It might sound unlikely, but it IS possible to train too much. Your body needs time to recover, otherwise you can do some serious damage. Some overtraining can take just a few days to recover from, but severe overtraining can take some months. With super intense workouts such as Crossfit and HIIT becoming more popular, I think it’s really important to know when you are overtraining and really listen to your body.
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You Feel Sluggish All Day
Intense training will fatigue your central nervous system. Overtraining can leave you will feel really sluggish with a lack of energy, which doesn’t seem to go away.
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Your Results Plateau
Overtraining can actually cause you to lose muscle and gain fat due to issues with your hormones. Your body will produce less testosterone and more cortisol. This causes your body to store fat.
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Extreme Soreness
Doing intense workouts will result in DOMS (delayed onset muscle fatigue), and this type of soreness is normal – it means you did a great workout! But intense and long lasting soreness probably means you’ve done too much.
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You Get Sick
Getting sick can be caused by a whole range of things, but if you’ve been generally healthy and find yourself still getting sick, it could be due to overtraining.
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Trouble Sleeping
When I exercise hard, I sleep awesome. But overtraining can cause you to have problems sleeping due to issues with your nervous system and hormones. If you’re having problems falling asleep, or are waking up a lot during the night, this could be due to overtraining.
No one will know if you’re overtraining except for you, so make sure you listen to your body. If you need a break, take it! It will be good for your body, I promise.
It’s FREE