Tired, Hurting, Plateauing? You May Be Overtraining

How often are you training?

There are many different workout splits to choose from when it comes to how many days you are training in the gym; and what you should be doing really does depend on who you are, as well as your goals! While some people thrive on working out 5 days a week and doing a split routine, others get their best results doing 3 full body days a week.

So how do you know if you are overtraining? Here are a few of the most common signs/symptoms:

Chronic Injuries and Strain

Muscles and joints that are being overworked and overused can be in a constant state of aches and pains. If you feel that you are constantly in pain, this may be a sign you are overtraining.

Excessive Fatigue

While it is normal to feel tired after a workout, if the fatigued feeling continues to persist, and starts to affect your sleep, this is a sign you could be overtraining. Chronic fatigue can then lead you into a state of “low energy availability” which means the body starts pulling energy from proteins, taking away from your muscles recovery and repair.

Lowered Performance Levels

Do you feel like you are plateauing in the gym? You have been stuck at the same weight for a while, and even have days when you feel like you can’t do as much as you used to? There are a couple of reasons why one could plateau in the gym, but overtraining is one of them!

Sickness

When we put the body under immense pressure and don’t allow it to recover, we put ourselves into a position where our immunity is lowered, and we pick up illnesses more often than we used to.

Decreased Motivation and Self-Esteem

Overtraining can affect our stress hormones, which can cause our motivation to decrease and our bad self-esteem to increase. If we stop improving, that takes a toll on us mentally. We may even run into a sense of irritability and mood swings towards others.

We want to make sure that our muscles are getting ample amounts of rest. While we want to stress our muscles out enough to gain strength, the recovery process is SO important. So, how can we recover from overtraining and prevent it from happening again?

You may need to take a couple of weeks off, and yes, I said a couple.

If your body has been in a constant state of being overworked, it needs a lot of time to fully recover. Once you start to feel better, and notice your symptoms are getting better, you need to make sure you are programming enough rest into your program. At the very least you should have one day of full rest a week, but more than that can be better, especially if your workout split has days when you are working multiple muscles on the same day.

With all of that being said, also make sure you are feeding your body enough food to help yourself recover properly, and really try and be mindful about prioritizing your protein, which aids in the recovery and repair of your muscles!

If you feel like you are experiencing any of these symptoms, you could be over training. Incorporate more rest days into your split, and give your body the rest it deserves! Talk to one of our trainers if this sounds like you. We can help you strategize and get you back on track.