Overreaching Weight Training Workouts
Overreaching is a very well-studied phenomenon, sports science has been aware of the cumulative micro-trauma caused by training with high intensity for a prolonged period for years.
The specific definition of overreaching is rather complicated because it needs to consider many variables, such as intensity, volume, frequency, etc., but it comes down to purposely overdoing your training for a short period of time to produce and higher adaptive response.
Obviously the link between overreaching and overtraining is very strong but there is a difference. Sports science has now proven that athletes who trains with a high intensity are more susceptible to both long-term and short-term decrements in their performance capacity, plus a myriad of other reported medical and/or psychological symptoms that are directly connected to overreaching and overtraining.
But sports science always tries to keep one step ahead of its own inventions and it now offers us HRV (heart rate variability) which gives us a way to measure exactly how close we are to overtraining and/or overreaching. The overreaching routine listed below is designed to force your body into not being able to recover fully.
There is a very fine line between overreaching strategically and overtraining, tracking the daily changes of your HRV will enable you to objectively plot your rate of recovery from every workout you do. The objective is to reach into the hell of overreaching, putting your body under maximum stress.
The argument is that hidden deep underneath this hell you're going through when overreaching is a monster who is sizeable and very strong. The monster is released on the de-load after the overreaching has been completed, this monster is then released, unveiling strength as your body composition changes.
The overreaching protocol is complex, it needs 4 weeks of preparation work, 2 weeks of high-rep overreaching, 2 week's heavier loads and 2-weeks of doing the rebound period. We cannot list every workout as the sets and rep's change from the 4-week prep to the peak of 2 weeks overreaching, so we have selected a random chest day in the first week of overreaching to give you an idea of the intensity. You can only appreciate the monster if you understand the hell of overreaching.
The two weeks of overreaching is to train 5 days a week, hitting each body-part hard. As you can see this routine is high intensity to the max. You should select a weight that is around 75% 1RM and super-set movement A1 with A2, then superset B1 with B2 and then complete C1 and C2 completing the chest workout for the day with inverted rowing.
Exercise Week 1 Rest A1 Deadlift 8 x 3 90 sec. A2 Bench Press 8 x 3 90 sec. B1 Floor Press 4 x 8 90 sec. B2 Chest Supported Row 4 x 8 90 sec. C1 Dumbbell Bench Press 4 x 8 90 sec. C2 Inverted Row 4 x 8 60 sec.
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