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All You Need to Know About OverTraining

    overtraining symptoms and cureWhile complete and intensive workouts are essential to get the results, you must avoid overtraining muscles. If you exhaust your body regularly, sooner or later you will see a drastic drop in your performance and you will lose your pleasure to work out. Besides, you can have injuries which may make it impossible to train for a long time.

    What is it? Here is the overtraining definition from wikipedia.com

    Overtraining is a physical, behavioral, and emotional condition that occurs when the volume and intensity of an individual’s exercise exceeds their recovery capacity. They cease making progress, and can even begin to lose strength and fitness. Overtraining is a common problem in weight training, but it can also be experienced by runners and other athletes.




    What are the most common overtraining symptoms?

    • Muscle soreness for a long time is among the most common symptoms of overtraining. If you still feel sore in your muscles after 3-4 days that means your muscles have not recovered yet. Therefore, you will need to take a rest to provide them time for recovery. Do some lighter physical activities such as walking or yoga exercises.
    • You are always thirsty. If you exhaust your body and you do not take in enough water, your body switches into a catabolic state because of the dehydration.
    • It can also cause depression, personality changes, concentration loss and other mental problems. Besides your body, it has an affect on your nervous system as well. These symptoms usually come out among those who suffer from body image problems.
    • You are often ill. If your body has to concentrate a lot on recovering from the workouts, it has less “power” to protect you from illnesses. If you are often sick, decrease the days you workout or the lengths of the sessions.
    • Another sign can be that you regularly suffer from injuries. Your muscles and joints have no time to recover so they are weaker. Anyway, another cause of injuries can be the lack of warming up and stretching as well, you should include them in your program.
    • Other symptoms can be lowered self-esteem, altering heart rate and that you cannot improve.
    • Some people even experience weight gain since the body switches to a “surviving mode”.

    And these are just the most common overtraining side effects since the symptoms can be various depending on the sport and the person.

    Watch the video to find out more info.




    The most important suggestion is to always listen to your body. If you think your body needs resting and you suffer from the mentioned signs frequently, have a break. Evading the gym or fitness training is not always bad.

    How you can commit overtraining

    Running for to Long

    If you run too much and do not take in enough water, it can cause overheating and dehydration. Increase the distance you run gradually and always drink enough.

    Besides, do not run if it is too hot outside. Run early in the morning or later at night, or use a treadmill.

    Using Excessive Weights

    I know, lifting larger amount of weights is tempting, but if you use too much that can cause muscle tears and other joint problems. Always warm up and stretch before and get a helper for bigger weights.

    Overworking Your Muscles

    One of the big mistakes of beginners is overworking their muscles. They do hundreds of reps and a lot of sets thinking that those will help muscle building and burning more calories. In the end, they ruin the muscle fibers which require a lot of time to recover.

    If you feel that your particular muscle is getting weaker and weaker after your workouts and you have sore for a long time, reduce the sets and reps and give them more time to rest.

    More info in the video.

     

    Exercising with Injury

    The worst thing you can do, if you already have some sort of injury, is to exercise. It can cause more compound injuries. Besides, it is impossible to workout efficiently in that state.

    Related How to Avoid Workout Injuries

    Stretching too Far

    Stretching is essential to avoid injuries. It also helps to develop strength and flexibility, but you must keep in mind that stretching too far can cause injuries as well. In order to prevent this, warm up and stretch after that.

    Related Why Stretching is So Important

    muscle-tear-example

    Muscle Tear Example

    You Workout, but You Don’t Eat Enough

    Your body needs fuel in order to function properly and if you exercise frequently, it needs even more. Healthy nutrition is critical if you want to build muscles and develop. You need to take in beneficial carbs, fats, protein, vitamins and minerals to provide your body what it needs.

    Related Find the Ultimate Workout Nutrition Guide here

    You Don’t Drink Enough

    Dehydration is among the main factors of the mentioned symptoms. No matter what sorts of workout you do, always drink a lot of water and it is especially important if it is hot.

    The quantity of water you take in depends on your weight, the climate and the intensity of your session, but 3 liters of water is the minimum per day. Here 17 reasons to drink more water.

    water-benefits

    I hope, you now understand why overtraining your body is so dangerous and how you can avoid it. Again the most important is to listen to your body.

    Overtraining Recovery

    If after reading this post you think you have overtrained yourself, you should focus on recovery. Here are some tips.

    • The most important is to rest. Have more free days and sleep more.
    • Try other lighter exercises. For example, if you run, walk instead.
    • Have a massage.
    • Modify your diet to take in more healthy nutrients.
    • Drink more water.
    • Take supplements.

    More here: www.thephysicaltherapyadvisor.com

    Conclusion

    If you have ever checked motivational videos, I’m sure you have met the “overtraining myth” statement in which they say there is no such thing. But, I hope you now understand it is not a myth at all. It is a real problem that trainers usually forget. So, work out, but be wise.

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    James Wright

    James (36) has been working out since he was 15 years old. He has a home gym where he pumps iron, does bodyweight workouts and boxing. He likes sharing his experiences with others who want to build a better physique.

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