Are You Overtraining Your Body?
It’s impressive to work hard to achieve your goals in your chosen sport or fitness. Whether logging endless miles, hours, or heartrate elevation, working hard at the gym or on the field can help you with your physical and mental health.
However, overdoing your training without allowing yourself ample time to rest and recover can not only prevent true progress, but it can lead to fatigue and even injury. While pushing your limits can help you feel powerful and like you’re making progress, at some point there is a line you shouldn’t cross.
Our medical fitness experts at Dynamic Fitness & Rehabilitation explain how overtraining is defined, the warning signs you’re pushing yourself too hard, and tips for proper recovery if you find yourself overtraining.
What is Overtraining?
After a particularly challenging exercise, you may find you have ‘overreached’ from what your body can handle. You may experience more muscle soreness than is normal for you. This is likely to occur after multiple days in a row of hard exercise. Experiencing fatigue and lowered energy is a good sign your body needs rest.
Fortunately, as long as you listen to your body and give yourself a few days to rest and recover, these effects can easily be reversed.
Overtraining
Overtraining, however, occurs when you power through symptoms of overreaching and continue to push yourself. As an athlete, you may see weakness and fatigue as a sign to train harder. This is why sports psychology is so important in the athletic world – you must know how to listen to your body when it’s telling you it needs a break.
If you’ve been overtraining, full recovery can take weeks or even months. This may be really difficult for athletes whose world is centered around their sport, but we promise you will be grateful you took the time to take care of yourself.
Let’s go over some other symptoms of overtraining and what you can do to help yourself.
Signs You’re Overtraining Your Body
If you aren’t actively paying attention to what your body is telling you, it can be difficult to tell if you’re overtraining. It’s normal to feel worn out after a difficult workout, but you should feel that you are able to recover between exercise sessions.
If you are experiencing any of the following symptoms, that may indicate you’re pushing your body too hard:
Unusually intense muscle pain after exercise that persists with training
Inability to train at a previously manageable intensity
Feeling heaviness in your muscles, even at low intensities
Longer recovery times
Performance stagnation or decline
Urges to cut workouts short
Prolonged fatigue
Greater tension, depression, frustration, moodiness or confusion
Difficulty relaxing
Sleep struggles
Lack of joy from things that you once loved
Frequent illness
Irregular menstrual cycles
Irregular bowel movements
Unexplained weight loss and appetite suppression
A lot of these symptoms can appear due to a variety of conditions. However, if you are experiencing. multiple together it's probably a good idea to look at your lifestyle and exercise habits to see if overtraining is a possibility.
If you’re concerned you’ve been overdoing it, contact Dynamic Fitness & Rehabilitation. We will create a plan to help your body recover and get you back to optimal performance - (813) 422-5671.
Learn More > Mentally Recovering from Injury
Tips to Recover from Overtraining
If you’re experiencing overtraining symptoms, it’s important that you talk to a professional, like one of our medical fitness experts or physical therapists at Dynamic Fitness & Rehabilitation. We can help you develop an individualized game plan to identify the source of your issues and make the proper adjustments to your routine.
Full recovery will likely include:
Rest
First and foremost, you need rest. You will likely need to temporarily stop or at least ease off on your exercise routines. This can be challenging, especially for professional athletes. However, it is crucial to give your body this rest to avoid lifelong damage.
Adequate Nutrition
Take a close look at your eating habits to ensure you are consuming the proper amount of macronutrients, vitamins, and minerals. It may even be useful to get bloodwork done or work with a nutritionist like Sarah Bingham at Dynamic Fitness & Rehabilitation.
Mental Health Care
Taking a break from movement can be emotionally taxing whether you are a professional athlete or not. Receiving proper emotional support through your community and even a professional such as an Emotional Polarity Technique therapist can help you through this challenging time.
Slow and Steady Return
While the parameters of returning to your exercise regime will depend on your unique situation, it is important that you return to training at a slow and steady pace. You also must give yourself proper recovery between sessions, which may be more time than you are used to. Be patient with yourself – you will get through this!
Plan for Avoiding Overtraining
Whether you’ve suffered from overtraining or simply want to stay safe, make sure to implement these tips for optimal health:
Listen to your body
Practice visualizing your workouts
Record your workouts in a training log
Find a healthy balance between training and rest
Alternate difficult days and more laid-back days
Make sure to eat properly
Stay hydrated
Manage your stress
Safety First with Dynamic Fitness
Your health should be a priority above all else. If you are a professional athlete, you won’t be able to perform your best without your body being in proper condition. This means listening to your body, getting proper rest, when need be, and caring for your body with a holistic approach.
If you feel that you have pushed yourself too hard or are on the verge of burnout, it may be time to reevaluate your routine. With Dynamic Fitness & Rehabilitation on your side, we can create a comprehensive approach to your health to ensure your body is getting what it needs while striving towards your fitness goals.
Put your health first with Dynamic Fitness & Rehabilitation. Call our team today - (813) 422-5671!