I have this geeky Volcano -theory. I have found this pattern within myself and within most of my clients.When the pressure builds up inside, it will start looking for an exit to be released. The pressure can be physical, emotional, social or all of them together. The body really doesn't know the difference too well....everything affects everything, right?
I think at least two things can happen when the pressure builds up; either we find a way to decrease the internal pressure (by resting, by better nutrition, by talking to a friend, by massage etc) or the pressure will keep growing and it starts indicating itself outwardly (by nagging pains, by teeth grinding, by lower performance or by fighting with the spouse, etc).
Let's talk about the physical side of the volcano -theory. When the pressure build up, which part will go first? The weakest, right? We all have those parts of our movement system that are our little "weak spots." Mine have been traditionally the right shoulder, L4-L5 in the lumbar spine and the wrists.
Often, especially when my training volume was high, I would start getting the symptoms in those weak areas first.
Anyway, I think there are specific indicators that we can learn from and thus, improve the training adaptation. For some people, the indicators are more emotional than physical. This knowledge helps us often in regulating the training intensity correctly and obviously helps in preventing unintentional overtraining/overreaching.
It is important to IDENTIFY these weak spots, detect the risk and make some adjustments in training, resting, eating or in all of them. For a lot of people nowadays, the pressure builds up greatly due to problems in family life and relatioships. A good quality training stimulation is immediately compromised by too many emotional/social pressure builders.
Most of my clients are very open with sharing their pains, discomforts and other issues. In fact, I try to encourage athletes to tell me everything that is going on with their bodies and also with their minds and emotional state.
A lot of people do not want to complain. The "no pain...no gain" mentality is pretty typical and some of the issues never surface in conversations. In these cases, only after observing the person for a while can I potentially determine that maybe the person is hurting or the mental focus is somewhere else.
The key is to find a way to decrease the pressure before the eruption occurs in one form or another. The concept is clearly not a new one but I have found that it is a another way of explaining it to the client.
Stay cool!
Tommi
PS: A volcano is an opening (or rupture) in the Earth's surface or crust, which allows hot, molten rock, ash and gases to escape from deep below the surface. Volcanic activity involving the extrusion of rock tends to form mountains or features like mountains over a period of time. Wikipedia
