workout or rest?

[DougPaul]

It may just be overall rest through the week. I avoid workouts prior to a weekend of a serious hike. I'm not afraid of overtraining, just wearing myself out and not being well rested-- which makes an enormous impact on me. If you are working all week and adding a workout at the end of the workday, it just may leave you more exhausted at the end of the week. Just a thought.

I treat hikes as (an intense) part of my exercise program and taper before and rest after accordingly.

Doug

 

[Kevin Rooney]

This may be stating the obvious, but don't overlook things like work, personal relationships, major life events (moving, death/divorce/marriage, promotions, demotions, etc) as having a big impact on our perceived physical energy levels.

 

[JohnL]

I’m not so sure it would be easy to figure out what is holding you back from the limited information you have given but I would also agree that you should look at your diet and sleeping patterns. I’d also ask how long you have been working out and what you do while working out, as well as what and when you eat after working out and/or hiking. The recovery is just as important as the exercise. I really don’t think I would categorize what you are experiencing as overtraining though.

Your age may or may not be relevant depending upon your overall fitness level and weight. Most of the group I hike with are older than you (including me) but we have been very active in aerobic outdoor activities for 30+ years. At our age it makes a big difference if you have or have not been doing this stuff continuously for a long time.

Diet requirements (as well as sleep, workout and recovery regimens) are highly individualistic so I would take one person’s story as a data point and not necessarily as advice. One person’s anecdote is another person’s “So what!” That being said, remember that hiking is an endurance activity, not a strength activity. You need to take each one of these areas of 'fitness' activities and find out what works best for you.

JohnL

 

[Stash]

I've noticed with both hiking and cycling that the further I am into the season (summer for biking, winter for hiking) and the better sport-specific shape I'm in the longer it takes to get warmed up. Before I get warmed up I need to take it relatively easy of I'll feel like I'm going to fail. Once I reach that warmmed up point, up to 10 miles for biking this time of year, I can really crank at a high pace for a long time. But not until I'm warmed up.

 

[Little Rickie]

the longer it takes to get warmed up. Before I get warmed up .

Seriously, sounds like an overtrainning response/signal to me.

 

[The Lisa]

One piece of advice that I have seen is to not let your thighs get below horizontal--going too far down puts large amounts of stress on the knee. This can be done by doing the squats above a chair of an appropriate height such that your butt hits the chair before you get too low.

Doug

I beg to differ. Not picking on you in particular DP, as I see this belief touted a lot, while reading a lot of evidence to the contrary (one article posted below - there are many more).
NOT squatting below parallel puts a lot more strain on the knee, than getting those hips down below knee level.

When done correctly, with the instruction of a trainer, squats with or without weight activate the posterior chain and get the hamstrings and glutes fired up. Since I added olympic lifting to my workouts one year ago (back squats, front squats, etc. with a barbell) I have become a lot more powerful at climbing hills, especially running up them. I have never developed knee problems. Delayed onset muscle soreness in hams and glutes, yes

http://www.tonygentilcore.com/2010/...quatting-below-parallel-is-bad-for-the-knees/

 

[TCD]

Native peoples all over the world squat to full depth all the time. But they don't do it with added weight, and by and large they die of infectious disease before their hearts, knees, etc., wear out. Knee damage can develop over very long periods of time. Use caution.

 

[Little Rickie]

I beg to differ. Not picking on you in particular DP, as I see this belief touted a lot, while reading a lot of evidence to the contrary (one article posted below - there are many more).
NOT squatting below parallel puts a lot more strain on the knee, than getting those hips down below knee level.

When done correctly, with the instruction of a trainer, /[/url]

I beg to differ-- Having lifted weights on and off most of my life and made the deep squat mistake, be very very carefull.

I agree there are benefits of doing deep squats but ther is also a tremendous mechanical disadvantage. Speed and weight leverage against the knee is significant. The trade off of the for most trainers is it isn't worth the risk of going below parallel.

When done correctly, with the instruction of a trainer

Absolutely! Most people don't don't follow this advice though.


You can get away with this a lot more when your young. Just ask anyone, that was a tough guy in sports when they were young, how their knee and hip surgery went.

 

[The Lisa]

Instruction on correct form and technique should indeed be stressed, thanks, Little Rickie.
Not to contribute to thread drift - I think the OP definitely needs some medical testing to find out the cause of fatigue. Working out just twice a week does not sounds like overdoing it. That should be contributing to hiking strongly and not feeling sore or weak afterwards.
Please keep us posted on how you progress.
I have suffered from overtaining and burnout and when my body had had enough it let me know. Coming back from a multiple-weeks' rest felt so good!

 

[Tuco]

Native peoples all over the world squat to full depth all the time. But they don't do it with added weight, and by and large they die of infectious disease before their hearts, knees, etc., wear out. Knee damage can develop over very long periods of time. Use caution.

Hindu Squats... http://www.mattfurey.com/hindu_squats.html

 

[Stash]

Seriously, sounds like an overtrainning response/signal to me.

I'm curious why you say this. Once warmed up I can ride/bike at a high pace for miles.. It just takes time to get over that hump. No bad effects the following day.

 

[bikehikeskifish]

In strictly quantitative terms, when over-trained you will see

* a deflection in the heart rate versus power output curve
* either your heart rate will not rise to where it usually does
* your resting heart rate will be elevated above normal
* the heart rate return to a given level will take longer (recovery)
* your wattage will be below normal for a given heart rate

or some combination of all of these.

Tim

 

[Little Rickie]

I'm curious why you say this. Once warmed up I can ride/bike at a high pace for miles.. It just takes time to get over that hump. No bad effects the following day.

It just seems to me if the warm up takes longer then your body may be telling you something. Unless you getting old.

 

[DougPaul]

In strictly quantitative terms, when over-trained you will see

* a deflection in the heart rate versus power output curve
* either your heart rate will not rise to where it usually does
* your resting heart rate will be elevated above normal
* the heart rate return to a given level will take longer (recovery)
* your wattage will be below normal for a given heart rate

or some combination of all of these.

There are a whole list of other possible symptoms: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overtraining

Doug

 

[DougPaul]

I'm curious why you say this. Once warmed up I can ride/bike at a high pace for miles.. It just takes time to get over that hump. No bad effects the following day.

My guess is that this isn't particularly serious. I'd be happy if it were my only problem...

Doug

 

[Stash]

My guess is that this isn't particularly serious. I'd be happy if it were my only problem...

Doug

THanks. Not a complaint. Just an observation. Sometimed I need to push a bit to get over that hump. THen it's free sailing.

 

[DougPaul]

THanks. Not a complaint. Just an observation. Sometimed I need to push a bit to get over that hump. THen it's free sailing.

It is only my guess and it may be worth no more than you paid for it...

In a somewhat similar vein, it feels like the ratio of the leg strength (in the leg that sustained the break) when warmed up to the strength when not warmed up has increased since my accident. Who knows? Maybe it is my imagination or maybe everything is weaker so that I can now feel the lack of strength when doing ordinary (non-athletic) things.

Anyhow, good luck with it. Presumably not a problem as long as it doesn't get worse.

Doug

 

[WhiteMTHike]

Of course it is possible to work out too much, but hiking on weekends and working out two days during the week doesn't sound like overdoing it.

Other considerations: How is your diet? General health? How much sleep do you get? Not days off WRT exercise but how much actual sleep? Sleep is way underrated, IMHO.

TRUE. Sleep is enjoyable. It's the one time of the day when it is truly your time and nobody messes with you.

Adk dib,

It's easy to overtrain. I've been working out for 30 years but I don't ever feel that I've ever overtrained. I workout every day but I do different body parts on the days I lift. The other days I do cardio. Mixing it up can make it more fun. It's also important so that you are giving different muscle groups a chance to rest.

 

[mtneqgurl]

Chiming in a little late here...

...but even minimal levels of dehydration make my legs feel like lead on a run. Given the temps this summer that ‘s a possibility. As my husband and I are both over 50 hikers and technical rock climbers, I second the other responses, to get a checkup, look at diet, meds & actual rest. My workout patterns seem to run about the same as yours, interspersed with yoga and rockwork.

 

[jniehof]

Couple of thoughts:
-I work out 5-6 days per week and find that reasonably sustainable. I never was particularly "jocky" when younger and it took me years to work up to that.
-I still make sure to take a rest day before and after anything big, which would include a weekend hiking or a race. I always feel far better after a rest day, but I wouldn't feel that good if I weren't working out the rest of the time!
-When I'm training at this level, I'm very susceptible to anything knocking my body out of whack: disruption in sleep schedule, too much or too little food or of the wrong type, even a single beer can make me feel pretty rotten the next day. I had a friend who was a PT and loved wine, but if she had a single glass she claimed she could feel it for a week.

Working out Tues/Thurs and hiking Sat-Sun sounds like a pretty good schedule. You might want to reduce the intensity (not the frequency) a little if you're still feeling cruddy on Saturday morning (provided you're getting adequate sleep; I for one am incapable of "up at 3am drive to the trailhead" shenanigans that some people around here eat up.) It might also be worth a consult with a trainer.

And sometimes you do just have a bad day, for small reason or none. I tried doing Liberty a couple of winters ago and had buffalo chicken fajitas the night before; that did not go well....