Last updated
17 October 2009

Overtraining and doing too much exercise

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Are you overtraining? Is your exercise programme wearing you out?

To lose weight, it is imporant that you expend more calories than you consume, and to maintain your weight, the two should be in balance.

When you are trying to lose weight, there is a temptation to go full throttle on the exercise believing that the more you work out, and the higher the intensity, the better. Generally speaking, you should ease yourself into exercise having taken the time to seek appropriate advice from your GP.

So, you have started exercising and have steadily increased the intensity, duration and/or frequency of your workouts feeling better all the time as you've become stronger, leaner and fitter. Suddenly, one day, you start to notice that your typical workouts seem harder than before despite your fitness levels being good and you start to believe that you are going backwards. This is not the case - the more likely reason for this is that you are overdoing the exercise and are not giving your body enough time to recover between sessions.

Common symptoms of overtraining include:

Lacking energy
Feeling tired and drained
General body aches or mild muscle soreness
Failing mid exercise and not being able to complete your workout
Reduced performance levels
Headaches
Difficulty in slepping
Lack of motivation

If you believe that you have been overdoing the exercise - overtraining - it is important that you get yourself back on track. It is not difficult to do this, but you will need to take the following steps:

Rest rest rest - you need to give your body enought time to recover both physically and mentally. The amount of time required to recharge the body batteries properly varies depending on how long you have been overtraining for, but somewhere between 3 days and a week should suffice.
Eat well, making sure that your diet is appropriately balanced. Eat a good mix of fruit and vegetables, lean meat or other sources of protein, and carbohydrates.
Sleep - Get to bed at sensible times and make yourself as relaxed as possible before going to sleep. Having a shower before you get into bed certainly helps with this. Other ways to relax yourself include putting 3 to 4 drops lavender oil on your pillow as this induces sleep, or wearing an eye mask to block out all light sources.

When you feel recharged, it is important that you return to a slightly revised exercise routine otherwise you will end up overtraining again. For instance, you might continue with a routine of equal intensity as before, but reduce the frequency or lengths of workouts. By avoiding overtraining, you will always be optimising your development and over time, your progression will allow you to increase frequency, length and intensity of workouts again. Just remember, look out for signs of overtraining in the future and cut back appropriately to prevent it become a problem again.

Tips to avoid overtraining

Incorporate rest days into your workout calendar of 1 or 2 per week at a minimum. Resting does not necessarily mean doing absolutely nothing at all and lying down all day; rather resting could be 'active recovery' which is light activity such as a quick walk to your local shops. Hard and intensive workouts cause tiny tears to develop in your muscle fibres so it is important to give yourself adequate time to recover between workouts. Without adequate recovery time the muscle tears will continue to develop which will result in fatigue and could cause undue injury. By taking 1 day or even 2 days off between really tough workouts, the tears will heal and muscles will develop and strengthen. Your rest day will have been successful if you feel at the end of that day that you have a stored up energy bank ready to be used in your next workout.

Mix it up. Vary your workouts so that you are not doing the same routine every time. Ideally, successive workouts will target different parts of the body allowing tears on the previously exercised muscle groups additional time to recover. A mix of cardio and strength training is a good option to improve general fitness and to build muscle and improve definition.