Overtraining is an insidious trap because it goes against our natural instincts.

In most endeavors in life, you can expect to receive rewards in proportion to what y'all give in time and endeavor.

Work more and harder in your career, and yous'll usually grow your business organization or air current upward getting promotions and raises. Spend more than time with friends and family, and you'll usually build stronger, more than fulfilling relationships. Practice longer and more diligently on your golf swing, and yous'll normally shave strokes off your game faster.

Do, and weightlifting in particular, is a bit unlike, however.

In that location's a bespeak where exerting more effort actually becomes counter-productive. Most people are aware of this concept, but they aren't aware of how easy it is to overtrain, and how to spot it.

Yous see people overtraining all the fourth dimension.

The guys that spend ii+ hours working a single muscle grouping, doing set up afterwards set later on ready, are overtraining without realizing it, and don't understand why they don't get bigger or stronger despite their long, grueling workouts. The more effort they put into growing their breast, they effigy, the more it volition abound.

That'southward not how it works, though. Your body tin only take and so much earlier it becomes affected with what's known as "overtraining syndrome."

Overtraining is merely an imbalance between work and recovery. When you put too much stress on the body and don't give it the proper amount of rest, various undesirable things happen.

The common side effects cited clinically are a state of chronic fatigue, low, and underperformance despite rest, merely it's not always that extreme or obvious. There are other, subtler signs of overtraining that you should know and watch for.

What follows is a list of signs that you may exist overtraining. If you're simply experiencing one of the symptoms, it may not point overtraining.

    Table of Contents

  • 8 Signs of Overtraining
  • 1. You lot just tin can't finish a proper workout.
  • 2. You're getting fatter despite training hard.
  • three. You're training hard every day of the week.
  • four. You're restless at night and are having trouble sleeping.
  • 5. You feel overly fatigued and sluggish.
  • 6. You have odd aches and pains in your joints, basic, or limbs.
  • 7. You're getting sick more often than usual.
  • 8. You feel drained and crappy after what ordinarily would be a good workout.
  • How to Handle Overtraining
  • What are your experiences with overtraining? Have anything else you'd similar to add? Let me know in the comments beneath!

8 Signs of Overtraining

1. Y'all simply can't terminate a proper workout.

signs of overtraining weightlifting

When your trunk is overtrained, you won't be able to elevator the weights you normally can, you lot won't have the energy to exercise as many sprints, yous won't take the stamina to run your normal route, and and then forth.

Fifty-fifty though you're hitting the gym each day, y'all'll feel progressively weaker, slower, and more than lethargic. I've had it and so bad before that I couldn't stop yawning in the gym and simply couldn't push myself to practice another set.

two. You're getting fatter despite training hard.

Well, you think you're getting fatter at least, simply what you're really dealing with is an increase in water retention.

This is acquired in part by the hormonal disruptions caused by overtraining (and this tin be particularly problematic when you're restricting calories for fatty loss.)

Namely, your testosterone levels can plunge while your cortisol levels rising, which causes a whole host of problems related to protein metabolism, insulin resistance, appetite, and more than.

The finish consequence?

You train harder and watch your diet closely, but you look fatter.

3. You lot're training hard every day of the week.

symptoms of overtraining weightlifting

I've yet to come across someone not on drugs that can lift heavy, sprint hard, or engage in otherwise intense training every solar day of the week and nonetheless adequately recover.

Unless you have Wolverine'due south souvenir of regeneration, it'southward absolutely vital that you take at least ii days off weights per week, and at least i day of absolutely no exercise.

What I similar to practice is lift weights Mon – Fri and exercise cardio Dominicus – Weds. Saturday is a full rest solar day.

You can intersperse your residue days throughout the week too, such as the following routine:

Day i: Weights

24-hour interval 2: Weights & cardio

Day iii: Cardio but

24-hour interval iv: Weights & cardio

Twenty-four hours v: Weights & cardio

Mean solar day 6: Weights

Day 7: Full rest

You tin play with this however y'all want then long as y'all accept 2 days off weights, and give yourself 1 day of no exercise whatsoever. If you want to requite your metabolism a trivial heave, don't take ii total residuum days in a row.

4. You're restless at night and are having trouble sleeping.

signs of overtraining bodybuilding

If yous exercise a lot of aerobic exercise and are overtrained, your sympathetic nervous system can remain excited at all times and you lot'll feel restless and unable to focus, and your sleep will be disturbed and cleaved.

5. You lot feel overly fatigued and sluggish.

If you're a weight lifter and are overtrained, your parasympathetic nervous system becomes overly stimulated, leading to a decrease in testosterone, an increase in cortisol, a crushing fatigue (mental and physical), and a stubborn trend to hang onto body fat.

6. You take odd aches and pains in your joints, bones, or limbs.

signs of overtraining muscles

This is one of the showtime things that I notice as I approach the betoken of overtraining. My shoulder volition start to ache. And so my wrist. Then my genu. Then my forearm.

Information technology'll usually accept 8 – ten consecutive weeks of intense training before these things turn on, and I just have a week off or "deload" for a week to let my body recover. They're always gone by the cease of the remainder period.

(These things can likewise be signs of poor grade, just that's easy enough to diagnose. If you're lifting heavy weights for the first fourth dimension, you lot can also expect various aches like these right off the bat.)

7. You're getting sick more than often than usual.

Y'all can throw a wrench in your immune system in many different ways. Increasing carbohydrate can do it, as tin a lack of vitamin D/sunlight, poor sleep habits, and even mental stress.

Simply if you're all expert on these fronts and are getting inexplicable little coughs, sniffles, congestions, or headaches, you may exist overtraining.

Take a residual calendar week and let your allowed organisation build back up.

8. You feel drained and crappy after what usually would exist a expert workout.

overtraining muscles bodybuilding

The mail-workout feeling of general well-existence is one of my favorite things about training. The rush of endorphins only calms your entire body and mind and can concluding for hours. It's great, isn't it?

Well, if it never comes, and if you feel irritable and uncomfortable after working out, you may be overtraining. Exercise should elevate your mood. If you're feeling negative instead, it might be time to accept a residue.

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How to Handle Overtraining

overtraining symptoms weight lifting

Fortunately, handling overtraining is very simple. Once you spot information technology, all y'all demand to do is have some time off the gym.

What has always worked for me is a week off weights, with zero more than a few sessions of lite cardio.

Getting a proper corporeality of sleep is also a key part of preventing overtraining–7 – 8 hours per night is generally considered optimal–every bit is a proper diet that fully provides your body with everything it needs to repair itself.

You'll know the overtraining is gone simply by how you feel. After iii-5 days of rest, you'll feel rejuvenated and fix to train again.

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