Remember how you felt when you first started working out? You wanted quick results, so you hit the gym almost every day without rest , hoping that you will progress faster and look better if you put more effort into it. That’s what happens to 99 percent of the newbies in the strength and performance sports. They are so motivated to succeed that eventually they end up doing too much of what they do and hurt their gains, or even worse – they injure themselves.
Putting your body trough intense training all the time may make you look like a tough guy, but in the long run you’ll end up smaller and weaker. Here is a list of the most common overtraining symptoms. If you notice you have two or more of these symptoms, it’s time to back off, take rest time or do a deload week.
Strength Loss
The weights you lift are going down and you have a feeling that you need to decrease them. Don’t get me wrong here, loss of strength is a natural thing and it can happen once in a while, but if your strength is going down constantly, you need to consider taking some time off or cutting the exercises/sets/reps per workout.
Feeling tired all the time
A constant feeling of tiredness is a good sign that you are overtraining or not getting enough rest.
Pain in your joints and ligaments
If you have been training for some time you can probably distinguish the “good” pain (DOMS) that you feel after an intense workout and a “bad” pain, like when your elbow hurts and you can’t do pushing movements for an example.
Lowered immune system
You are getting colds and the flu more frequently. Immune system suppression is a common symptom of too much physical work.
Increased heart rate
Even though you haven’t done any physical work, your heart is racing. This could happen even when you are relaxing, sitting down or comfortably watching TV. Elevated blood pressure is also a possibility.
Slow recovery time
Even though you are eating and sleeping good your muscles feel sore a few days after the workout and you are not able to work the same muscle group the next week.
Loss of appetite
Even though you train very hard you don’t feel the need to replenish the energy you lost.
Insomnia
Again, even though you are working out hard and feel tired, you still can’t fall asleep at night.
Mood changes
You are feeling irritable and/or depressed all the time.
Feeling unmotivated
You simply don’t feel like going to the gym or eating clean. You might not even be motivated to do other things you usually like doing.