Deep Fatigue - An Athlete's Worst Nightmare

I was first introduced to this concept as a player in college. My sophomore year, we started out the season with great energy and passion. By the end of the season, we ran out of gas. It was like our collective bodies would just not operate the same. We were fatigued and exhausted. The losses piled up!

What happened? Our pre-season condiitoning program was so intense and so exhausting that we never let our bodies rest. Once the season started, we were in shape and ready to go. But our lack of rest throughout the year caused us to unravel. Our bodies hit a point called “deep fatigue.” Deep fatigue is the body actually shutting down to an extent in order to recover. In other words, if you don’t rest, your body will force you to rest whether you want to or not. Our job as athletes, then, is to be in the best possible shape while avoiding deep fatigue.

As a trainer, I still have to be very careful of this. For instance, in the next couple of months, I’m doing camps, clinics, team workouts, personal training, and motivational speeches in Virginia, then North Carolina, back to Virginia, then Phoenix, back again to North Carolina, right to Michigan, back to Virginia, over to New Jersey, right back to North Carolina, directly to Canada, and another stop in North Carolina before I come home again to Virginia! And ,of course, Ganon’s traveling more than that! If we don’t find time for rest, we will run out of gas and burn out our bodies. We must be careful in our business, in all our hard work, to find rest.

I tell each one of my players this: They must take atleast one full day off of working out a week. And on this day off, they shouldn’t do a thing. I’m saying don’t do any activities that require your body to work, period. Take it easy. Chill with you family and friends!!!

This can be tough to do for driven, competitive athletes. I had to figure this out as well, because I hate the feeling of not working towards my dreams! But I have learned one important lesson and this is what I want you to get. Always remember, you can get more out of your body in six days and even five days, then you can ever get out of it in seven. Rest, taking time off, will actually maximize what you can get out of your workouts on a weekly basis. And that’s a fact! Try it for a month and tell me I’m wrong!!!