4 Common Symptoms of Overtraining

Fitness is one of the greatest and most important things in life. No matter what you are training for, it’s rarely bad. After all, you’re trying to make positive, healthy changes to your life, and that’s hard to beat. However, one way it can negatively impact your life is when things go a little too far. There are a huge number of risks that come from training too much, and here, we’ve put together some of the most common signs and symptoms of overtraining for you to keep an eye on.

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• Injuries, Aches and Pain
• Plateaus or Performance Issues
• Fatigue, Restlessness and Irritability
• Lack of Motivation

Injuries, Aches and Pain

First, the most common physical symptom of overtraining is an injury. Not just obvious injuries either, but serious aches and pains are included in there. They are not good news, and they’re far more common than most people tend to realise.

The most common reason for this type of issue is that when you’re training more than you should do, your body simply cannot handle the stress you’re putting on it. You aren’t getting adequate recovery time, and it’s showing. You damage your muscles, joints, and just about everything else. Both short-term and long-term, it’s a huge issue.

(Take a look here for what to do on your rest days. Hint: Take a day off!)

Plateaus or Performance Issues

Next up is performance issues. Overtraining doesn’t just stick to physical symptoms and injuries. Your performance and your progress both take a huge hit when you start to train more than you should do. Even undertraining is probably better for you than overtraining is, so take it easy.

As you overtrain, like in the point above, you don’t have the time for your body to make the adjustments you need to see from all your hard work. The result? Your body can’t build that extra stamina or muscle, and it simply isn’t ready to perform like you need or expect it to. It’s counterproductive.

Fatigue, Restlessness and Irritability

Moving onto the more mental aspects that too much exercise offers you, the biggest hit is in your energy and attitudes. When you’re overtraining, the symptoms are doing harm to everywhere after all, and this is just as much at risk as your physical health is.

Fatigue is the most likely, due to you not getting enough rest because of how much stress you’re putting on your body. That comes from the point above. Other than that, you become restless and irritable as a result as well. You aren’t performing up to the standard you want, which is not good, and you aren’t getting the rest you need either. That’s the perfect recipe for a bad attitude and the wrong headspace.

Lack of Motivation

Finally, overtraining symptom number four on our list is how your motivation dives. This one is a summary of all of the points above. Like your physical health, personal performance, and mentality all take a hit because you’re overtraining, so the worst happens, and that is your motivation leaves you.

You simply aren’t getting anywhere. You’re trying so hard to move forward and yet still going backwards. Then, you get injured or are too tired to keep going, and that’s when the motivation just can’t keep up. If you feel like giving up, take a break for a while and realise the seriousness of overtraining. That might be the cause of all of these issues in the first place.

Ultimately, your fitness needs to be a lifestyle choice, not just a short-term performance or physique goal. So make sure you’re exercising healthily and taking the breaks you need when and when you need to. Overtraining is almost abusing exercise, and the symptoms will be sure to let you know, so just take it steady. Talk to a GP or fitness specialist for more information, or check out this link.

Before beginning any exercise or nutrition program, consult your physician, doctor or other professional. This is especially important for individuals over the age of 35 or persons with pre-existing health problems. Exercise.co.uk assumes no responsibility for personal injury or property damage sustained using our advice.

If you experience dizziness, nausea, chest pain, or any other abnormal symptoms, stop the workout at once and consult a physician or doctor immediately.