OVERTRAINING IN FITNESS: Know How To Deal With Bodybuilding Syndrome

We train to get fit; we work real hard in the gym to get fit; we are so motivated to groove to get fit. But, we sometimes forget that we are overtraining and that we are actually ruining our muscles already. Is overtraining means we are going to get fit a bit faster than normal? Know the impacts of overtraining and see if it does well to you!

Overtraining in Fitness

Have you heard about the overtraining syndrome? Indeed, overtraining in fitness has been diagnosed as a syndrome as people studied the lives of the athletes including some bodybuilders from all over the world.

Overtraining may cause us sickness, if not diagnosed as early as possible. Let us see what is the basic definition of overtraining, the signs and symptoms of it, and then the methods on how we are going to prevent it in the succeeding paragraphs.

What is overtraining in Fitness?

Studies have shown overtraining to be one of the medical situation observed in those involved in sports and in other fitness activities. It actually occurs when people are performing a lot more intense to the point that the recovery of the body can no longer follow. It usually results in fatigue and damaged muscles which make further declines the overall performance of the person.

There are signs and symptoms of overtraining that can be easily observed, but there are also symptoms that can only be seen if you consult your doctors and other medical experts. Below is the list of symptoms and signs of overtraining that you can check to see if you are overtraining or not.

Signs and symptoms of Overtraining: How would you know you are overtraining?

As bodybuilders, it is important to always take a look at your health conditions to know if your body can still perform your intensified workout routines. To check if you are already performing more than what your body can, here are some of the signs and symptoms for your reference:

• Persistent muscle soreness
  • If you can feel your muscles already and its aching and burning, then you are experiencing muscle soreness. First aids could be a hot or cold compress, some mentholated patches to ease the pain.
• Elevated resting heart rate
  • You must have a normal heart beat if you are already at rest, but if you notice that you have a bit faster heart rate than normal when you are resting or in a recovery mode, then you should seek some medical opinion about it.
• Increased susceptibility to infections and increased incidence of injuries
  • Overtraining can also lead to weakened immune system, therefore making you more susceptible to infections. To avoid this, you can increase your immune system through taking up multivitamins and getting enough rest, recovery, and sleep.
• Irritability, Depression, and Loss of Motivation
  • There are also symptoms that are psychological. Indeed, overtraining can be linked to the psychology of man. If you can see that you are becoming very irritable, or very depressed even just for the smallest things, there is a need for you to assess if you are still the normal you. Also, you can check if you are overtraining if you have lost your motivation or drive to work out the follow days.
• Insomnia
  • Rest, recovery, and sleep are some of the most important things to give time to. If you noticed that you have some trouble sleeping or resting, your recovery will certainly be affected, making you less prepared for the next workout schedules.
• Decreased appetite
  • You need to eat the right diet depending on your health condition to be able to have enough energy and to replenish the used nutrients during your workout routines. If you have no interest in food, this could hinder you from performing well with your bodybuilding activities. Therefore, to resolve such, you should seek the help of the nutritionists for another diet. Definitely, you will experience weight loss if you will not solve your issues on your appetite.

Causes of Overtraining: Why do people overtrain themselves?

As bodybuilders, we always encourage ourselves to do our best in every workout routine that we do. This, at times, leads to overtraining and we fail to notice it ourselves. Upon knowing what is overtraining and what are the signs and symptoms of it, let us know give some time on knowing the reasons behind overtraining.

1. Personal factors, such as general health and nutritional status
   • It is really possible to overtrain if you are too determined to have a good physique. You are too inspired to work out and no one can blame you for being so motivated.
2. Mood
   • You may be not too busy so you think that to make your day productive, you can just go to the gym and work out to be fit. Yeah, definitely, you are in the mood to train and you are always in that mood so you overstrain.
3. Personality type (type “An” individuals seem to cope better with high-stress states)
   • Busy at work or stressed with your life? Some people tend to be good in coping up with stress through doing something that can get their attention out of that bad vibes. Your type of personality, therefore, can make you overtrain since it always gives you good mood to workout.
4. Age
   • People tend to use their age as a mode of motivation. As YOLO stands for, you only live once, people use such to inspire themselves to do all the things that they want while they have the luxury of time. Teenagers are more possibly to overtrain because they think that they are still young, as well as their muscles, and so they have more strength that those in the old age. As they keep on motivating themselves that they should workout more while young, they have the tendency to over perform in gyms and workout areas.
5. Medical conditions
   • One of the conditions of bodybuilding is to improve the health of a person. If one is suffering from illness, and one thing to get rid of their illness is through getting fit, then they are so motivated to groove and move in gyms and other workout places. Because they want to get rid of their situation as fast as possible, then they are intensively doing their routines without noticing that they are already over-performing.
6. Intensity and amount of physical training
   • Bodybuilders are encouraged to do more but less intense routines than to do super intense but lesser routines per training day. Studies have shown that it is more effective than doing heavy workouts because bodybuilders can avoid experiencing fatigue. However, since they do more but easier routines, they do not feel tired and so they overtrain without even feeling so exhausted.
7. Stressors (social, economic, and psychological)
   • Like me, one of my outlets, when I am stressed, is jogging. The majority of the bodybuilders could be like that—making training their outlet when they feel stressed. Stresses coming from the society or even the psychological ones can lead to more hours in the gym and in workout areas. In that way, people can get out of their stressed zones, further focusing on the routines they are about to execute.

Prevention:  No to Overtraining!

Upon knowing the causes, signs and symptoms of overtraining, let us now try to keep ourselves away from having such overtraining syndrome. Here are some of the prevention tips to keep us, healthy bodybuilders!

1. Make a good diet (try the vegetarian bodybuilding diet)

We need to keep ourselves from fatigue and over exhaustion. With that, we need to ensure that we have enough supplies of energy and nutrients for our workout routines and for the rest of the activities that we plan to push through within the day. Through getting enough number of carbs and other important nutrients, we elevate our immune system, keeping us away from any sickness!

To help you start, here are 3 keys to successful vegetarian bodybuilding diet, see this post.

2. Get the right amount of sleep, rest, and recovery

Do not let your body experience fatigue. In our recent posts, we have identified the importance of getting enough rest, recovery, and sleep. If you fail to give your body a break, you may lead to having an unhealthy body. Getting enough rest, recovery and sleep will freshen up your body and muscles, making them ready for another intense workout on the other day!

3. Put limits to the intensity of your routines

There are a lot of training routines out there that you can try but check first if that is the training that your body really needs. You can consult to your gym trainers to know the different routines and exercise that you can do to help you enhance your bodybuilding training routines. Remember that you should always consider what your body can do to avoid overusing your muscles which further leads to muscle soreness.

4. Make short but more workout routines

Short but numerous workout routines can result in good metabolic procedures. As you measure your metabolism and it looks good, you will realize that you have enough nutrients and energy to do more activities per day to make your day more productive.

5. Massage your muscles; that is how you take good care of it

Fitness builders could have problems with their muscles but they would not know because every time they are in pain, they will just blame it with their routine. To avoid it from happening, be kind and gentle to your muscles. Massage them if you can, and please do look time for them. We build them and we do not want to destroy them. Overtraining destroys muscles, keeping it sore and achy. Save your muscles from the damages that overtraining may bring.

6. Take some multivitamins

We need to replenish our lost nutrients and energy that were used during our training and so we need to take up some multivitamins and other supplements to be able to have enough of it. Multivitamins can help us increase our immune system greatly. Check out the best multivitamins for bodybuilders here

Conclusion:

Overtraining syndrome is not easy to deal with. We do not just overtrain and change our routine the next day to avoid fatigue this time—we do not deal with overtraining as easy as that. In this blog, we discussed the causes of overtraining and why do people overtrain; the signs and symptoms of overtraining so we can easily check if we are overtraining or not; and how can we prevent overtraining from happening to us. To avoid you from forgetting these lessons, here are three concluding tips that you can share with your colleagues and families:

• Overtraining does no good to your body.
  • We knew that overtraining will never make us fit. No matter how intense routines we want to execute, we cannot rush fitness. It takes a time to get fit; our bodies will never change just over night. Remind yourself that if you want to see the best picture, then you should work really hard towards the achievement of your goal. Motivate yourself and inspire yourself that every single thing can be reached through hard work. Do not overtrain; make the best routine to execute and put your faith on it.
• It is important to make schedules towards the attainment of the goal; do not rush.
  • Go visit your trainers and look for their opinions on the routines that can be done with your body. Knowing which routine fits you will prevent you from overtraining, and from experiencing fatigue and over exhaustion. Make time for your explored routines and follow it as strictly as possible. Do not rush—if you are doing right, then you will eventually see the changes in your body.
• Remember that your body has limits.
  • The human body is not battery-operated; you cannot fully replenish your lost energy in one snap. Remember not to overuse your body without giving enough time to rest, recover and sleep. Do not overtrain, we won’t be getting any good by overtraining. Eat well, get a good diet, have the great time sleeping and resting so you can recover from the intense workout you did this day.

Overtraining is a syndrome and not a bodybuilding tip to get fit. Do not forget to share the lessons you knew today to your friends and loved ones! Share the blog and comment your insights below!

Author Bio:
Gregory is chief editor at ConstructMuscles.com. He spend half of my time in his blog while the other half on being physical fitness trainer. Believing in the great benefits of bodybuilding and fitness to the body, I’ve been motivated to become a fitness enthusiast. Stay Connected to him on Twitter.