Disclaimer: In this post, I am sharing my experience with overtraining. I am not a fitness professional, and everything that is shared should be used for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice.
Exercise has so many health benefits, and it’s not just for people who want to lose weight. You don’t need to be on a weight loss journey to benefit from more movement because everyone benefits from improved physical health. Regular exercise is a good thing, but there is such a thing as overtraining and doing too much exercise. It is important to exercise regularly for improved health, but if you are doing too much exercise, it will backfire, and you won’t get as much benefit from your routine because you will be too exhausted. When I started exercising, I was desperate to get results and pushed myself to exercise at intensities that my body was not ready for, which worked for a while until it didn’t, and I became so burnt out that I didn’t want to exercise anymore. You want to make sure that you are challenging yourself during exercise, but it is so important that you have a healthy relationship with exercise because nothing good comes from doing too much exercise and not enough rest. How do you know you are overtraining? In this post, I am going to share a few things that I have experienced that were signs that I was overtraining.
You are not able to complete your workout– It is normal to have bad workouts and have days when you are struggling to complete a workout you did yesterday, but if it is becoming more frequent, it’s a red flag. Your workout routine should be challenging, but it should be achievable, and if you find yourself not being able to complete your workouts anymore, it could be a sign you are under-fueling or overtraining. People sometimes think that more exercise is better, but that is not necessarily always true because rest days are just as important as the workout. If you aren’t able to complete a workout you used to be able to do with no problem, take a few rest days because if your body is not getting enough recovery, you are going to struggle to complete your workout. Rest days are not laziness and are necessary for improved fitness.
You are always sore- It is normal to do a hard workout and occasionally get sore from it, but it is not normal to be super sore after every workout. I love having a great workout and getting a little sore from it because it tells me that I challenged my muscles in ways that it is not used to. If you are constantly sore, it might be a sign that you are pushing yourself too hard and need to dial back the intensity. It is completely normal not to be sore after every workout, and you should not be judging the effectiveness of your workout by your level of soreness because not being sore doesn’t mean you didn’t have a good workout. If you are never sore, you might not be pushing yourself hard enough, but if you are always sore and can’t get rid of the soreness, you could be overtraining.
If you are getting injured more often- I recently started going on daily walks again, but it is not my first time doing it, and I was doing it a few years ago and stopped. People sometimes wonder why I stopped walking for so long, and the reason is that I got a very bad injury that took me years to recover from, because I was doing too much walking. I became fearful of doing any kind of cardio because I remember when I was constantly in pain from overtraining, and my brain associated all forms of cardio with something bad that I needed to avoid at all costs, which took me some time to recover from. If you exercise regularly, injuries sometimes happen because you put a lot of stress on your body during exercise, but if you are always getting injured, it’s a red flag. Injuries are not always signs of overtraining, and sometimes you have improper form or have weakness in a certain areas of your body, and aren’t overtraining. Frequent injuries should always be a red flag and are something you should never ignore.
Your heart rate is increasing– Regular exercise improves heart health, and if you are exercising regularly at a moderate intensity, your resting heart rate should be lowering. If you notice that since you started exercising, your resting heart rate has increased, it can be a sign of a heart condition that should be evaluated by a doctor, or you could be overtraining. Your heart rate can tell you a lot about your fitness level, which is why it’s so important that we pay attention to these things, so we know if we are doing a healthy amount of exercise or need to dial back. One of the first signs that I noticed when I was overtraining was that my heart rate was increasing, and I struggled to fall and stay asleep. It wasn’t until I did less exercise that I started noticing improvements in my heart health. Too much exercise puts a lot of stress on your body and sometimes increases your heart rate when exercise should be lowering your heart rate. Knowing what a healthy heart rate is for you is so important because when you know what is healthy and what’s not, you’ll be able to catch health concerns before they become serious.
You are getting sick more often- Regular exercise can help strengthen your immune system so you don’t get sick as much. If you are over-training and not giving your body enough rest days, the opposite will happen, and you will weaken your immune system, so you get sick more. Many disabled and chronically ill people have weak immune systems and get sick often, so don’t add more sick days by exercising too much.
Regular exercise is so important for our health, but it is also important that you are able to recognize when you have done too much. You want to make sure that you are pushing yourself during exercise because not doing enough will not get you results, but more exercise is not always better. Nothing ever comes from overtraining, and it’s not always about training harder but training smarter. Rest days are equally as important as the workout, because growth happens during your rest periods. If you don’t take rest days, your body will become so physically exhausted that it will force you to take one. These are a few things that I have experienced when I was overtraining, but it is not a complete list because there are so many signals that our bodies give us when we do too much exercise. Don’t overtrain if you want to get the maximum benefits from your workout because it will backfire. Have you ever overtrained, and what signs have you experienced? If you liked this post, please leave a comment below and share it with your friends.
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