Gym Fatigue Explained & How to Fix It

Summary

In this video, Matt discusses gym fatigue and how it can hinder progress despite increased workout efforts. He explains the importance of differentiating between general and specific stress on the body and identifies two main reasons for fatigue: the 'volume trap' where excessive training volume leads to high fatigue and low adaptation, and overtraining, which can result in long-term performance decline. Matt advises measuring progress over time and adjusting training volume and intensity accordingly to avoid burnout.

Takeaways

• 🏋️‍♂️ Gym fatigue can occur when people push harder without seeing progress, which is counterintuitive to the beginner's belief that more work leads to more progress.
• 🔄 Humans are adaptable and can adjust to various training volumes, but the body responds differently to general stress versus specific stress.
• 🏃‍♂️ Specific stress is about maintaining the same type of training stimulus, while general stress involves changing the stimulus, which can lead to more fatigue.
• 🔎 To avoid fatigue, it's crucial to balance general and specific stress in training to ensure progress without overexertion.
• 🕳 The 'volume trap' is a common issue where increasing training volume with less intensity leads to high fatigue and low training adaptation.
• 📉 Tracking measurable progress like five rep max can help identify if increased volume is beneficial or just causing fatigue.
• 🔄 Decreasing training volume and increasing intensity can break the volume trap and improve progress.
• 🚫 Under-recovery is often not the issue; instead, it's the excessive volume of low-quality training that needs addressing.
• 🏥 Overtraining syndrome is a severe state characterized by long-term decreased performance and chronic fatigue, requiring professional help to recover.
• 📈 Regularly measuring progress can help identify when training isn't effective, signaling the need for change.
• 🤔 Don't compare your training load with others; adjust based on your previous week's performance and long-term goals.

Q & A

What is the main topic of the video?

The video discusses why gym fatigue occurs and how to address it, focusing on factors like training volume, intensity, and recovery.

Why do some people experience more fatigue the harder they push in the gym?

This happens when people increase their workout volume without balancing intensity or managing recovery. The body responds with high fatigue but little training adaptation, leading to less progress despite more effort.

What is the difference between general stress and specific stress in training?

General stress comes from doing activities your body isn't used to, while specific stress results from repeating similar activities over time. General stress is more fatiguing, while specific stress allows the body to adapt.

How can athletes build up their training volume without experiencing excessive fatigue?

Athletes can gradually increase the volume of training that’s similar to what they’re already doing, allowing the body to adapt over time, which reduces the risk of excessive fatigue.

What is the 'volume trap' and how does it affect progress in the gym?

The 'volume trap' occurs when people add more workout volume with lower intensity, leading to high fatigue but minimal training adaptation. This cycle can make people feel tired and stuck in their progress.

How can someone break out of the volume trap?

To break out of the volume trap, decrease the training volume causing fatigue and increase the intensity with fewer but more challenging reps. This helps stimulate meaningful adaptation and progress.

What is the difference between functional overreaching and non-functional overreaching?

Functional overreaching is a temporary state where performance decreases due to heavy training, but recovery helps improve performance. Non-functional overreaching is a prolonged state of fatigue that negatively affects performance without recovery benefits.

What are some signs of non-functional overreaching?

Signs of non-functional overreaching include increased resting heart rate, stagnating performance, mood disturbances, elevated stress levels, and higher blood pressure.

What is overtraining syndrome, and how can it affect athletes?

Overtraining syndrome is a severe condition marked by months or years of decreased performance, sleep disturbances, frequent sickness, and chronic low energy. It requires professional intervention to recover.

What are two key takeaways for avoiding fatigue and burnout in the gym?

First, measure your progress over time to ensure that increased training leads to expected results. Second, avoid comparing your training to others and focus on making gradual improvements based on your own capacity and goals.

Outlines

00:00

🏋️‍♂️ Understanding Gym Fatigue and Progress Stagnation

In this introduction, Matt from The Movement System explains the common issue of gym fatigue and why some individuals fail to progress despite increased effort. He highlights a pattern observed from working with clients over the years: some individuals make consistent progress, while others experience diminishing returns, especially when increasing their workout intensity. The goal of the video is to explore why pushing harder can sometimes lead to less progress.

05:01

🧠 Adaptability and Training Stress

Matt explains that the human body is highly adaptable to varying training volumes, and gives examples from his own experience of training from minimal hours to extensive sessions without feeling fatigued. He emphasizes the body’s ability to adapt to both general stress and specific stress, explaining how the balance between these types of stress can either help or hinder progress. The key takeaway is that too much general stress, like drastically changing a routine, can cause excessive fatigue even if the total volume of training remains the same.

10:02

📊 General Stress vs. Specific Stress in Training

This section delves deeper into the concepts of general stress and specific stress. Matt uses an example of running and lifting to show how a familiar routine creates less overall stress, while introducing new exercises or increasing intensity in unfamiliar ways can overwhelm the body. The message here is that athletes must assess how much of their training stress is general versus specific to avoid overloading and causing unnecessary fatigue.

⚠️ The Volume Trap: A Cycle of Fatigue and Limited Gains

Matt describes a common mistake many weightlifters make—getting stuck in a 'volume trap,' where they continue increasing their workout volume but with reduced intensity. This leads to high fatigue with little adaptation or progress. He explains how people fall into this cycle of performing more reps with lighter weights in response to feeling fatigued, which ultimately exacerbates the problem. Tracking key metrics like a five-rep max can help identify when training is becoming ineffective.

🔄 Breaking Free from the Volume Trap

The solution to the volume trap, as Matt describes, is to reduce overall training volume and increase intensity to focus on meaningful progress. He suggests specific training blocks with fewer reps but higher intensity to stimulate better strength gains. Importantly, he advises against relying on recovery tools like ice baths or saunas as primary solutions, stating that addressing the root cause—excess volume and insufficient intensity—is crucial.

💥 Recognizing Overreaching and Overtraining

Matt introduces the concept of overreaching, explaining that it’s a normal part of hard training, especially before big events, but differentiates it from non-functional overreaching and true overtraining. He outlines the signs of functional and non-functional overreaching, including decreased performance and increased fatigue. When athletes push beyond these limits without proper rest or deload periods, they risk progressing into overtraining syndrome, which can lead to severe long-term health issues.

🛑 Managing Overtraining and Prioritizing Recovery

This section focuses on the importance of managing training stress before it leads to overtraining syndrome. Athletes experiencing prolonged fatigue, poor performance, and other symptoms like increased heart rate should consider reducing their training load and focusing on recovery. Matt stresses that in cases of severe overtraining, athletes should work with medical or training professionals to restore their health before aiming for performance improvements.

🔍 Key Takeaways: Tracking Progress and Personalizing Training

In the conclusion, Matt provides two critical takeaways: First, track progress over time to recognize when added training volume is not yielding the desired results, and adjust accordingly. Second, avoid comparing yourself to others; instead, focus on gradual, personalized improvements based on your own previous training load and goals. He encourages athletes to make small, incremental changes to avoid fatigue and burnout.

📱 The Movement System Programs for Consistency

Matt wraps up the video by promoting his training programs, which help athletes maintain consistency and track progress. He mentions that his programs cater to different goals, including improving vertical jump and building strength and hypertrophy. Finally, he encourages viewers to like the video, subscribe to the channel, and check the description for links to the training programs.

Keywords

💡Gym Fatigue

Gym fatigue refers to the physical and mental exhaustion that can occur from excessive or improper training. In the video, gym fatigue is discussed as a common issue where individuals may feel they are working out more but seeing less progress. It's tied to the theme of the video as it addresses why some people experience a decrease in performance despite increasing their workout volume.

💡Adaptability

Adaptability in this context refers to the human body's ability to adjust to different levels of training stress. The video explains that humans can adapt to a wide range of training volumes, from a few hours a week to training for an Iron Man race, without feeling tired, illustrating the body's adaptability.

💡Training Volume

Training volume is the total amount of exercise performed during a workout or over a set period. The script discusses how increasing training volume without a corresponding increase in intensity can lead to the 'volume trap,' causing more fatigue with less progress, which is a central issue in the video.

💡Intensity

Intensity refers to the effort put into an exercise or workout. The video emphasizes the importance of maintaining intensity while training to avoid the volume trap and ensure that workouts are productive and lead to progress.

💡Stress

Stress, in the context of the video, is the physical demand placed on the body by training. It differentiates between general stress, which is the overall physical demand, and specific stress, which is the demand related to a particular type of training. Understanding these types of stress is crucial for avoiding overtraining and gym fatigue.

💡Volume Trap

The volume trap is a cycle where individuals add more and more volume to their workouts with less intensity, leading to high fatigue and low training adaptation. The video uses this term to describe a common mistake that can hinder progress and lead to gym fatigue.

💡Functional Overreaching

Functional overreaching is a temporary decrease in performance due to hard training, which is expected and can be beneficial if managed correctly with a planned deload. The video explains that this is different from non-functional overreaching and is a normal part of intense training.

💡Non-Functional Overreaching

Non-functional overreaching occurs when the body does not recover from functional overreaching, leading to a prolonged decrease in performance and increased fatigue. The video warns that this state requires significant changes to training to prevent overtraining syndrome.

💡Overtraining Syndrome

Overtraining syndrome is a severe state characterized by months to years of decreased performance, sleep disturbances, sickness, and chronic low energy levels. The video advises that athletes in this state should prioritize health over performance and seek professional help.

💡Progress Tracking

Progress tracking involves monitoring one's training to ensure that it is leading to improvements. The video stresses the importance of tracking progress, such as five rep max, to identify when more training is not leading to the expected progress and changes are needed.

💡Recovery

Recovery in the video refers to the rest and restoration phase after training, which is crucial for avoiding overtraining and ensuring that the body adapts positively to training stimuli. It is highlighted as a key factor in managing training volume and intensity.

Highlights

Some people experience gym fatigue due to a misbalance between effort and progress.

Beginners often believe more effort directly leads to more progress, which can lead to confusion when this doesn't occur.

Humans adapt to different training volumes, but fatigue can occur when there's too much general stress versus specific stress.

General stress happens when a new stimulus, like an unfamiliar type of exercise, is added to training.

Consistent training in the same types of exercises leads to more specific stress, which the body can adapt to more efficiently.

The 'volume trap' is a common issue where people increase workout volume with less intensity, leading to high fatigue but minimal progress.

Lifting lighter weights with more reps, even though it feels hard, may not always contribute to strength gains.

Tracking measurable progress, like a five-rep max, helps to ensure that training is effective and not just exhausting.

To avoid the volume trap, reduce training volume and increase intensity to stimulate better adaptations.

Adding recovery tools like ice baths or massage guns doesn't solve the root issue of junk volume.

Overreaching can lead to temporary performance drops, but deloading and recovery help manage fatigue and improve long-term performance.

Non-functional overreaching is more serious, leading to stagnation, mood disturbances, and even health issues if not managed properly.

Athletes in overtraining syndrome experience chronic fatigue, performance losses, and may need medical intervention.

Long-term progress tracking helps to identify when training stress is no longer effective and when adjustments are necessary.

Training plans should be based on individual capacity and goals rather than comparing with others to avoid burnout and fatigue.

Transcripts

hey what's up guys Matt with the

movement system in this video we're

going to talk about why gym fatigue

occurs and what you can do about it

after working with hundreds of clients

over the last 10 years I've noticed a

pattern some people are able to stay

motivated and make progress from month

to month consistently for years others

for some reason end up getting to a

point where it seems like they more that

they add to their workout the less

progress they make this can be really

confusing because especially as a

beginner you learn that the more work

that you put in the more progress that

you make so in this video we're going to

try to identify where the problem is and

why some people when they push harder

and harder seem to make less progress

let's go ahead and dive into it okay so

it's important to lay the groundwork

here humans are very adaptable you can

adapt to a very wide degree of training

volumes for example there have been

times where I've been training two or

three hours a week and felt tired from

it and there have been other times

leading up to an Iron Man Race For

example where I'm training 20 hours a

week and not feeling tired at all so why

does that happen well our body is

constantly adapting and day trading from

whatever training stimulus you give it

for example if you're running

progressively more and more each week

you would expect aerobic adaptations

like your ability to run go up and up

and up each week if at the same time

you're decreasing the amount of time

that you're putting in the gym you would

expect some amount of muscle atrophy

over that period of time long story

short your body adapts to whatever

training stimulus you give it now here's

where it gets important because it

starts to relate to training fatigue

that you might be experiencing your body

adapts differently to General stress and

specific stress here's what I mean by

that if for example I've been running

five hours a week and lifting one hour

per week in that case I have

specifically prepared for five hours of

running and one hour of resistance

training if next week I do five hours of

running in one hour resistance training

there's not a lot of General stress on

my body in fact that's almost all

specific stress because it's the same

stimulus that I've been giving my body

over the last few weeks by contrast if I

did five hours of resistance training in

one hour of running it's the same volume

of work but that's a lot of General

stress because it's four more hours of

resistance training that I've been used

to so with that same six hour training

week one week to the next I'm going to

experience a lot more fatigue from the

second option so a question to ask

yourself is how much of the stress of

your training has been General stress

versus specific stress this is a really

important principle to know because if

you're adding something brand new it's

more likely to cause a lot of General

stress and a lot of General stress

response to your body whereas if you're

adding something that's very similar to

what you've been doing but just to a

slightly higher dose that's how for

example endurance athletes can build up

to training 15 or 20 hours a week

without experiencing a ton of fatigue

similarly bodybuilders can work up to

being able to handle a lot of volume of

resistance training over time by adding

a little bit of General stress each week

and making sure that they're managing it

well but what if that hasn't been the

case for you and you haven't been able

to build up over time and it seems like

the more you add the more fatigue you

have even if it's doing the same thing

each week you're just more and more

fatigued in that case something went

wrong and we need to problem solve there

are two reasons that this could be

occurring let's walk through both the

first reason and I think this one is the

most common is the volume trap this is a

cycle where people will often get caught

adding more and more volume with less

and less intensity of training this is

specifically relevant to people who are

lifting weights kind of hard very

frequently here's what that looks like

often individuals are going into the gym

and they're kind of tired from their

training and from their life stress so

they just decide they're going to keep

going to the gym frequently but they

just decide they're going to do more

reps and less weight so even though you

can squat 315 for five reps instead

you're just gonna do 225 and you're

going to do a bunch of sets of 10. then

a few days later all that volume of

training from lightweight caused a lot

of fatigue but didn't cause very much

training adaptation there is a

disproportionate response High fatigue

low training response what does this

lead people to do it leads people to

feel tired and fatigued so they keep

going to the gym keep doing even less

weight or about that same amount of

weight more reps more reps because they

think they just need to keep doing more

and more to make progress and the cycle

continues I've seen this dozens of times

and it really is the junk volume trap

your body doesn't respond well to sets

that are far from failure sub-maximal

even if that training feels hard and

you're tired and you're sore it doesn't

necessarily mean you're getting better

that's why it's really important to

track some something like your five rep

max month to month and make sure that

you're actually making progress on

something that is measurable anytime I

have clients that I'm working with on my

programs who are tracking five rep max

and we're not seeing a jump from week to

week if they're adding more volume and

they're not seeing Improvement that's a

good indication that we need to dial the

training volume back and potentially

increase intensity so for problem one

the volume trap the solution is to

decrease the training volume that's

causing all that fatigue and then put a

little bit of meaningful volume in with

enough intensity that we're actually

going to improve the rate of progress

and strength gains oftentimes I'll

introduce a block of training with

something like six sets of two five sets

of three something where we're not doing

that many reps but we can actually push

hard it's a different stimulus than the

high volume trap that you got caught in

and it can really help you make progress

and turn things around it's also

important to mention here that under

recovering is typically usually not the

case for these individuals often in the

thought process is I have all this

fatigue I'm doing a lot of volume of

training so I need to add an ice bath or

I need to add the sauna or I need to add

a massage gun to solve this problem but

more often than not that doesn't improve

outcomes nothing wrong with it if you

want to add that but we also need to

address the root cause which is a lot of

junk volume okay so the second reason

for stalled progress in the gym and more

fatigue is true overreaching or over

training this is less common and it

typically takes a very high volume of

training done for a long period of time

to get to this point that said I've had

clients who have gotten to this point

and really needed to dial back and focus

on other things importantly there are

levels to this if you've just been

feeling fatigued for a few days to weeks

you may actually be functionally

overreaching that is kind of level one

here this is a typical part of hard

training especially if you're working up

to a big event you're going to be

pushing to the point where you might see

a temporary decrease in performance a

little bit more fatigue but that could

be because you're planning a deload

you're planning to take some of that

training volume away and continue to

make progress functional overreaching is

something to notice but it's not

necessarily a big problem in a state of

functional overreaching we'll often see

less motor Recruitment and fast twitch

muscle fibers so your jump height for

example might go down but it's not that

big of a deal because you know you're

going to decrease your training stress

with a deload and you're going to be

able to continue progress over time okay

but if that stagnation or decrease in

performance lasts for weeks to months

that could be getting into a state of

non-functional overreaching this is

where it really becomes more of a

problem and we need to make some more

big changes indications of a state of

non-functional overreaching could be

things like increased resting heart rate

stagnations in performance mood

disturbances higher blood pressure and

stress levels these are all indications

that you could be in a state of

non-functional overreaching a lot of

athletes in this state think that they

need to push harder and break through a

plan Plateau so they'll add an extra run

add an extra lift add more intensity if

these additions to your training are not

making the expected increase in

performance it could be an indication

that you're not in an appropriate

training state to be adding more

training stress you might not be

handling the training stress you are

already experiencing very well it's

important that in this state we dial

back and focus on sleep in recovery so

that way you don't push all the way to

True overtraining syndrome over training

syndrome is characterized by months to

years of decreased performance sleep

disturbances sickness infection and

chronic low energy levels it's a good

idea for athletes who get to this point

to work with a medical professional or a

training professional to try to get back

on the right track and get healthy again

if you or an athlete that you're working

with has gotten to a true state of over

training it's really important to

prioritize physical health mental health

before worrying about performance

variables okay here are two key

takeaways number one make sure that your

measuring your progress long term this

can help you identify when adding more

training isn't causing the expected

response this is a good indication that

something needs to change we want to get

ahead of this early and make sure we're

introducing the right training stress to

cause the right response for you and

then number two and this one's very

important don't compare yourself to

others the right training stimulus for

you is probably within 10 percent of

whatever you did last week even if

someone else is in a very competitive

season and has low life stress and is

doing great you may or may not be able

to get anywhere close to their training

load consider what you did last week

what your long-term goals are and make a

small change five or ten percent to put

you on track for that if you've been

experiencing fatigue in the gym and

burnout I really hope this helps you

identify some of the problems and get

the right mindset to make changes and

make progress again one thing that can

really help with being consistent with

training and building up over time is

having a training program to follow if

you're looking for training program to

follow so that way you can go to the gym

open up an app and see exactly what you

need to do when you get to the gym as

well as track your progress from week to

week and month to month to make sure

you're making progress you can check out

some of the movement system programs

which I'll link in the description below

we have a vertical jump program to

improve your vertical jump and

athleticism as well as a strength and

hypertrophy program to build your

strength and hypertrophy thanks so much

for watching make sure you smash the

like button and subscribe so we see any

future videos and I'll catch you the

next one thanks

foreign

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