Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Overtraining the body without taking time to rest can impact athletes and exercisers both physically and mentally and lead to a condition known as overtraining syndrome. Excessive training may cause decreases in athletic performance that can be long-lasting, sometimes taking several weeks or months to improve.
The psychological effects of overtraining can also lead to unfavorable changes in mood. Some research has linked overtraining syndrome with increased symptoms of anxiety and depression. Learn the telltale signs of overtraining and find out what you can do to cut back in order to avoid injury or burnout. Overtraining syndrome is a condition that occurs when you work out too much or too hard without giving the body enough time to rest.
It's common among elite athletes who train beyond their body's ability to recover, particularly when preparing for a competition or sporting event. Athletes often exercise longer and harder than the average person in order to reach peak performance in their sport. But without adequate rest and recovery, these training regimens can backfire and actually start to decrease physical performance. Conditioning for athletes and exercisers alike requires a balance between work and recovery.
Proper hydration and nutrition are also essential to performance, recovery, and prevention. There are a number of signs to look out for that may suggest you might be overtraining. Some of the most common symptoms of overtraining syndrome include:. New exercisers can become discouraged, while advanced exercisers might get frustrated and want to give up on their sport before they've reached their peak performance.
It can be tricky to predict whether you're at risk for overtraining because every person responds differently to various training routines. It is important for anyone, however, to vary your training throughout the year and schedule in adequate time for rest. It's recommended that you objectively measure your training routine and make adjustments along the way before you wind up injured. While there are many methods to objectively test for overtraining, the psychological signs and symptoms associated with changes in an athlete's mental state are often an indicator.
If you think you may be training too hard, try the following tactics to prevent overtraining syndrome. Decreased positive feelings for sports and increased negative feelings, such as depression, anger, fatigue, and irritability often appear after a few days of intensive overtraining. Once you start to notice these feelings, take some time to rest or dial back the intensity. A training log that includes a note about how you feel each day can help you notice downward trends and decreased enthusiasm.
It's important to listen to your body signals and rest when you feel especially fatigued. Another option is to track changes to your heart rate over time. Monitor your heart rate at rest and at specific exercise intensities while you train, and make a note of it. If your heart rate increases at rest or at a given intensity, you may be at risk for overtraining syndrome, especially if any of the above symptoms start to develop.
Track your resting heart rate each morning. You can do this manually by taking your pulse for 60 seconds immediately upon waking. Here are nine signs of overtraining to look out for:. The telltale sign of overtraining is a lack of improved performance, despite an increase in training intensity or volume.
Decreased agility, strength and endurance, such as slower reaction timesand reduced running speeds are all common signs of overtraining. Not only can overtraining decrease performance, it can also make seemingly effortless workouts feel unusually difficult. A clear sign of this is an abnormally elevated heart rate during exercise or throughout the day. If you are experiencing OTS, you may find that it takes longer for your heart rate to return to normal after a workout. But fatigue will accumulate in a body that never has a chance to fully recover from previous workouts.
This can be the result of too much training or too little fueling. Overtraining significantly affects your stress hormones, including cortisol and epinephrine.
This hormonal imbalance can cause mood swings, unusual irritability and an inability to concentrate. Sleep ideally provides the body time to rest and repair itself. But overproduction of stress hormones, as mentioned above, may not allow you to wind down or completely relax, making sleep much less effective which compounds chronic fatigue and moodiness.
A hormone imbalance can also affect hunger and satiety mechanisms. More training should stimulate more appetite, but the physiological exhaustion of OTS can actually lead to appetite suppression. Overused muscles and joints can cause constant aches or joint pain. Pain that does not subside in two weeks or so should be considered a notable injury. Overtraining taxes all of the body's systems and also makes it more difficult to ward off infections.
Thus, frequent illnesses and upper-respiratory tract infections URTIs are signs as well. Medical complications may also include low bone mineral density and low testosterone. Long-term low energy availability may lead to nutrient deficiencies, such as iron deficiency anemia, which have the potential to harm both health and performance. Medical complications can also involve the cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, endocrine, nervous or reproductive systems e.
Some people live for punishing workouts and grueling competitions. If this sounds like you, the inability to train or race combined with an imbalance of hormones and lack of quality sleep can significantly affect your psyche.
If you recognize these signs of overtraining in yourself, seek the help of a physician or other health professional to seek help. Some of these symptoms begin a few hours after a workout session, but they usually resolve within a few days. After a bit of rest, recovery, and refueling, the athlete will typically feel refreshed and ready to tackle their next workout Sutton, ; Davis et al. Note: Because many of the signs of overtraining can mimic those of health conditions such as asthma, anemia, depression, and diabetes , it's essential to talk to a healthcare practitioner about any new or unusual symptoms as they arise.
Athletes may also benefit from understanding a rare but life-threatening condition called rhabdomyolysis , which can result from a single workout that is intense enough to cause muscle fibers to rupture, setting off a dangerous biochemical chain reaction in the body. One of the hallmark signs of rhabdo is brown urine, like iced tea or cola Cannon, Learn more here. While the above checklist can be a helpful guide or wake-up call , it is somewhat subjective.
Athletes may ignore or deny specific symptoms—or they may believe their health issues are less persistent, frequent, or severe than they are. This can be especially true for those prone to exercise addiction or whose career or identity are connected closely to their workouts.
The point here is that more objective measures can be helpful, as well. Researchers, healthcare providers, and fitness professionals may suggest lab testing such as blood tests to measure levels of nutrients like electrolytes or iron , hormones like cortisol, thyroid, and testosterone , or other factors like blood count and signs of inflammation.
Here are a few. If desired, athletes can also record information on sleep, nutrition, injury, illness, and other metrics. High-tech apps, smartwatches, tracking programs and low-tech a handwritten journal both work. Participants should select whatever method they are most likely to adhere to. Engaging in periodic assessments can provide a helpful baseline for comparison. This is something certified personal trainers do when first meeting a client and then repeat regularly after that.
Examples of simple assessments include timing a 1-mile run or counting how many pushups can be performed before form breaks down NASM, n. Find additional performance assessments here. You can also find a resource on initial fitness consultations and movement assessments by following the respective links. The rating of perceived exertion associates different exertion levels with numbers on a scale from 1 to 10 or 1 to Exercisers can use this during any part of any workout.
The number chosen should reflect on how the person feels overall. Recording these results can assist in spotting changes in perceived exertion that may be related to overtraining. Resting heart rate is generally lower for more conditioned people; however, it is likely to rise when an athlete is overtraining. Count beats for 10 seconds and multiply by 6 to get beats per minute.
It is ideal to take measurements just before getting out of bed in the morning. Overtraining can also cause a rise in resting blood pressure , which you can track at home. A healthcare provider can suggest a reliable brand of monitor and explain ideal targets, as these differ from person to person Sutton, Recovery heart rate —heart rate immediately after exercise—may also be impacted by overtraining. This is used to observe how long it takes for an exercise-elevated heart rate to return to normal resting levels.
Fit people generally experience a quicker return to normal heart rate than those who are not conditioned. If this recovery rate begins to take longer than usual, it may be a sign of deconditioning Sutton, As previously indicated, overtraining does not happen only due to overdoing it during workouts or underprioritizing recovery.
Seemingly unrelated factors can also make a person more likely to become overtrained. This can include following a monotonous program, participating in only one activity or sport, having a recent illness or injury even if it has resolved , having recently participated in a competitive event or extreme workout session such as a black belt test , experiencing a significant life event such as a move, death, divorce, job loss or job change, or even something positive like the birth or adoption of a child.
Here are some key pillars of recovery that they will likely address:. It may be best to stop training entirely for at least a week and cancel upcoming competitions or events in severe cases.
Many athletes may see improvements by merely reducing their training by 50 to 80 percent. This does not mean that light activity such as walking or household chores is necessarily off-limits unless a physical illness or injury requires even greater rest Cleveland Clinic, ; Stryker, Active recovery workouts are a great way to incorporate rest - and at the same time - facilitate recovery.
See this blog on active recovery workouts. Most American adults fall short of the 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night recommended by the National Sleep Foundation.
These needs may increase when a person is recovering from overtraining or simply after a challenging workout or series of workouts. Good sleep hygiene begins with choosing a time to go to sleep and a time to wake up, then sticking to them consistently, even on weekends.
See also: The Importance of Sleep and Recovery. Often, people who are seeking to reduce bodyweight will reduce caloric intake to the point at which there is not enough nutrition available for recovery.
For example, the body needs adequate protein intake for muscle protein synthesis rebuilding muscles at the molecular level to occur Sutton, Also of interest is the recent increase in the daily recommendation for fluid intake. Today,
0コメント