Top 5 Signs of Overtraining
Too Much Training Carries Risk: Here are the Signs
While a regular training regime is absolutely a good thing, there can be times when enthusiasm and energy can lead to you taking it a little too far.
Your body naturally needs rest in between sessions, and if you are overtraining, it can lead to a series of different problems and hinder your progress.
On this page, there are the five most serious issues that can arise from overtraining. After that, you will find some tips for recovery for those times when you push things a little too far.
Overtraining Will Dent Your Motivation
One of the first signs that you are overtraining is a lack of or reduction in motivation. You might have been raring to go for every session that you do at home or in the gym. And then suddenly, the enthusiasm to train just isn’t there.
This is your body’s way of telling you to ease up. It’s perfectly natural to want to skip a session or two occasionally, but if after a few days you’re still not feeling motivated, this is the time to look at your schedule and question whether you have been pushing it a little too hard.
Overtraining Risks: Hitting a Training Plateau
In many cases, training way more than you should completely negates the positive effects that the right amount of training will give you. If you are overtraining, it could be that your training sessions just aren’t at the same intensity as before. Your body does need a natural delay between training sessions, so it would be no surprise if your training isn’t as effective if you are not getting that needed rest.
Potential Injuries from Overtraining
One obvious risk from overtraining is that you are more likely to receive an injury. When you train, the body can receive natural wear and tear. Especially when you are engaged in higher intensity training, or training that could put pressure on your joints.
A day of rest between sessions can be vital in allowing the body to repair these minor issues. Without that rest, what started out as a minor issue can be compounded into a major one.
Overtraining Leads to Mood Swings
If you are overtraining, your hormone balance will be affected. Get this wrong, and it will go on to affect your mood. If you find yourself becoming more irritable, or even have bouts of anger, this could be a sure sign that you are overdoing it.
Overtraining for a long period of time can even lead to depression and insomnia. In less extreme cases, it can lead to you not taking any joy from a training session, which links in with the lack of motivation mentioned earlier.
Decreased Immunity
Overtraining can lead to a lowering of your immunity to viruses and diseases. If you find yourself catching every cold, this can be a sure sign that you are overtraining. To make matters worse, some will try and train through coughs and colds, thinking it will be beneficial in the long run. It is the exact opposite in fact.
Recovery from Overtraining
If you have identified that you’ve been overtraining, there are several ways in which you can rectify the situation.
Take a Rest
Yes, this is the most obvious and most important way to recover from overtraining. Give your body a few days to reset itself and then go back to a new training regime. A few days rest doesn’t mean that you can go back to the overtraining you were doing before. Set yourself a new training regime. In doing this, you might want to take professional advice, especially if your own training regime wasn’t working.
Eating Right
Look into your eating habits around your training. It can be an idea to speak to a nutritionist who can give you advice on exactly what you should be eating as a complement to your training. This will ensure you are receiving the right number of calories, vitamins, minerals, and protein for the most effective workouts.
Build Up Training Gradually
When you first return to training after a rest due to overtraining, it can be an idea to build it back up again slowly. Maybe start off with around 50% of the training that you’d like to do at first. Then build it up over the next few weeks to 100%. This gradual increase will be beneficial. Listen to your body too. If you have a renewed interest in training, you are training at the right level.
Overtraining can be a huge problem for many people. It’s very easy to become very eager when improving your fitness and start forgoing your rest days or trying to do too much too quickly. Look out for the above signs of overtraining and you’ll certainly feel the long-term benefits.
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