I've totally crashed. I have no idea why. Maybe from 8 years of abusive, bodybuilding style workouts? I've tried everything over the last two or three years, but the workouts have only gotten worse and worse. Every once in a while I'll have one halfway decent workout, and then another two weeks or a month of utter failure -- no pump, no muscle sensation at all, no soreness. I no longer feel like I'm even exercising in the gym. I can understand a lack of progress in terms of increasing lean mass or decreasing bodyfat -- that's to be expected. But when you set foot in the gym and walk out an hour later without even breaking a sweat or pumping any blood into the muscle, no matter how hard you try, and nothing to show for it but a creeping ache in your joints, what's the point? I don't even feel healthy.
Last night i went for a jog, nothing serious, about 30 minutes at a nice, even pace. It felt atrocious on my hip flexors (never had that problem before), and i just got the impression my body was broken and worn down. But it did allow me to feel good about myself, a little bit. It DID feel like i was exercising, like i was working to maintaining some semblance of health.
So, I got to thinking, should I just put down the weights for a while, and jog a little to satisfy my instinct for exercise? I never wanted it to come to this, but I truly feel as if I've exhausted every other option short of loading up on hormones (which I'm not going to do). I finally feel as if I've tried everything. I've looked into form, posture, stretching, volume/intensity/exercise selection, different diets, mobility work, everything I can think of, and none of it seems to help. The only remaining option I can see is to take time completely off, and seeing if my body heals on its own.
I'm a little scared to do this, because as miserable as I am now, I do at least have a decent physique, which I don't want to lose completely. But as it is, I'm just grinding through three utterly sad and ineffective workouts a week, which don't even stimulate me. I suppose at this point I think it's worth the risk to see if time off can help me; if it can't, then I'm just in for a slow, sad slide into shit-physique-ville anyway.
Does this sound like a good idea to anyone else? Has anyone else had a similar experience at some point?
Open Google, search for "over training". Forget these stupid assholes, they are just children, you can't get good advice from these idiots. Long rest is best cure for this, but searching information helps you decide what more you can do.
When I hit the same wall, it take whole year to get back in to business, meaning the point where I was before the crash. You must take it easy, no hurry and you will be good. You will feel when you are ready to go back to gym, and meanwhile you have good time to think your training all over again. I was doing four split with heavy duty type- training without any light weeks, and it put me on my knees. While resting, I study other ways to do it, and I find out that with three split I can go as heavy as I want to week by week without any problems. Four years training before the crash +10 after it tells me that I find right answer for me. Another point is that earlier I was going straight by the program, when I start over I concentrate for the body part, and choose exercises in the moment. I don't really plan my training, I play by the ear, I am feeling good and my PB's are steadily rising.
