Over-trained Again!

Over-training is something you would expect happens to an athlete in the perfect shape of their lives. It is not supposed to happen to an overweight 42 year old who had been very careful about food quality and amounts, internal exercising, and external exercise.


I have lost 157 pounds (initial weight in 2002 minus the weight yesterday) in the last 9 years and have very dense muscle mass due to 16 years of power-lifting. It has been 9 years since I have trained with weights as a majority of my workout. I only use weights occasionally for reps and to mix things up but never to rip the muscle for increased size.


My current workout consists of morning Taoist exercises of pressure points, rubbing, massage, breathing and meditation(45 mins to an hour), then in the afternoon I do an internal workout of Tao that consists of the 5 animals of Tao. Then I mix it up during the week with Pa-kua and Chigong for about 45 minutes. Two to three times per week I go to the gym and perform the Peak8 routine found on Dr. Mercola’s website: http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2010/11/13/phil-campbell-on-peak-8-exercises.aspx  (I wrote the entire link because there is a bug in Dr. M’s website that makes you sign in but then takes you to the home page instead of to the article.)

As intense as the exercise is to your body, I am just powering through 8 - 20 to 30 second sprints on a seated stationary bike.

This is a maintainable workout that should not cause me any undue strain or stress.

So why the hell am I over-trained?!?!

{“Over-training is where you train your body above its capacity meaning it cannot recover and adapt quickly enough to be prepared for the following training session”

Basically, this means you’re training too hard with not enough rest. I’ve read in-depth explanations of what over-training is and it all comes down to too much training and not enough rest. There are other factors like diet to consider, but these are rarely the cause of over-training in 99% of cases.} from www.muscleandstrength.com

Although this is a sensible explanation, it is so hard for me to believe I am training too hard. I do accept it though and know why I am not sick from training too hard. My Taoist training, although in its infancy, has shown me how to heal through herbs and spices and by the touches, massages, and breath concentration on my internal organs. That last part means I breathe, concentrate on the organ I am massaging or touching, and do not let my mind waiver. I have been following this philosophy 7 days a week for the last 27 weeks and have bypassed nearly all the infections people around me have had. I said nearly because all 5 of my immediate family had the stomach flu with the works; diarrhea, vomiting, and more. I finally did get it but with only the stomach pain and I used Taoist stomach rubbing techniques to make that go away in a day and a half. In addition, I learned that the stomach flu is made worse by meat or dairy and when I have it, which is nevermore, I only eat rice, bananas, breads and oatmeal.


...So this is where I stopped writing the article I should have published Thursday and really thought about my body and the state it is in right this moment.


Before when I have over-trained I would get sick and come down with something viral leading to sickness and all around icky-ness. Now in addition to the Tao of Revitalization, I take fenugreek seeds, pure oregano oil, eat lots of parsley, oregano, ginger and green onions, take 1000mg of vitamin c I could find, and eat fruits and vegetables all the time. I know my body must ingest 2900 calories per day for me to lose 1 lb per week. Calorie estimator calculated on EverydayHealth.com.

I have no idea what caused this. So I went to the Great Tao for answers. It’s a large book covering a majority of all there is to know about the methodologies in Taoism. The answer was there of course. Too much too fast. I had added three Pa-kua power moves workouts from Sifu Jerry Johnson that fired up every muscle in my body. Pa-kua is very intense in the way that you are pulling in chi energy and doing moves that activate nearly every major muscle goup. Apparently I am just not ready yet.
So now I wait for a week to recover with only the morning routine and some slow walking to loosen up my tight muscle fibers.


It’s frustrating how long it takes to achieve health goals. I sure wasn’t thinking about health goals when I nearly destroyed myself. I look at pictures of myself 10 years ago and I wonder what the hell did I do. Although I feel like crying when I see myself then, I also realize that this morbidly obese version of me made the choice to change knowing then it would be a 10-11 year ride to lose the weight in a way it would not return like so many fad diets and celebrity diets do.

“Every year it took you to get real fat is the number times 1.15 to get back to health.”

Now that I am completely dedicated and succeeding I am stronger than ever in my mind, but tend to try to rush things once in a while. This is why adapting or adopting (not sure which word is best) a strong positive philosophy, religion, or both, is so important for you no matter which one you choose. Without it you can fail along the path and never get up.


I am so grateful for those who bless me with so much. I am content knowing I will reach my goal and thankful there is something or someone up high to boost me back up when I sometimes fall.


Please note that this post and my previous ones are my experiments and decisions I have made in my life. I cannot speak for you and how you got to where you are. But I can generalize that 75% of you are over 35 years of age, obese or over-weight suddenly need to lose weight today. Let me further say your diets are too constricting calorie wise, full of processed foods you think are healthy, drinking too much and too wrong liquids, and exercising in such a habitual or intense way that your body gets used to it or is over-trained within weeks. I see these people in the gym all the time.  Do you really think that a woman who is very obese who once ate 4000 calories per day is going to do well at 1500?


A 350 pound inactive woman requires a certain number of calories to keep the weight she is at. She can only reduce her calorie intake by 500 calories per day so she is reducing her weight by a pound per week (500 x 7 = 3500 calories = 1 pound of fat). If she is trying to lose 200 pounds it will take her almost 200 weeks to do it. That’s 4 years.


The reason I always mention that it takes the same number of years as you got fat to lose it is because we meet all sorts of strange diseases and plateaus along the way. If you reached 350 pounds 4 years ago and stayed that way, you made the fat in your body a lot denser and a lot harder to lose.


Also we are not as dedicated as we think we can be and you deserve to cheat one meal a week out of 21. This draws out the process.

Americans are in real trouble because so many people here expect the responsibility for their health to be on someone else’s shoulders. Until it is clear that you are responsible and that so many doctors are just in bed with big pharmaceutical companies, you are going to rot slowly and then quickly. Oh you probably wont die but you will want to.


Like I said I cannot speak for you but I implore you to speak for yourself. Ask questions, demand explanations, demand healthy alternatives from your doctors. They hardly know all even though they believe they do. What they do know is how to take stock of where you are right now. What you do with that data can mean a lifetime of so-called treatments or a cure.

Demand it because no one really cares about your health. Let me say it louder,

NO ONE REALLY CARES ABOUT YOUR HEALTH!

Let me explain. Spouses, partners, friends and family care about you very much and always will but if you aren’t dedicated to your health, they aren’t going to be either. Other than your significant other, the rest have lives of their own and problems of their own. You health is not in the front of their mind.

For example, you know that aunt and uncle who was always fat, always ate too much, drank too much, and then suddenly dies or needs to be on dialysis 3 days a week. You always loved them but we minded our business when it came to their personal health. We don’t tend to pry and when we do we are told to piss off in the nicest way. It’s that way with parents, friends, etc. This is a good reason to have a nemesis who would love to tell you all kinds of things to your face. Revenge is a good motivator if its done to benefit you.

Well that’s it. I went on a lit bit of a rant but the USA is in a bit of trouble and we all need, myself included, a kick in the ass.

Namaste!