Overtraining in Endurance Athletes are BJJ Athletes at risk?

By Lauren Tomory

(I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I feel like crap!)

I’m not hitting the repeats like I did last fall. I haven’t really on “autopilot” during a run in weeks or months. I’ve got no power. I’ve come down with a cold and just, well, feel like crap!

That’s me; does it sound like you?

If so, you probably are trying to pinpoint the one cause for why you are feeling like this. That’s human nature. Well, it’s not one reason, it’s likely an all-encompassing term called overtraining. Endurance athletes are constantly walking the balance beam, with the dark pit of overtraining on one side and the pansy place of undertraining on the other. BJJ athletes are no different!

What is it?

The net effects of exercise and training are generally extremely positive. Practically, exercise can be thought of on a continuum from not enough to too much exercise. Too much exercise can result in a reduction in the effectiveness of the immune system to fight disease and increase negative mood behaviors. This is the paradox of overtraining – it is when the many benefits of exercise are reversed with too much training stress. As stated above, athletes are constantly walking the tight rope of too much and too little exercise, since high levels of training are required for success in sport. To give one example, Kuipers (1996) stated that when total duration of training for elite distance runners exceeds 15 hours per week, a performance decrease usually occurs. To go even further, burnout occurs with too much training and little intervention to mitigate overtraining’s effects. This is the most serious case, because it generally results in the athlete withdrawing from participation in sport.

What causes it?

A BJJ athlete graduates from recreational to competitive when training is imposed to improve performance and prepare for competitions. For runners, this means running more miles; for swimmers, it means practicing swimming more laps each day, etc. The goal in practice is to make training gains. However, the opposite can sometimes occur. This is, simply put, a failure to make training gains, or staleness.

What happens when an athlete experiences staleness? Generally, the runner decides to run more or the swim coach has his / her athlete swim more. If the athlete is unable to move through staleness, overtraining occurs. Note that overtraining is ultimately a malfunction – the inability of an athlete to adjust to the demands of the training stress.

It is extremely important to intervene in an overtraining case before the athlete experiences an overall mental, physical, social, and spiritual exhaustion caused by training stress know as burnout. Burnout is almost synonymous with withdrawal, as one generally follows the other.

Symptoms

Overtraining manifests itself in many different forms. The first can be physical, including damage to the connective tissue, cartilage, and bone. It can also include metabolic overload (inadequate glycogen levels), and psychological overload (mood disturbance). Symptoms include: fatigue during performance, decreased motivation, a decline in performance, mood disturbance, emotional instability, and a reduction in immune function which sets the athlete up for infection (Kuiper, 1996). For example, a study was conducted by Berglung and Safstrom in 1994 that measured mood disturbance in Swedish athletes leading up to the Barcelona Olympics. Mood disturbance was repeatedly observed in swimmers and runners, although it was also seen on rarer occasions in basketball players and in other non-endurance sports. The result of this study and others is that mood changes should be monitored and interventions should occur when mood changes vary more than a pre-determined level.

Burnout can be identified through the administration of various burnout inventories including the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) or the Eades Athletic Burnout Inventory (EABI) including others. In summary, physiological symptoms include:

-          Increased resting and exercise heart rate

-          Increased resting systolic blood pressure

-          Increased muscle soreness and chronic muscle fatigue

-          Increased presence of biochemical indicators of stress in the blood

-          Increased sleep loss

-          Increased colds and respiratory infections

-          Decreased body weight

-          Decreased maximal aerobic power

-          Decreased muscle glycogen

-          Decreased libido and appetite

Additionally, psychological symptoms include:

-          Increased mood disturbances

-          Increased perception of physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion

-          Decreased self-esteem

-          Negative change in the quality of personal interaction with others

-          Negative cumulative reaction to chronic everyday stress as opposed to acute dosages of stress.

(Sport Psychology, Concepts and Applications, 4^th Edition, pg. 370)

Interventions & Recommendations

Gould, Udry, Tuffey, and Loehr (1996) conducted an investigation involving the study of burnout on junior tennis players, and I will use their recommendations in this article. There are few empirical studies on burnout and positive interventions, so your challenge is to apply these recommendations to your athletic self.

(Sport Psychology, Concepts and Applications, 4^th Edition, pg. 372)

In summary, if you don’t remember anything from this article, remember this quote from Dr. Scott Murr at the Furman Institute of Running and Scientific Training in Greenville, SC:

“It’s better to be 10% undertrained than 1% over-trained going into an endurance event.”

See you on the BJJ mat…

Travis Lutter
BJJ
817-781-4243

Travis Lutter  BJJ Are you ready for a No Nonsense, Real Deal Mixed Martial Arts, Jiu-Jitsu/MMA Academy? Try out our World Class program in Fort Worth TX Risk Free for 30 Days. That’s right, come train for free in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, BJJ, Muay Thai Kickboxing, MMA, Submission Wrestling or bring your child to one of our Kids Programs for 30 Days FREE,plus our BJJ 60 Day Money Back Guarantee.  Travis Lutter BJJ

Jackson’s Introduces an MMA Belt Ranking System

Everybody in the martial arts world has heard of a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, a black belt in Judo, a black belt in karate, and on down the line of traditional martial arts.

But with mixed martial arts becoming one of the most popular sports on a worldwide level, what about a belt system for those that simply do MMA?

Well, the team at Jackson’s MMA has introduced a new belt system specifically gauged around MMA training, with a belt levels ranging all the way from white belt to black belt, all under the instruction of head trainer Greg Jackson.

“It took us a long time to develop it. It basically takes everything from his books and in the gym into one system, and basically Greg wrote the new curriculum, so there’s actually a legitimate MMA belt system. We’re already testing on it at Jackson’s Martial Arts and Fitness Academy, and it’s working beautifully,” said Ricky Kottenstette, gym manager at Jackson’s in Albuquerque, N.M.

For years, Jackson had his own hybrid style of martial arts he dubbed Gaidojutsu that he taught to his fighters.

Now with Century MMA on board as a partner, Jackson has a new belt system specifically geared towards MMA. The system will work no differently than a belt graduation and acceleration program for any other martial art.

The Jackson’s MMA belts will be taught in all of the New Mexico based gyms, but it’s not only for fighters, it also applies to any students simply looking to learn mixed martial arts for fun or sport.

“This is Greg Jackson’s belt. I mean his style has his own deal, he had his own name for it, but we just kind of switched it to Jackson’s MMA,” said Kottenstette. “This is a Jackson’s MMA belt. You have jiu-jitsu, judo, and all the other forms, but Greg’s system is very effective and this is just sort of the premier testing platform for a belt system, that has guidelines all the way to the top, all the way to black belts.”

Prior to this new belt system being introduced, many of Jackson’s top students had earned black belt honors. Keith Jardine, Joey Villasenor, Georges St-Pierre, and new head instructor at the recently opened second Jackson’s academy, John Dodson, lead the way.

The key to this new system is that it allows not only fighters, but anybody that’s interested in learning the Jackson’s MMA system, whether you intend on ever actually stepping foot in a cage or not.

“You don’t have to get into the UFC Octagon to prove it and be a contender like most of the other guys did growing up,” Kottestette stated. “This is our opportunity to help people learn all of Greg’s system and learn his techniques, and he does the actual belt testing. So when student’s test, they test with Greg Jackson; so he does all the belt graduations.”

The Jackson’s MMA belts are already being taught in the different academies in New Mexico, with a new gym currently in the planning stages as well.