Overtraining has many definitions and so far I haven’t found a consistent one that I am happy with. I would define it as the state when your workout to rest ratio no longer allows you to recover and perform to your previous level. Another way of looking at it is under conditioning.

Everyone has a conditioning level specific to what they do on a day to day basis. For example, if I workout 1 hour per day 6 days per week, it would stand to reason that I could continue doing this level of work for an indefinite amount of time with no real adverse effects. If another person who only workouts 1 hour per week, suddenly tried to match my workout they might find themselves sore, possibly injured, and lose some of their motivation to train because it is too hard and they aren’t recovering fast enough.

For them this would be overtraining, for me it would be a regular week. The point is that anyone can work their way up to an incredible level of conditioning to the point where 2 workout per day 6 days a week is manageable! It just takes time to work up to this.

It is more likely that people who say they are “overtraining” are simply trying to do too much for their current level of conditioning.

Think of it this way: Olympic and pro athlete’s workout for hours every day. They didn’t magically wake up one day already in that condition. They spent years working up to that level.

This is why I don’t believe that there is such a thing as “overtraining” per se, I would call it “under-conditioning”.