Too much stress or too little?

[CommanderFun]

What are some good diagnostic indicators of whether a lift is suffering due to either too much stress or too little?

[Wlodyd52]

Look up General Adaptation Syndrome as identified by Hans Selye (or pick-up PPST3). You want your training in Stage 1 and 2, not Stage 3. Stage 3 is overtraining (too much stress). The biggest indicator of overtraining is an actual reduction in performance (this is not just being stuck). Unless you're an advanced lifter or just beating yourself stupid in training somehow, it's probably not too much stress though. I'd also check your adaptation measures (sleep / nutrition) before changing the stressor too much.

[CommanderFun]

Look up General Adaptation Syndrome as identified by Hans Selye (or pick-up PPST3). You want your training in Stage 1 and 2, not Stage 3. Stage 3 is overtraining (too much stress). The biggest indicator of overtraining is an actual reduction in performance (this is not just being stuck). Unless you're an advanced lifter or just beating yourself stupid in training somehow, it's probably not too much stress though. I'd also check your adaptation measures (sleep / nutrition) before changing the stressor too much.

I have PPST and understand the Selye model. I was just curious if there were any good indicators to differentiate between not making enough stress to adapt and creating too much. I've heard about stopped progress vs actual regression being a signs of either before, I was just curious if there was anything else.

[Satch12879]

You miss reps.

[CommanderFun]

You miss reps.

Can't that mean either one?

[Cole Gorton]

When I start getting mentally burned out, less motivation, less desire to train, feeling less explosive, more aches and pains....that usually means ive overdone either the intensity or volume or both in the past few weeks.

When im feeling fresh but simply cannot move the load i want or am failing the Rx for the day, it means i havent been pushing it hard enough

[Schrodinger23]

I have PPST and understand the Selye model. I was just curious if there were any good indicators to differentiate between not making enough stress to adapt and creating too much. I've heard about stopped progress vs actual regression being a signs of either before, I was just curious if there was anything else.

I could be wrong, but I think it is likely easy to tell if there is too much stress, as it is something that any intermediate has already experienced. With too much stress you will feel that same overtraining effect that you had at the end of NLP, unless you were working under the guidance of a coach that was able to really dial things in to where a programming change was made at just the right time to avoid this. For me it takes a couple of weeks of overtraining before I realize that I'm knee or waist deep in it. Symptoms are loss of appetite, I feel really run down and not much energy to do anything, feeling a bit depressed on top of physically realizing that there is a problem when you start missing reps and regressing in progress. Most likely joints feel beat up too. If there is not enough stress I don't think you will get any of those overtraining symptoms, but you will start missing reps.