I burned out

[seemunkee]

Last week I completely burned out. Work stressed me out and I just lost it. I gave up on my goal of losing weight and doing situps/pushups. I have no motivation right now.
Even when I took 2 comp days to make a 4 day weekend I did nothing, no gym, no biking, no climbing. I've been working out regularly for the last 2-3 years on an almost daily basis. When I had my rotator surgery I was doing one armed deadlifts one week later. This time I'm having a hard time getting back to it. I'm tired of injuries and pain, I'm tired of getting my lifting and climbing up to reasonable levels, getting injured and having to start over again. It's tough seeing all my climbing friends get better and better when I have to struggle to advance. I'm twice their age and have to work twice as hard but just can't seem to break out of the level I'm at.
I'm still worried about re-injuring my ankle and the tendonitis in my left shoulder never goes away.
I'm going to hit the climbing gym tonight and see how it goes. It's going to be a 2 Aleve night for sure.

[wildeyed]

1. Actually seemunkee, that is basically why I stopped climbing seriously.

I couldn't progress anymore without getting injured. Also, when I started to train seriously, my body fat would get too low and I started to run mysterious fevers and become really exhausted. All symptoms of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which is common in female athletes. So I turned my energy elsewhere. Hell, I even got a real job.

A few things I see now in retrospect. I was trying to progress too quickly without building the proper fitness and skill base. So if I could onsight 12a, right away I starting trying 12b without doing the requisite number of 12a to get that base built.

Over training. I was so worried about falling behind, I never took proper breaks to let my body rest and rebuild. If you read about Sharma's training, one of the most interesting things is the amount of time he takes away from climbing. He comes back rested and rarin' to go. I also think his lack of focus on grades is probably a good thing.

Finally, neither of us is as young as we used to be. Bouldering is a younins sport. It is incredibly powerful and hard on joints. All my serious injuries were from bouldering, and I was never that into it. I just torqued my knee the other day, and I am not even training seriously. So I don't compare myself to the younins. I just try to do better for myself.

Sounds like you are seriously overtrained right now. Have you considered taking an extended break? Maybe for a month or two. Try swimming, or something that is not injury promoting to stay active.

The best thing I ever did for my climbing was to start to practice yoga seriously. I am not nearly as strong from yoga as from weight lifting, but for whatever reason, I can pull much harder and more consistently when I am practicing yoga regularly. The metal practice is as helpful as the physical. A large part of yoga is just being in the moment, being noncompetitive and listening to my body. Very helpful for when I turn my mind to climbing. Just something that worked for me.

[midnight armadillo]

2. I agree, you're overtrained

Lack of energy and motivation and being prone to injury are classic signs of overtraining. I know you have kettlebells - when I started out on those I went 110% on every workout. After a few months I was so dreading workouts I quit using them for over a year. I've recently gotten back into using them (and am enjoying them again), but I'm more careful now.

i don't know how old you are, but at 30 I've certainly learned I can't treat my body like I did when I was 20 and I require more recovery time after intense workouts. From what I've been told this only gets worse :-)

If yoga isn't your cup of tea, you might want to try something like tai chi (esp. if you can find a true martial art teacher, which is rare) or aikido, which will also be much easier on your body and keep you after. As a former (and future, once my kid(s) are older) aikidoka, I recommend the latter.