When does overtraining happen?
Naturally, we expect the hard work to pay us off eventually. After all, in every other field of life, working hard means you have bigger chances to achieve the wanted results right? Well, exercise and other types of trainings don’t actually work like this however.
There exists a point or better say, a line, that shouldn’t be crossed if you want to keep yourself safe. There are certain limits where the more work and effort becomes counter-productive.
Overtraining means you haven’t got the ability to know when the balance between training and resting is destroyed. Every part of the body you train needs its own resting time and without it, the consequences are not something you would want to experience.
How to know when you’re overtraining?
Most of us are constantly not only training for longer periods of time, but also harder and quicker. There are some types of exercises like High Intensity Training that due to its intense and short routines, it makes us think we haven’t been trained long enough. Since HIIT workout usually lasts less than any other type of workout routine, many people tend to perform it at least five to six times a week skipping the consequences.
Another reason people should consider when trying to understand whether they are training too much or not, are the examples you might follow. Watching some other guy working out a specific muscle group for more than 2 hours, can make us ask from ourselves more than we should. We need to all stop think about putting more and more effort into shaping and growing a particular body part and accept the fact that our body has limits. It is important to know when to stop in order to avoid our body to become afflicted with the “overtraining” syndrome.
Despite some of the most obvious side effects like depression, chronic fatigue etc. there are also some other signs that can potentially help us understand when we’re putting too much pressure on our body. Especially if you’re feeling tired all the time and your muscles are becoming sore more than usually.
You’re experiencing constant fatigue
If you train too much, one of the first, most common signs that will show you this condition are constant fatigue and muscle soreness. Try to learn the difference between an intense and long muscle soreness, from a delayed onset muscle fatigue that is completely normal to happen. If after every training session you feel like you’ve been working out for too many hours, then, the soreness of your muscles and the feeling of tiredness are the ones that are trying to tell you to stop for a while and rest.
You’re getting sick more often
One of the first affected things when we train too much is our immune system. If you’re constantly feeling sick, and experiencing morning sniffles or even a cough now and then, they might potentially be a sign of overtraining. Of course, you should not limit yourself and blame only this aspect. Lack of sleep, a poor, unbalanced diet is also some good reasons to make your immune system not properly work. But, if you train, and train hard, maybe there is time to give yourself a rest and let the body recover itself.
You’re not seeing any progress
When someone is in an overtrained state, the ability to properly perform any kind of high intensity program is significantly reduced. If you find yourself not building any muscle mass or not being able to even lose weight despite your “extremely hard” work at the gym, then, you should blame the training itself. You see, no change can ever happen to our body if we don’t rest properly. Every single muscle change can only happen during our resting time that happen between each training routine. So, without enough resting time, your performance can potentially give you nothing in return!
You’re having trouble sleeping
If you are constantly feeling “rested” and unfocused, then, overtraining might be the one to blame. You see, every time we push our body too hard and train for long periods of time, our nervous system has the tendency to remain “exited”. Also, unable to relax and focus. That is why you might be having trouble sleeping despite how much you try to.
