Gym Fatigue Explained & How to Fix It
Summary
TLDRIn 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
🏋️♂️ 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.
🧠 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.
📊 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.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Gym Fatigue
💡Adaptability
💡Training Volume
💡Intensity
💡Stress
💡Volume Trap
💡Functional Overreaching
💡Non-Functional Overreaching
💡Overtraining Syndrome
💡Progress Tracking
💡Recovery
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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