Hi, everyone. I want to know if I'm overtraining. I'm 18 years old, 5'11", 215 lbs.

I've been weight training for a little over 2 years now. For the past month and a half I've started college and have finally gotten the time to really concentrate on getting into even better shape.

I work out about 5-6 days a week, alternating different sections of the body. I weight train for about 45mins and than run for about 15-20mins.

My big question is am I overtraining. I consume about 12x my body weight in calories, maybe a little more. I eat a balanced diet, with very little "cheat foods". I need to know if I'm overtraining and working against myself. My main goal is to get extremely ripped.

If anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear em, thanx

First i'd try to pull that cardio off of the end stretch. 5 minutes cardio before weight train, and go straight to the whey protein shake quickly thereafter (i've heard different schools of thought, but none of them include cardio post workout).

In other words, directly after your workout it isn't such a great idea to do a catabolic activity when you should be resting, and feeding the correct nutrients for anabolism.

do cardio at different times of the day, or on different days.

you may or may not be overtraining. experienced lifters split body parts becasue they need a full week's rest. beginning lifters can rest and repair many times in less than 48 hours. i can't tell what stage you are at-- you need to figure out how long each muscle group takes to rest and repair.. and work your muscle groups in the correct order so as not to overtrain.

i'm a strong believer in dual factor hypertrphy training, because my repair cycle works perfectly with it. read up here:
http://www.asylum-strength.com/dual.htm

if you think you might be overtraining, the DFHT is a very safe route to work each muscle group 2x per week and have little chance for overtraining. you are the only one who can tell if you're overtraining certain muscle groups though. my way to tell is that when i switch up routines, but not excercises, and I go down in weight, i've obiously overtrained one of the muscles associated with the excercise, and need to change the routine again. hope that helps/makes sense.

I agree with the other reply. You definitely need to be doing cardio BEFORE you weight train. Running for about 10 before you lift is a good policy. On the overtraining, 5 days a week should be plenty. Anything above that and your in danger of overtraining. What you really want to focus on is your intensity in the time that you go to the gym. As long as you give each muscle group atleast a full day to recover you should be fine.

I disagree. Most often, cardio is done post workout (if it must be done in the same session as weight lifting - in which case I do agree that if possible, cardio is more efficient on a different day or a different time of day). If you burn all your carbs/blood sugar on cardio, your lifting is going to suffer. You will not have the energy to hit the intensity that you ought to be aiming for if muscle gain is important. 5 minutes of "cardio" before hand is just a warmup and that perfectly fine and in fact, quite important.

After lifting, 20-30 minutes of moderate to high intensity cardio (HIIT is perfect here, if it's not leg day) or 30-45 minutes of low intensity will target fat loss and have a little sports drink with some carbs and protein, reducing cortisol release before cardio and it will help prevent muscle loss. Then go for the post workout shake of carbs/protein on your way out of the gym or as soon as you get home. But again, if you can manage the time, try to do cardio apart from your resistance training. It will allow you to do more cardio with less risk to muscle allowing you to get ripped and keep size. Just my $0.02

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Keep your body lean, your blood clean and your mind sharp. -Rollins

In general, I'd recommend cardio on non lifting days or cardio in the morning and lifting in the evening. But, if you want to do both in one session, go for it. That said, cardio is better after lifting. First, you save your energy for lifting. Second, lifting helps release stored fat and the cardio can help burn it off. Just keep your total session time to an hour and make sure to rest the targeted muscles groups for 48 hours or more.