More isn’t always better when it comes to most things in life, including exercise. Yes to some extent it can be beneficial to add extra exercise to your routine whether that be planned or incidental. There is however a so called ‘tipping point’ and pushing beyond this point is both ineffective and detrimental to you and your results. Fortunately overtraining syndrome (OTS) is actually quite rare but is most commonly brought about by too much exercise without adequate recovery or due to chronic under fuelling. In specific terms OTS can be described as a “physiological state caused by an excess accumulation of physiological, emotional, psychological, environmental and chemical stress that leads to a sustained decrease in physical and mental performance and that requires a relatively long recovery period”. Overloading you nervous system, immune system or hormonal system can result in your body becoming overtaxed and eventually lead to overtraining syndrome. These signs can help you to identify if you are at risk.
Decreased Performance
One of the most obvious signs that you’re asking too much of your body is a lack of improvement or a reduction in your current performance. If you’re noticing a decline in your speed, agility, strength or even things like reaction time despite an increase in your training volume and intensity it could be time to scale back your efforts before you burn out. You may also notice an increase in your perceived rate of exertion during training, this too can indicate you are overtraining.
Elevated Resting Heart Rate
OTS can be responsible for an increase in your resting heart rate. This is likely due to the spike in your metabolic rate which would be elevated to accommodate the demands of your extra training. This is where owning a heart rate monitor can really come in handy as tool to gauge how well your body is recovering and to keep track of changes in your heart rate. Don’t own a heart rate monitor? No biggy, you can measure it the old fashioned way first thing in the morning before you get up out of bed. If your body is well rested your heart rate readings should remain relatively consistent.
Increased Injury and Illness
Frequent illness is generally a sign that your immune system is under stress, this can be a result of overtraining. When we overtrain our body’s resources must be devoted to our recovery therefore we will have a shortage of resources available to ward off illness. Inadequate time and quality of recovery means our muscles will not have healed from our previous workout, as a result you may experience an increase in the frequency and severity of injury and you may face the risk of aggravating old injuries.
Altered Sleep Patterns
Many different factors can impact the quality of your sleep and whether you are getting enough. Overstimulating both the nervous system and hormonal system due to overtraining can leave you feeling both fatigue yet still wired. This can make it harder to fall asleep, increase restlessness and potentially cause you to oversleep. This kind of impact on your sleep can hinder your recovery and increase feelings of fatigue. When your body is not well rested you may experience signs of anxiousness, irritability and a lack of concentration. Poor sleep and increased stress from training combined with normal everyday stress like work stress can make you sluggish, this will not only effect your ability to train but also impact on your ability to carry out daily activities.
Extended Muscle Soreness
It’s normal to experience DOMS (delayed onset of muscle soreness) post workout, this usually last a day or two. You should not however still be feeling soreness past about 72 hours after your workout. Soreness beyond this point can stipulate that your muscles are not getting adequate time to fully repair. This will negatively effect your muscle growth and cause a reduction in performance. Time spent recovering is just as crucial to your success as your training.
Lack of Motivation and Psychological Stress
We’ve all wanted to skip a workout from time to time for various reasons, that’s normal. However if you’re finding yourself dreading each session so much so that it is causing you anxiety then this can be a sign that your body needs rest. This lack of motivation can be easy to notice as it is generally sudden and dramatic. Exercise should boost your mental health but overloading your body’s systems can create hormonal imbalances which can lead to negative feelings and increases in stress related hormones like cortisol. This combined with an inability to perform at your normal capacity can dint your self esteem and lead to depression.
Just like with every other aspect of your life, you need to find balance with your training. A well constructed exercise program will allow for this. It will find balance between training overload and recovery both active and complete, it will energise you rather then exhaust you and it will allow for constant progression. Yes for some of us recovery can be frustrating but time spent on the sidelines due to injury or symptoms of OTS will only add to this frustration. Train smarter not harder, this is key to your longevity.
xx Tara
Have you ever experienced overtraining syndrome? Let me know in the comments section below.
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