Avoiding Overtraining

Exercise accounted for 468,000 injuries in 2019. That’s more injuries than any other category of sports and recreation.

Getting and staying fit means intense, challenging workouts. But when those workouts result in injury, you may be suffering from overtraining.

There is indeed such thing as too much exercise and it can have both physical and psychological effects. The key to avoiding overtraining is to prevent it – and we’re going to tell you exactly how to do that. Keep reading to learn more.

What is Overtraining?

If you’re training to improve your fitness, it requires that you regularly increase your training load. But in order to do that safely, increased loads must be balanced with rest and recovery. Without that balance, you run the risk of developing overtraining syndrome.

Overtraining syndrome is a long-term fatigue condition that’s usually caused by excessive exercise. Lifestyle can also contribute to the development of this condition. That includes stress, poor nutrition, and long working hours. 

Symptoms of Overtraining

The negative symptoms of overtraining are both physical and psychological. They include:

  • Lack of motivation to exercise
  • Muscle soreness, aches, and pain
  • Fatigue
  • Low mood
  • Poor quality sleep

If you overload your body and don’t give it time to recover, the purpose of exercising is eventually defeated. This results in decreased physical performance and can even cause injuries.

How to Avoid Overtraining and Reach Your Fitness Goals

Recovering from overtraining can take more than weeks. For some people, it can take as long as months or years to get back to their peak physical conditions. Which is to say that overtraining should be avoided and at all costs – and we’ll tell you how.  

Prevention

There’s no way to test whether or not someone has overtraining syndrome. The symptoms and treatment vary from one person to another. Meaning that the most effective way to avoid overtraining is to prevent it before it occurs.

Prevention is more than scheduling regular rest days after long or demanding workouts. Prevention involves lifestyle changes and knowing how to work your body properly.

Lifestyle Changes

As mentioned, lifestyle factors may contribute to overtraining. There are two important things you can do to manage your lifestyle while your training hard: eat well and reduce stress.

You need to eat enough calories to get you through your workouts. That means eating a healthy diet full of carbohydrates, healthy fats, protein, and fruits and vegetables.

To address stress levels, consider adding relaxing practices to your off-days. Practices like meditation or yoga can help you de-stress and sleep better.

Hire a Good Trainer

One of the best things you can do to avoid overtraining is to hire a trainer. A knowledgeable trainer can help you train hard and improve your fitness levels while also helping you balance rest and recovery.

A good trainer knows how to push your limits without overtraining. Beyond that, they can also help with things like proper nutrition and lifestyle to ensure you’re taking care of your body both inside and outside of the gym.

Let Us help You Out

At CONDITIONerd we are here to help you achieve better physical and mental health through exercise. Check out the plans we offer to our customers and see if you could benefit from working with our team. And if you have questions, you can always contact a CONDITIONerd team member

Personal trainers, like those found here, can help guide you on your pathway towards reaching your fitness goals, whether that is getting bigger, stronger, faster, more lean, or just generally feeling better.

We can get you setup with a periodized workout plan, supplement information, and advice on nutrition to help you reach your goals.

The only thing you need is some motivation and a willingness to change some old habits.

Get into contact with us to find out what membership is right for you. In a CONDITIONerd program, you’ll be surrounded by others who can help you to get where you want to be.

Generally, our clients start to see some pretty awesome changes in 2-3 months time, some sooner.

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