The term over-training is often overused or misunderstood.  This overuse of the term is simply misunderstanding of what over-training is.  Pushing yourself to (or beyond) your limits IS NOT over-training as is the common misconception; it is simply over-reaching.  Overtraining comes when someone attempts to stay in that over-reaching phase for a CONTINUED state without a ramp down.  Once someone achieves that over-trained state their body, nervous system, and even endocrine system begin to down regulate or break down.  Although this state is quite negative in terms of the results, it does not mean that over-reaching is also bad.  On the contrary over-reaching can be quite beneficial for an athlete if done in the correct manner.

Both over-reaching and then over-training can be achieved by working past your limits in regards to volume, frequency, load, or intensity.  Over-reaching is not achieved by simply walking into the gym one day and maxing out or training to failure.  It is a plan of progressive increasing loading to achieve a point where you fatigue response from training is outpacing the results from your training response.  Pushing yourself into a state of over-reaching in and of itself achieves no gains however.  It is the deloading in the weeks following this phase that allows the training response to leapfrog past the fatigue response from training.  The desired athletic gains are netted (realized) as you recover pushing you beyond your normal performance levels.

Below are a couple articles I did for Breaking Muscle.  They dive more in depth into the subject of modulating training with both load, volume, intensity to reach that peak over-reaching state and then an effective deloading protocol.

Conditioning for Strength Sports: Optimizing Both Strength & Conditioning

3, 2, 1, 0 Meet Countdown - Competition Preparation

There is a reason I’m addressing this topic again.  Right now I’m in the final phases of completing such a training cycle, and at the point where one would be accused of over-training due to some of the crazy gym antics displayed. 

Here is a video of this last week’s training:

What I would like people to realize is that this is not how to train on a regular basis, and something I cannot achieve on a regular basis.  It was done with the following plan:

Wk 1-10:  REHAB/PREHAB with NO No maximal effort training (Squat, bench, or deadlift) only mobility, stability, and accessory movements performed.
Wk 11-14: Ramping up weights and Work Capacity volume

Wk 15-19: Continued ramp up of weights and deload of Work Capacity volume

Wk 20-21: Continued Ramp up of weights with a few skipped sessions to not over-reach prematurely

Wk 22: Final week and over-reaching <<<<VIDEO TAKEN HERE NOW

Wk 23-26: PLANNED Deload per the 3,2,1 article.

Wk 26 END: Realize results <--Link to Meet results #1 World ranking 1946 @ 220 Raw