Doing all the things without experiencing burnout

[amanda_mag]

Hi Rebels,

I would like your thoughts on something. I have been following a fairly regular regime for the past year. It looks like this:

 

Monday and Wednesday

- 6-7am Strength training

- 8-9:30pm Krav Maga class

 

Friday

- 6-7am Strength and heavy bag training

 

Now I've added archery lessons on Saturday 9-11:30am. It's not much of a workout but I do use my muscles so I count it as training.

 

My conflict is, I would like to start rock climbing. I've done the math and with some tweaks on my work schedule I could do it Tuesdays and Thursdays for a couple of hours in the afternoon. My workplace provides very flexible hours. I can see the time is there but I'm afraid my body can't take it and I don't want to give up the other things I do.

 

I already experience burnout every few weeks and either I get sick or some part of my body starts hurting, which results in a week or more without working out. A couple of people in my life have suggested I'm over-training, but this doesn't sound like that much to me. I think it should be able to take it. I have an office job I love, but an office job after all, and I would like to mitigate the impact of sitting for eight hours as much as possible. 

 

I think it's relevant to mention that I do get enough sleep, 7-8 hours, although I don't always feel rested.

 

What would be your advice? 

 

How many activities or workouts do you do during the week? What do you do when you are legitimately too tired to work out?

[Raincloak]

Strength training and martial arts on the same day, even 12 hours apart, seems like a lot.  

Why not switch your strength workouts to Tuesdays and Thursdays (skip Friday), and either one strength training or one rock climb on Sundays?  That way you don't do the same or similar activities two days in a row.  You get a schedule like:

 

Monday - Krav Maga

Tuesday - Strength train

Wednesday - Krav Maga

Thursday - strength train

Friday - off

Saturday - archery

Sunday - strength train or rock climb, or rest if you need it

 

You can also walk or play Frisbee every day, and stretch every day.

[GymlessRanger]

I'd definitely ignore the overtraining comments - you're probably not at that point. In reality, it takes a TON of intensity, frequency, and volume to hit a state of true overtraining. It's just really not a common thing.

 

I second what Raincloak mentioned above. It's worthwhile to play around with your schedule and see if shifting some activities around helps. Another area you might want to consider is workout intensity - do you vary it at all? When you do your strength training, do you rotate between light, medium, and heavy days? If you're not already doing that, making a few changes there could also be an easy fix.