I admit, when I first joined the gym, I was so excited about getting in shape that I would sometimes go to the gym twice a day. I would lift weights and do cardio or take a class, and looked forward to the next day to do it again. I don't go to the gym every day but I do attempt to exercise each day, even if it's at home. Many people do get caught up in the idea that exercising a lot will get them to their fitness goals faster.
While a majority of people don't exercise enough, there is a portion that can overtrain. It is good to know the signs of overtraining and its effects.
What is overtraining?
Overtraining happens when a person exercises too much without allowing the body to recover. It occurs more often in weight training, however, it is still possible in other physical activities such as running.
Some effects of overtraining
Overtraining is a good way to limit your progress. Instead of making gains from training a lot, you only end up limiting your progress due to a lack of rest that the body needs. Some of the most common symptoms of overtraining include:
- Loss of muscle tissue increased
- Persistent muscle soreness
- Fatigue
- Insomnia
- Increased risk of injury
- Decrease in appetite
- Irritability
How to avoid overtraining
The most obvious way to avoid overtraining is by taking breaks. Allow at least a couple of days out of the week for recovery or work out different muscle groups each day to allow other parts to recover. Also try to reduce the intensity of some of your workouts. If you trained really hard one day, take it easy the next.
I don't worry too much about overtraining since I am sure to take my rest days. I look forward to my rest days just as much as working out.
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Good for you for taking your rest days!
They are just as important as the workouts themselves. Fueling the body with the right foods goes right along with the rest days and cross-training.
I think the important thing is listening to your body. Go ahead and push it…but not to the point of injury or burnout.
I am a sixty year old black male who trains 4-5 days a week-bodybuilding and aerobics. Typically, my training session lasts from 70-90 minutes and includes both components.
I sometimes feel tired or flu-like symptoms which may be an indication of over training. Feeling this way causes me to shorten, somewhat the length of my training.
Additionally, Friday is an aerobics day only. Saturday and Sunday are rest days.
This works for me.
It is important to reduce the intensity once in a while. This is a key factor to me.
Can over training cause weight lose to stall? I work out 5-6 days a week 45 – 60 min cardio and then weights targeted to a specific muscle group.
I am terrible at over training. 6days a week 2-3times a day and they are all high intensity sessions as I hate to doing a half arsed job at things. It happened over a while but mostly when I started working full time that i started having some serious effects. Still trying to fit everything in plus work was just not giving my body the time to rest it really needed. I made sure i had rest days but with an active job and lifestyle it made it hard. It got to the point where i started developing eating dissoreders (skipping meals reguarly and feeling sick when i did eat). Eventualy I completly broke down emotionaly after one hard training. Admitting i was doing to much i drastically changed my training schedual.
Over training is very real and messes you up so not worth it. Ok to drain the tank every now and then but make sure you leave anough in the dam to fill it up.
Hi my name is Joyce and reading all of this information re:overtraining, I think Im suffering from it now….I have been training hard core every day and 3 of those days 2hrs full on and max 3hrs Mon and Fri. It got that bad that my body must have been use to it because no such thing as feeling burnt out etc I was enjoying it, now is a different story as this past week I feel like I have put on weight yet my training has slowed down a bit. Yes am noticing my workouts are not as strong as what they have been and yes im feeling very irritable. Whats bothering me the most is the fact Im feeling bloated and just feel like I have put on all the weight I worked off…..for example my legs and stomach feel flabby and yet like last week they were fine…Not feeling the best at the moment as have a habit of putting myself down, thats another story….
Joyce