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Are You Over-Training?
By: Dr. Jerry Sobel
Who doesn't want to get into the gym and get "shredded", train for that
10K or 100 mile bike ride. It is in our nature as humans to strive to
be the best. However, in that strive to perfection can we overdo it?
You bet we can. Seasoned athletes know that there is a fine line
between not training enough and overtraining and usually knows how to
balance workouts and recovery. The less experienced person or newbie
does not and can easy suffer the consequences of overtraining. Believe
it our not, you can do too much at the gym or on your bike and actually
set yourself back in your training and furthermore make yourself sick
in the process.
Do you ever feel like training is just getting
a little too difficult physically or emotionally? Have you lost your
motivation to get in the car and drive to the gym? Do your legs ache
all the time? These can be some of the signs of overtraining. The
earlier you recognize that you might be overtrained the easier it will
to come out of it. If you let it go on for too long you could end
feeling crummy for weeks and lose valuable time in training.
Some of the common signs of overtraining are:
1.Persistent soreness and stiffness in you muscles, joints and tendons.
2. Feeling heavy legged all the time.
3. Loss of interest in training.
4. Feeling nervous or depressed
5. Inability to focus at school or work
6. Headaches
7. Don't feel like eating
8. Worsening of performance
9. Persistent fatigue
10. Weight loss
11. Tender lymph in your neck, armpits or groin
12. Change in bowel habits
An
easy way to determine if you are getting overtrained is to take your
heart rate while lying in bed just after you wake up. If it is 7-10
beats higher than it could be an indicator to back off. There are
different ways to accomplish this. You can take days off, build more
recovery time into your training regime or do less intense workouts.
Either way, remember if you continue down the overtraining path things
will just get worse. Don't ever forget, In order to perform at your
peak, recovery is just as important as training. |
