I've been feeling pretty tired lately and it seems like I need a good recharge. I play tennis 5 times a week, about 2-3 hours each time. I do cardio everyday for at least 45 minutes. I just got off from another month of HIIT, where I did it 3 times per week. I go to my local 24hours fitness and lift weights as well as attending the yoga class 4 times a week. I am about to start on p90x. So, I've pretty much decided that I'd take a complete break, from EVERYTHING for an entire week before I start the p90x program. Is this a good idea? I do feel a lot of fatigue lately and even a good 9 hours sleep doesn't help me recover completely. My muscles are tired, at least one muscle group is always sore. Is a week off too long/too short? I will of course be eating extra healthy on the break as well. I probably will also be stretching everyday still, but other then that, I'll just be laying down or sitting on my ass.
It is good to have some rest. A week shouldn't be excessive. But you should probably do some walking during that week.
Definitely take a break of at least several days and see how you feel. If you are itching to do a light workout before the end of the week that should be fine. But the general idea of giving your body a little rest to heal before you start up again is a good one.
If you workout the amount that you do, then you could be causing more harm to your body than anything. You aren't allowing your body to replenish itself. It needs rest to rebuild the broken down muscle fibers that you have been constantly working. It sounds like you have your act together, so I don't think doing a few days of light exercises would hurt at all. But the common phrase you don't use it, you lose it always holds true. Doing nothing is good for no one.
That's a lot of working out. You should rest for at least two days maybe more. And like chuck said, you should probably work in more rest to your schedule. Over doing it is counter productive and playing exhausted can work some bad habits into your game.
Yea, so far this is my 4th day of rest. I'd have to say, it feels pretty darn good...except I couldn't wait and started p90x yesterday, the plyometrics part that is :[ I will take you guys' advices on incorporating more rest into my schedule. Thanks for the input! I think 4 days rest is good enough now, I feel replenished already.
Training Unless you don't have a job and are able to sleep 10 hrs a day you are over training. I would do the cardio on your tennis off days with weights. Do the weights first then cardio. Forget about the HITT if you still want to do the yoga do it before tennis or after which ever works for you. I don't think tennis players need yoga. If you want to do speed work do it just once a week run some 100-200 meter sprints or just sprint the lines on the court before hitting. Just forget about doing px90 do some court drills and take some lesson's with your local pro. Once a week for a tune up then work on those things the other 4 days.
I don't understand why you're doing so much cardio when you already play tennis for 2-3 hrs/day. Why not just run sprints to increase your explosiveness and the tennis should give you all the extra cardio you need. I'm curious how your weightlifting is progressing (or not progressing) with all that cardio. Unless you eat a crap ton, I doubt that you have much muscle mass. Not that that's a must for tennis, but those weights probably feel a lot heavier than they would if you backed off the cardio a little bit. BTW, P90X is essentially cardio. Unless you need to drop weight (which I doubt), it seems like a waste of time to me. I'd be more concerned with the major barbell exercises (squat, bench, deadlift, you know the drill). Then again, you may not really be into strength training. It's hard to tell what some people define as "weightlifting".
Right, I am happy with my current strength. The only reason I'm still weight lifting is so that I keep my current strength, while at the same time building more endurance. I think I've read somewhere that weightlifting is a crucial part in losing body-fat as well. 5 days of tennis and 45 mins of cardio per day may have seemed like a lot, but all I do is swim for 45 minutes. I call it cardio, although many think of running as cardio. It always feels good to swim around in the pool at the end of the day. My weight lifting only lasts around 45 minutes each time I do it as well, and by weightlifting, I also do resistance band and etc. I was on break before, so I was able to play 5 times a week...but now it seems like I only have time for 3 times a week. As for why I am doing a lot of cardio...well I was out of shape. I would say that I am above average, in terms of strength, but I also had a lot of fat as well. I can cut down on the cardio now and it'd be fine, but I always feel like I'm sluggish if I don't at least do some form of cardio each day. In case you're wondering, I am 5ft 9, I used to weigh 195lbs and had 27% body-fat. I am now still 5ft 9 :[ , but I dropped to 160lbs and currently have 12% body-fat. I'm trying to go for about 7% body-fat and I thought p90x will help me out. I hope!
JMO, but 12% BF seems just fine, I don't know why you're determined to get into the single digits. Also, it's entirely possible that you'll drop some muscle from doing so much cardio.
Oh yea, I'm guessing I did, since I'm still lifting weights but not getting any stronger. It's all good if I don't get weaker though. I'm just interested in getting my BF to a single digit because...well, honestly I just want to look good haha.
So true. Not many ppl talk about over training, but it can actually be detrimental to your health, just as being obese is. So definitely take a break, while doing light exercises like walking and stretching. Also mix up your routines ever 2 weeks or so. If the OP is playing tennis 2-3hrs a day, he should really skip the HITT training, cause isn't tennis just that, except for longer periods.
Haha, no not really :[ I mean I have a six-pack, it's just that there are still flabs around it which I would like to get rid of.
