Side-Affect Of Overtraining

Keeping in mind that I work with a lot of people who push themselves both at the office and in the gym, I wanted to help raise awareness of shingles. It is a condition that I was not that familiar with and it is something that we apparently do to ourselves. I am told that shingles are a result of stressing the body too much and driving the immune system into the ground. I initially thought I had poison ivy from stretching at the track, because of the intense itching. Instead, I found this is a reaction to a schedule that includes AM weight training, working a 10-14 hour day, then doing a PM track workout 5-7 days per week! I hear that most people experience pain, while I have only experienced profuse itching, but it started with a small spot on the mid-left lat and has slowly made its way around to the front left ab. My doctor tells me it will never cross mid-line and once you have had shingles once, you rarely will ever get them again. This is a side-affect of overtraining that was never brought to my attention before and I wanted to help make everyone aware that this is a possibility! Unfortunately, it took me a week to get the treatment started. Fortunately, they tell me in 2-3 weeks the boils should be gone from my skin! The picture to the left below was taken on Monday June 25, 2007. The Picture on the right was taken on Saturday June 30th. This has apparently gotten a lot better! Other than the itching, the only negative effects I saw was the side affect of the medication I was on! I completely have lost my memory of things I was told or told others during the week of June 25-30. I was told to stop taking the Prednisone on June 30th, because I was experiencing depressive side-affects and my competitive edge has been depleted. Feeling like I just don’t/didn’t care! I tried to get my workouts in yesterday (July 1st) and feel like I am just going through motions and feel like I don’t care! I hope this side-affect goes away soon!