The goal of our workouts is to achieve a healthy and fit physique. However, sometimes we can overdo it to achieve this goal. In this article, we’ll examine the symptoms and effects of overtraining. We’ll also review what to do if you overtrain and what steps you can take to achieve a more balanced exercise routine.
What is Overtraining Syndrome?
Overtraining syndrome occurs when an athlete ignores signs of fatigue and continues training. This can be viewed from two perspectives: overreaching and overtraining.
Overreaching is the continuation of exercise by ignoring the muscle soreness that results from increased training duration. If the overreaching phase is ignored and adequate rest time is not provided, overtraining syndrome (OTS) occurs. During this phase, pain that is more severe than normal muscle soreness can occur.
People with overtraining syndrome develop a psychological dependence on exercise. They strive to achieve better performance by constantly training and increasing their training hours. However, this constant strain can lead to decreased performance lasting weeks or months. In this case, the negative effects of overtraining can be observed, both physically and psychologically.
What Causes Overtraining Syndrome?
Common causes of overtraining syndrome are listed below.
Setting Goals Too High: When athletes set unrealistic or excessively high goals, it can lead to overtraining.
Inadequate Rest: Not providing sufficient rest time between workouts or not creating a proper recovery program can lead to the body being constantly under excessive stress.
Nutritional Deficiencies: Unbalanced eating habits, especially inadequate calorie or protein intake, can affect the body’s recovery and rebuilding process after workouts.
Training Mistakes: Using incorrect training techniques, overdoing it, or neglecting proper rest periods can cause the body to sound the alarm.
Stress and Pressure: Athletes’ lack of ability to cope with stress from external factors or being in an overly competitive environment can trigger this condition.
How Do You Know If You’re Overtraining?
Overtraining and undertraining are common. To determine if you’re affected, check out the signs below.
Constantly Feeling Tired
A persistent feeling of fatigue, even after a normal workout, is a sign that the body needs rest and recovery. This often manifests as a persistent feeling of physical and mental fatigue.
Eating Less
Especially as summer approaches, people frequently change their eating habits. During these times, there’s often an increased tendency to exercise extra to maintain or improve their physique. However, this can disrupt normal eating habits and lead to malnutrition. Habits like undereating or skipping meals, in particular, can be linked to overtraining.
When food intake decreases, the body begins to draw on its own reserves to meet its energy needs. Over time, this can lead to nutritional deficiencies and health problems such as anemia. Reduced food intake can lead to problems with the cardiovascular, digestive, and hormonal systems. Therefore, it’s important to regularly review your eating habits and ensure adequate nutritional intake.
Experiencing Poor Performance
If you notice a significant decrease in your performance during exercises you could normally perform comfortably, this could be a sign of overtraining. Continuing to train when your body needs rest and recovery can negatively impact your performance. This indicates that your muscles and nervous system are under excessive stress and are not recovering adequately.
If you ignore this signal, you could be at risk for more serious injury later in life. Therefore, it’s important to take any decreased performance seriously and give your body the rest it needs.
Insomnia and Irregular Sleep
Overtraining can negatively impact your sleep patterns and lead to poor sleep quality. This is a result of training putting excessive stress on your body. If you’re noticing that you’re sleeping less than usual or your sleep patterns are significantly irregular, you’re likely overtraining.
Insomnia and irregular sleep often occur as a response to the high stress levels created by excessive training. Overtraining constantly stimulates the body and can interfere with the physiological processes necessary for recovery. This can lead to poor sleep quality and sleep problems. Therefore, it’s important to review your sleep patterns and make necessary adjustments to your training schedule.
Frequent Injuries
Overtraining can put excessive stress on muscles, joints, and tendons, increasing the risk of injury. During normal training, the body can tolerate this stress with appropriate rest and recovery. However, during overtraining, the body may struggle to cope, increasing the risk of injury.
An increase in injuries is a sign that your body is struggling to cope with overtraining. Frequent recurrences of injuries you rarely or never experience could indicate that overtraining is negatively impacting your body. If you’re experiencing injuries repeatedly, especially after or during training, you may be overtraining yourself.
Gain weight
Weight gain can occur as a result of exercising too much without adequate rest. Overtraining can cause lower testosterone levels and higher stress hormones like cortisol. These hormonal changes are often associated with muscle loss, weight gain, and fat accumulation, especially in the abdominal area.
When your body doesn’t have enough rest and recovery, it can prevent your muscles from rebuilding and developing properly. This can lead to a slower metabolism and an increase in body fat. As a result, you may experience unexpected weight gain and changes in body composition.
Experiencing Pain, Tension, and Ache
Overtraining, pushing yourself too far, and putting your body under excessive stress can cause muscle tension and pain. This can lead to increased pain during and after exercise. It can also cause micro-tears in the muscles. These tears can take time to repair and can sometimes cause permanent damage.
Loss of Motivation
Overtraining can cause your motivation to exercise to wane over time. This is often due to mental or physical fatigue. Continuously engaging in strenuous workouts can over-deplete your body and mental motivational resources. Furthermore, not reaching your fitness goals or not enjoying your workouts can also lead to a loss of motivation.
If you notice you’re losing motivation, you can try different approaches to address it. You might consider steps like changing or diversifying your workout routine, trying new sports, or adding activities to make your exercise routine more enjoyable. Additionally, revisiting your goals and focusing on smaller, more achievable goals can help you regain motivation.
Solutions for Overtraining
If you think you’re overtraining and it’s negatively impacting your life, you can make some changes to make your workouts more effective.
Prioritize Rest
To prevent overtraining, you can start by scheduling regular rest days after long or challenging workouts. If you’re doing weight or resistance training, you can focus your training on a specific muscle group for one or two days. This allows you to target your muscles in a balanced way and give your body time for recovery.
Add Variety to Your Exercises
Adding variety to your workouts is an effective way to offset overtraining. If you enjoy intense workouts but feel like you’re overdoing it, consider taking active rest days.
You can give your muscles a break and speed up recovery by scheduling active recovery days that include low-impact activities like walking, yoga, or cycling. This will relieve excess tension in your muscles while still allowing you to stay active after your strenuous workouts.
Review Your Nutrition Plan
Overtraining can leave you with insufficient energy, which can slow down recovery. You can adjust your nutrition plan to recover more quickly.
By following a balanced diet that includes plenty of carbohydrates, protein, healthy fats, and fresh fruits and vegetables, you can get enough calories and provide the nutrients your muscles need to recover.
Pay Attention to Your Sleep Pattern
Paying attention to your sleep schedule is an important recommendation for those who overtrain. Overtraining can prevent muscles from recovering adequately. However, sleep plays a critical role in the recovery process. Establishing a sleep schedule and ensuring adequate sleep is a key step toward accelerating recovery.
While it’s generally thought that 8 hours of sleep is ideal, everyone’s sleep needs are different. Therefore, it’s important to identify your own sleep needs and adjust your sleep schedule accordingly. This way, you’ll support your body’s recovery by providing the rest it needs.
