As a marathon runner, I know what it’s like to push your body to the limit. I know the desire to go the extra mile when you’re feeling strong, or to do one last long run before a big race. I also know what it’s like to narrowly avoid exhaustion and serious injury due to lack of fuel and recovery.
If you’re an athlete of any kind, you’ve probably seen “overtraining” warnings. Some runners ignore signs of overreach until their bodies went out in protest. While it would be hard to find me in the weight room, Senior Health Editor at Lifehacker Beth Skwarecki notes that many gym-goers say things like, “You can’t strength train two days in a row, or else you’ll be overtraining.” How is overtraining different from ordinary fatigue?
The term “overtraining” is used to mean “tired” and “sore,” when in reality, overtraining syndrome (OTS) is a serious medical condition that lasts for months, one that has only been well-documented in endurance athletes. Here’s what you need to understand about stressing your body to the point of true overtraining syndrome, and what to do if it happens to you.
What Causes Overtraining Syndrome (OTS)
OTS is a response to excessive exercise without adequate rest. This is where the confusion and misinformation comes in: What exactly counts as “excessive” training, and what is “adequate” recovery? Before going into more detail, it’s safe to say that yyou are not risking Serious OTS from just lifting weights two days in a row; even six days a week may be an adequate frequency of weight training for athletes who are prepared for it.
Overexertion vs. Overtraining
You need to work hard to see gains, right? There’s a pretty wide threshold to push your body in a tactically advantageous way before it becomes seriously detrimental.
Unlike overtraining, “overreaching” is the more general term for doing more work than you can handle. It is common in many sports to practice “functional overreach,” which is where you purposely work harder than you can recover from before, crucially, lessening your workload after a few days or weeks. When an athlete pushes himself for weeks and months, he runs the risk of his body becoming overtrained. For more details, Table 1 of this guide establishes the differences between functional overexertion (good), non-functional overexertion (bad) and overtraining syndrome (very bad).
A few more terminological notes: the overtraining syndrome is different from the Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S) and the Triad of female athletes. RED-S focuses more on nutritional intake than current hypotheses about OTS, although the causes and symptoms of these conditions go hand in hand naturally.
How to know if you are overtraining
If you have been training hard consistently and have noticed a drop in performance, you could be at risk of overtraining.
Signs of OTS (according to HSS and the National Library of Medicine)
- Unusual muscle pain after a workout
- Inability to train or compete at a previously manageable level
- “Heavy” muscles, even at lower exercise intensities
- Delayed recovery from training
- Yield dips or dips
- Mood swings: depression, anger, or confusion
- poor quality sleep
- Lack of energy and motivation.
- Weakened immune system
- Irregular menstrual cycles; missing periods
- Weightloss; loss of appetite
- Constipation; Diarrhea
- prolonged general fatigue
If you think you might be suffering from OTS, you should contact a sports medicine professional who can help you get back on your feet.
Recovery from overtraining syndrome
Your body needs time to recover and function as before. Your best bet is to identify and prevent overtraining as soon as possible. In addition to working with a professional, here are some other training needs to consider:
- Rest. You may need to step away from your routine, even if it means quitting a race or competition.
- Nutrition. Cutting back on training doesn’t mean you should stop eating. Assess your eating habits and consider working with a nutritionist to make sure you’re getting what you need.
- Change your mindset. What led you to overdo your training in the first place? It is crucial that you learn to listen to your body before you return to the metaphorical (or literal) circle.
If you ignore the signs of overtraining, your body will eventually rebel. Don’t let yourself be permanently sidelined. To crush your goals as an athlete, you must master the balance between pushing yourself and allowing yourself to recover.
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