might seem like I'm doing random activities, but other than BJJ, which is completely unrelated to anything I do and is just a hobby I really enjoy, it all helps me job wise. I hate running so I compensate with crossfit and swimming.

But more importantly, I've noticed that after a crossfit training my body is in a state that resembles what I can end up as after an intervention (job). Tired but not fucked up? The swimming relaxes my muscles, but I always get a good training out of it.

I did say that I was training moderately, but I'm slightly above average in the crossfit class (not that it means much) and I'm actually coaching some buddies of mine at the pool and swim with them. Like I said, my goal is to be athletic / very fit. I went from 210 to 230 in my cycle. I'm currently at 220 and I want to drop to 200, which would put me under 10%ish and then maintain it there until my next cycle.

So, I push myself in the gym, but give my 70-80% for my other activities.

 

[canucklifter]

Recovery is always a give and take. If you took an Olympia competitor and had them do an extra three hours of swimming a week at 70-80% effort, their physiques would fade. They're tapping their recovery to the MAX, and any additional activity is going to cause issues. Ditto an ultramarathoner deciding to throw in some BJJ, or any other high level athlete.

It sounds like you're not pushing your activity to the point where you're not recovering. Cool. There's nothing wrong with that. But if you tried to do everything you were doing and also step on the Olympia stage, you'd probably find it impossible to do. There's a 'have your cake and eat it too' thing here. If you want to look way better than average (think physique or classic bodybuilding), you can't do a bunch of other stuff as well. You need to go 100% at that one goal. But if your goals are more moderate, you can get there with more moderate dedication.

With your current activity you can pretty easily cut weight. Just drop calories. Well, first step, actually calculate what you eat. "It's at around 3,000 right now. I didn't calculate my macros, but the cal intake should be around that. "

Find out what it is, chop 20% off of it from carbs or fats, do that for a few weeks and see what happens. Easy money.