Is it possible to overtrain yourself to Death?

You can die from hyponatremia if you drink too much water when you are dehydrated. The sodium level in your body tissues becomes so low that the water dilutes them to the point where they don't function and death can happen quickly.

You can die from a virus infecting your heart if you train when you have flu like symptoms. This can happen quickly, a few hours, or slowly, several years.

So, yes you can die from overtraining.

Agree, overtraining is basically depleted adrenaline & other stress hormones. The mind is often stronger than the body, but when the body cracks, so does the mind.

Salazar almost did it.

Internetsherlock wrote:

Lets say you don't get injuries and can handle long duration of hard sessions every day.

3 hours hard run in the morning. 2 hours gym during the day and another 3 hours hard run at night.

Will there be any risks even though your body feels fine?

Since nobody can train like that, no.

The body can do amazing things. Check out Alex Hutchinson's book Endurance. He writes chapters about all kinds of elements of human limitations. You can push yourself further than you think without perishing.

Although it might be possible I think the whole premise behind overtraining is that your body is deliberately forcing you to slow down or stop in order to prevent such an occurrence from happening. My thought is that you would probably not die from the physiological effects of overtraining but instead from the physiological effects of trying to circumvent what your body is trying to tell you or force upon you. In short, overtraining syndrome, no, the act of training too much, yes.

ShutErDown wrote:

Although it might be possible I think the whole premise behind overtraining is that your body is deliberately forcing you to slow down or stop in order to prevent such an occurrence from happening. My thought is that you would probably not die from the physiological effects of overtraining but instead from the physiological effects of trying to circumvent what your body is trying to tell you or force upon you. In short, overtraining syndrome, no, the act of training too much, yes.

This. Think back about the Finnish sauna world championships 2010. The Russian died, because he took painkillers. The 5x champion Kaukonen didn't wanna give up in the 1v1 and almost died, he was in coma for several months and his body is never the same.

So while the Russian was able to "shut" his brain down only with painkillers, the Finnish just didn't want to give up and his will was strong enough to die in the sauna.

This was pushing against overheating tho, I think dieing from running or any endurance sport is much harder, because at worst usually people pass out, and even that is already extremely rare.

Yeah, sure it must be possible. If you just kept going and kept going. Something's got to give.

On a more horrible note, look at labour camps.

Salazar comes to mind first like earlier poster

no one can train that hard, without their body making them stop

Reminds me of a Toshihiko Seko quote, "To be a champion long-distance runner you have to run on the edge of death."

jesseriley wrote:

Agree, overtraining is basically depleted adrenaline & other stress hormones. The mind is often stronger than the body, but when the body cracks, so does the mind.

Not true. There is no scientific evidence to what you say. The mind is ALWAYS stronger than the body. When the body cracks, all you have is the mind. The mind only cracks when you let it crack. Ever heard of Ranger School? Indoc? BUDS? Ever heard of war? Famine? We evolved for constant stress. Only in the first world, you find the weak.

Pushit Further wrote:

The body can do amazing things. Check out Alex Hutchinson's book Endurance. He writes chapters about all kinds of elements of human limitations. You can push yourself further than you think without perishing.

This^

Alberto Salazar has always been weak. He never had it in his mind to win.

Happened to my boy Pheidippides

It's all mental...Try it! wrote:

Alberto Salazar has always been weak. He never had it in his mind to win.

Alberto problem was being too mental.

Rhabdomyolysis