I know it is probably an oxymoron (and possibly a criminal offense) to suggest that playing too much racquetball may be a bad thing. But, if you have ever experienced a period where no matter how much time you spent in the court playing or training, it just did not matter what you did or how much more time you spent working out, you just felt tired and sluggish and basically played badly ... well – you are overdoing it. Technical terms for this condition are over-training or over-reaching. Over-reaching is a state where the body has been subjected to too much stress and has not been allowed enough time to rest in order to recover and thus performance begins to suffer. Over-training is a state where the body has been subjected to so much stress and recovery time has been consistently reduced so much that the body is so “beaten-up” that an injury is almost guaranteed to occur. Some warning signs of over-training and over-reaching include: 

• Unexplained and persistently poor performance
• General feeling of fatigue
• Mood swings or irritability
• Depression
• Disturbance in sleep patterns
• Loss of appetite and/or unexplained weight loss
• Injuries

Now, if you have ever experienced either of these syndromes – it is not the end of the world! Numerous other athletes have experienced over-training/over-reaching syndromes, recovered and gone on to achieve optimal performance and success once again. However, they needed to correct the problem first, just as you had to, or may have to do. 

The question now is: How do I overcome the over-training/over-reaching syndrome? Believe it or not, it’s actually not too difficult … the answer is simply – rest! Yup, that’s right, you heard me – it is that easy. You need to rest and allow your body the time it needs to recover. Now, did I say that you need 100% bed rest? No, not at all. However, your body does need sufficient time to rest and recover between workouts of any sort. We teach that when strength training you need to allow your body a minimum of 24 hours and preferably 48 hours of rest between workouts for the same body part (i.e. chest, legs, shoulders, arms, etc) to achieve as close to full recovery as you can within the time constraints of your training schedule. Now remember, the 24-48 hour rest period pertains to strength training of individual body parts.

Specific to racquetball, I would recommend one day of rest for every two days that you play. If you are playing only twice a week then this is not a problem. However, if you are playing 4-5 days a week – then I would suggest that you not play four consecutive days and give your body time to recover in between. (Also keep in mind, the older you are – the longer your body needs to recover.) 

Another situation that I have not addressed is that – if you are planning to play in tournaments where you will need to play on consecutive days (ideally three – since we still want be playing on Sunday, right?) then you should schedule to play a number of matches on consecutive days as well to allow your body to become accustomed to playing on consecutive days. However, to avoid the over-training/over-reaching syndrome you will still need to allow your body time to rest and recover in between the training days. I would suggest taking at least two days of rest between consecutive playing days. If you are playing in several tournaments a month – you may want to only play once or twice a week and spend the other days strength training or training for cardiovascular fitness. 

And lastly and perhaps most importantly, prevention of the over-training/over-reaching syndrome is ideally the best possible situation. As important as planning your workout is — planning your rest days is just as important. This does not mean that you can not exercise at all on a rest day — but rather do something completely different (i.e. lift weights, cardio, play another sport, etc). Ideally, we need to learn how to listen to our body and take cues from it to know when we need to “back off a bit” and allow ourselves time to rest, recover and heal. Lastly, remember to eat a well-balanced diet as the foods we eat provide the necessary proteins, fats and carbohydrates our bodies need for optimal performance.

As always – if you have questions you would like to have addressed here – just send me an email, at timscheett@hotmail.com.