Burnout Isn’t About Doing Too Much. It’s About Losing Direction.

There’s a point in training where things start to feel… off.

Not dramatic. Not catastrophic. Just a slow shift.

You’re still showing up. Still training hard. Still doing what you’ve always done. But the return on that effort starts to change. Workouts feel heavier than they should. Progress slows. Motivation drifts from something you want to do into something you feel like you have to do.

And somewhere along the way, you start calling it burnout.

I’ve felt moments of this at different points over 15+ years of training—and it never shows up the way you expect.

But burnout—at least in a CrossFit or performance setting—isn’t just about being tired.

It’s what happens when there’s a growing mismatch between the effort you’re putting in and the progress you’re getting back. When the work stays high, but the meaning behind it gets a little blurry. You’re still in the room… but not really in the room.

That’s the part people feel, even if they don’t always have the words for it.

Is It Actually Overtraining?

Sometimes, yeah.

Let’s not pretend it’s not.

If you stack too much intensity, too much volume, and not enough recovery for long enough, your body will push back. Performance drops. Fatigue builds. Small things start to feel big.

That’s real.

But here’s the part most people miss:

Overtraining doesn’t usually start as a programming problem.

It starts as a decision-making problem.

People don’t accidentally train too much. They choose to—usually because they’re chasing something.

A number.

A version of themselves.

A pace that isn’t actually theirs anymore.

And when that chase loses clarity, it turns into excess.

So yes—burnout can absolutely come from doing too much.

But more often than not, it comes from doing too much without a clear reason why.

The Comparison Trap

This is where things quietly go sideways.

You’ve probably heard the quote:

“Comparison is the thief of joy.”

It’s true. But in training, it goes deeper than that.

Comparison doesn’t just steal your enjoyment—it steals your direction.

Because now, instead of following a plan, you’re reacting.

Reacting to the leaderboard.

Reacting to the person next to you.

Reacting to what you used to be able to do.

And that last one—the former version of yourself—that’s the one that really gets people.

Old PRs. Old capacities. Old schedules. Old bodies.

You end up trying to train like nothing has changed… even when everything has.

At that point, you’re not building anymore.

You’re negotiating with a version of yourself that doesn’t exist anymore.

Where Burnout Actually Takes Hold

Burnout isn’t just physical fatigue. It’s friction.

It’s the tension between where you are and where you think you should be.

You’re trying to train like a past version of yourself.

Or keep up with someone else’s pace.

Or force progress that isn’t ready to happen yet.

And over time, that gap creates noise.

Your training stops feeling clear.

Every session feels like a test.

Every result feels like a judgment.

You start reacting instead of progressing.

That’s the environment burnout lives in.

Burnout thrives in chaos. It struggles in clarity.

Clarity of intent.

Clarity of phase.

Clarity of what a “good day” actually looks like right now.

Without that, everything starts to feel heavier than it should.

This is where some of the ideas from Ryan Holiday have always resonated with me.

He writes a lot about stoicism—about controlling what you can, accepting what you can’t, and using obstacles as part of the process instead of something to avoid. I’ve always been a fan of how he frames that, especially in The Obstacle Is the Way.

The idea is simple:

The obstacle isn’t blocking your path. It is the path.

In training terms, that means the plateau, the slower progress, the adjustments you don’t want to make—those aren’t signs you’re off track. They’re the exact things you’re supposed to work through.

But that only works if you stop resisting where you are.

Because burnout doesn’t come from the obstacle.

It comes from fighting it.

What Actually Fixes It

Most people try to fix burnout by changing the output.

More rest.

Less volume.

Different workouts.

And sometimes that helps. Sometimes it’s exactly what’s needed.

But if you don’t fix the direction, you’ll end up right back in the same place.

This is where structure matters.

Not just “go train hard,” but having layers to what you’re doing.

Short-term, mid-term, and long-term goals aren’t just about progress—they’re about perspective.

Short-term goals give your training intent today.

Mid-term goals give your training structure for the phase you’re in.

Long-term goals give your training meaning over time.

And when those three things are aligned, training stops feeling random—and starts feeling purposeful again.

What That Looks Like Over Time

For me, this has played out over a long stretch.

I’ve been training for close to two decades now.

15+ years of CrossFit.

14 Open seasons.

And for most of that time, I’ve had the same long-term goal sitting in the background:

Make it to the CrossFit Games as a Masters athlete.

Not just to get there—but to prove that this kind of training can work long-term. That you don’t have to burn out early to stay competitive later. That you can actually enjoy the process without feeling like you’re constantly racing against time.

That goal has done something important. It’s kept me patient.

Not passive—but patient enough to respect the process, and hungry enough to keep showing up.

It’s also what’s kept me from chasing things that don’t matter—and probably what’s kept those moments from ever really turning into burnout.

Zoom In, Not Just Out

This year, that long-term direction turned into something tangible.

I qualified for Semifinals in the Open division, and in Age Group. I was also invited to the in-person Masters Semifinals at Legends in Del Mar that just took place this past weekend. Scheduling didn’t line up, so I’ll take on the online version this year.

That’s a meaningful checkpoint.

But it’s not the story.

The story is everything that came before it.

Dozens of mid-term goals.

Hundreds of short-term ones.

Training blocks that weren’t glamorous.

Adjustments that didn’t feel exciting.

Days where the win was just executing what was in front of me.

No chasing old numbers.

No trying to prove anything to anyone else.

No pretending I was in a different phase than I actually was.

Just staying aligned with the next step.

Why This Matters

When you train with that kind of structure, something shifts.

You stop overreacting to bad days.

You stop chasing every workout like it’s a test.

You stop comparing one phase of your training to a completely different one.

Because you understand where you are—and where you’re going.

And when that’s clear, burnout has a hard time taking hold.

Not because training is easy.

But because it makes sense.

Final Thought

Burnout isn’t always about doing too much.

And it’s not always avoidable.

But it becomes a lot less likely when your effort has direction, your expectations have context, and your training actually reflects where you are—not where you think you should be.

You don’t need to go back to who you were.

You just need to keep moving forward from where you are.

That’s the work.

And done right—

it’s the part you get to enjoy.

Stay Dope.