Overtraining: Killing your gains?

Always tired? Always Sore? Can’t lift the weight that you were able to a week ago? Know what overtraining does to your muscles. Ignoring the advice like “Your workouts are too long” or “You’re doing too many sets per exercise” is easy. However, knowing the importance of rest and knowing how much to train is what takes you closer to your fitness goals- Are you training too much? When you push your body past the limit of what it can recover from, you are overtraining. Overtraining is not predictable. Usually, you see effects of overtraining days later, when you always feel tired or lack energy to lift weights that you were earlier able to push. It is true, that you need to overload the muscle to make gains, but at the same time you need to make sure that you give your muscles enough time to recover to make the best growth of your muscles. Is there any way to know if I’m overtraining? After a workout, your muscles need time to rest, recover and grow. When you overtrain, your muscles loose the capability to recover your energy levels, regenerate damaged cells and grow stronger. Overtraining could also result in constant fatigue, cellular damage that may lead to injuries. Therefore, rest and relaxation are a must in any training regimen to give your muscles the time it needs to recover and generate energy for your next intense workout session. Rest- Your Muscle Growth Partner You cannot state enough, how important it is to have adequate rest. For muscle growth to occur, you need to strain your muscle with heavier weights. So, when you train your body with heavier weights than it has adapted to, the muscles tend to fatigue and a pump is achieved. When you’re done with your workout, your muscle growth process begins, as the torn-up muscle tissues start to recover and fuse to grow stronger to adapt your new heavier regimen. This is only possible with the help of proper nutrition and rest. So make sure, you take adequate rest to push your muscle growth. Symptoms of Overtraining Other than loss in performance and constant fatigue, the symptoms of overtraining are different from person to person. Here is a list of a few common symptoms of overtraining – Lacking Muscle Growth Reduced appetite, which leads to weight loss Nausea and trouble falling asleep Metabolic Abnormalities Joint or muscle ache increased blood pressure and a greater resting heart rate Anxiety or depression Frequent Seasonal Infections A decline in motivation during workout sessions Ego-lifting Ego lifting is your biggest enemy in your workouts. Ego lifting is when you attempt to lift more weight than what you are capable of, no matter what the reason. It’s a sure-fire way to injure yourself and without proper form you are just going to hurt yourself and not make any gains or efficient workout out of it. So, keep your ego at bay before entering the gym. How can I prevent myself from overtraining? Here are a few tips to avoid overtraining- Plan well- Plan attainable objectives for your workout, keeping in mind your rest intervals as well as the frequency, length, and intensity of your workouts. Be flexible- Ensure that your workouts are varied. The same routine repeated every day will eventually grow boring. Additionally, your body will adjust to your workout. Keep your workout interesting by switching it up. Give your body time to recover- Try taking 2 rest days rather than just 1. This is because many people stop seeing results in a while, and tend to move to more intense training sessions in order to see results, but their body is not capable of handling that. This leads them to remain stuck in the same growth plateau. Train Right If you are starting to see a pause in your growth phase and get irritated by it, don’t just go on to lift heavier weights to satisfy your ego. Make sure to cut back on your training and give your body time to rest and make the best out of your training sessions. For more updates please follow us on social media and stay tuned for more exciting blogs and updates.