Can 3 days training to fail per week cause over-training?

Question

​I'm a beginner and I started lifting weights at the beginning of this year. I do workout 3 days per week (Sun, Tue, and Thu) I kept that up over the past two and half months. When I do lifting, I focus on specific muscle groups, that is a day for legs, a day for chest and arms, a day for my back and a day for my abs. So, there will be a muscle group won't be trained in a week (legs or abs).

I train for 30 minutes, where I push myself as best as I can, and I switch between machines targeting a different group of muscles, so I don't just sit down on a machine waiting to rest. For example, I switch between biceps and triceps machines. And I usually, train myself to the point I fail to do anything (where my muscles completely stuck and cannot move).

I noticed that on the night after training (I train before afternoon) that I don't sleep well, and recently I completely get into insomnia issue. For example, yesterday was an abs day and I couldn't sleep for 3 hours! I tried to increase my carbs intake but it didn't work, so I'm wondering what the possibility that I'm overtraining myself?

Should I take a week rest or so? I watched this video from a channel I like. However, I'm afraid if I do that, that I will lose my motivation and stop keeping my protein synthesis on fire!

I usually stay calories deficit, but I'm taking no less than 90 grams of protein. My weight is 73 kg and 1.78 cm tall (and no, I'm not thin, there is some fat around my waist.. skinny fat? maybe I'm not sure)

Please let me know If I'm doing anything wrong here.

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Answer 1

At 30 minutes a day, three days per week, no you aren’t overtraining. However, it may be the case that you are under feeding your muscles and your body as a whole. 90 Grams of protein while strength training at your weight isn’t going to be quite enough to feed your muscles properly, you’ll want to try and get somewhere around 1.5-2.0x your (kg) body weight in grams of protein per day. Which for you equals out to 110-146 grams per day. You also mention that you stay in a deficit, which is fine on two conditions; first that it is a reasonable deficit (no more than 20% off of your TDEE), and second that you stay in a positive nitrogen balance (getting enough protein).

What is “TDEE”? It stands for “Total Daily Energy Expenditure”, and represents how many total calories that your body burns in a day. You can google “TDEE Calculator” and find several online, or you can use this one that I’ve conveniently linked for you. Eat roughly 80-85% of your TDEE per day and you’ll lose weight at a healthy rate.

As mentioned by @Raditz_35 your workout routine doesn’t seem entirely solid. From what I can gather in your description, you’ve only been doing this for a few months now. It takes years of quality experience to put together an efficient program. Why? On the surface it may seem simple (workout, get stronger), but understanding how everything works together and knowing the various ways to train muscles more effectively for certain goals is crucial. Unless you just happen to know a guy, this will cost you, but the cost is well worth it - buy a program. The wasted time that you save alone will compensate, but the accelerated rate at which you build muscle (because you’re following the advice of someone more knowledgeable) will also be rewarding. As a side bonus, you don’t have to worry about accidentally overtraining. Do some digging, any reputable program will work.