Overtraining
What is it?
Overtraining is the result of insufficient recovery. It is characterised by the athlete’s progress ceasing and, often, fitness decreasing!
Signs of Overtraining
Resting Heart Rate Increase
An increase in your resting heart rate for an extended time indicates fatigue. An increase of 10 beats per minute or more is generally a sign that your body has not fully recovered from your training.
Lower Heart Rate Variability
If your HRV is lower than usual (over a period of time) then this can be a sign of overturning (or illness).
Longer Heart Rate Recovery
You will know, or have measure, on how long it takes your heart rate to return to normal levels after exercise. If this starts to take notably longer than normal, this can be a sign of overtraining.
Plateauing
This is where you stop improving, despite training well and hard. Training programmes (especially long ones) should include down, or deload, time where the intensity and volume reduces and allows for adaptation and recovery, or the progress will slow and cease.
Weakened Immune System
Overtraining can leave your immune system weak. The result of this can be frequent illness, such as colds and coughs along with feeling generally run down.
Poor Sleep
Weird, given that sleep is one of things that you likely need the most when overtrained! But, your stress hormones are disrupted. This makes it harder for you to relax. Then you have the issue that overtraining makes it difficult to sleep, and this lack of sleep will only leave you feeling worse!
Sore Muscles
This is when your muscles are not recovering in the way they should / that you are used to. DOMS last longer, and you end up training on DOMS, exacerbating the problem.
Fatigue!
Always feeling tired, feeling under-recovered. We all know the feeling, where you just feel….tired all the time! Afternoon naps are often a symptom here.
Low Motivation
If you feel like you’re having to force yourself to go training, without your usual high levels of motivation, this can also be a sign you’ve been over doing it. This could come with a lowered ability to concentrate or inability to relax when not training.
What can you do about it?
STOP!!
Taking a few days (perhaps a week, or two) off training to rest will allow you to recover properly and return to training.
Reduce the volume or intensity.
Reduce the length or intensity of training until the symptoms of overtraining subside.
Recovery Days / Weeks
You should have recovery days in each week of training, and recovery or deload weeks in very month / four weeks of training. We think a recovery day should be REST. In a deload week, we reduce both volume and intensity.
Look at your Nutrition
Are you eating in a way that best supports your training and recovery? It is crucial to properly fuel your training, your recovery and your performance. Think natural, healthy foods, ensuring that you macro numbers are right and drinking plenty of water.
Pain is NOT Gain.
Listen to what your body is telling you. If you are sore, rest. Training through pain or injury is more likely to prevent you from training further than it is to make you fitter or stronger.
