We live in a society where the body is increasingly worshiped. If you look at the advertisements on any site, in addition to having aggressive campaigns for consumerism, they also try to promote the cult of the body to have a 10 body. This can distort people's thinking, believing that having a perfect body is the best goal they can achieve. This can lead to overtraining syndrome.
What is
Everyone knows that exercising is good, but anything in excess can have negative consequences. When a person increases the amount of exercise too quickly or switches from one activity to another, then overtraining syndrome can occur. The body is not able to recover from the effort that has been done and this causes health and performance problems in sports.
When a person begins to have lower sports performance for this reason, they can enter a spiral where they want to do more training to improve results, but with overtraining syndrome, they only achieve the opposite effect. This syndrome can appear in the life of any person who performs physical exercise of any kind. Although above all it can occur in those who perform aerobic exercises (running, swimming, dancing, cycling, etc.) as well as those who perform anaerobic exercises (lifting weights). Besides, It can happen to both a beginner and an elite athlete. The amount of exercise you do does not matter, but rather its increase.
Overtraining leads to a host of health problems, from injuries to depression. Overtraining is a real problem for many fitness enthusiasts, as the adrenalina and body/lifestyle changes encourage you to push your own capabilities harder. Challenges can turn into unhealthy achievements, which turn into health problems. If you're a fitness newbie, it can be easy to overtrain. You won't realize what's happening unless you know how to spot the signs that it's happening to you.
Symptom
There are some symptoms that will help you understand if you are suffering from overtraining syndrome and if so, that you can remedy it as soon as possible to overcome it. The warning signs are as follows:
- Feeling tired and lack of energy
- Mild leg pain
- General aches and pains
- Pain in muscles and joints
- Sudden drop in performance
- Insomnia
- Headaches
- weak immune system
- Decreased training capacity
- Bad mood
- Irritability
- Depression
- Apathy towards sport
- Decreased appetite
- Have more injuries
- Compulsive need to play sports
Are you really overtraining?
There are several ways to know if you really have overtraining. Ideally, you should document your heart rates over time. You will need to track your aerobic heart rate at specific exercise intensities and speeds during training and write it down. If the pace begins to slow, Your resting heart rate increases and you may experience symptoms.
Another way to assess recovery is to use something called an orthostatic heart rate test, developed by Heikki Rusko. To measure it you have to take into account the following:
- Lie down and rest comfortably for 10 minutes at the same time each day (the morning is best).
- At the end of the 10 minutes, write down your heart rate in beats per minute.
- Then stand up.
- After 15 seconds, take a second heart rate in beats per minute.
- After 90 seconds, take a third heart rate in beats per minute.
- After 120 seconds, take a fourth heart rate in beats per minute.
Well-rested athletes will show a constant heart rate between measurements, but Rusko found a marked increase (10 beats/minutes or more) in the 120-second measurement of athletes on the verge of overtraining. Such a change may indicate that he has not recovered from a previous workout, you are fatigued or stressed and it may be helpful to reduce training or rest another day before doing another workout.
How to overcome overtraining syndrome
In order to overcome overtraining syndrome, the first thing you should do is go to your doctor and explain what is happening to you to see if there is any way to help you other than relying on your own willpower. In addition to this, don't miss the following tips:
- Take a week off, eat healthy foods and establish, after the week, a new training schedule where you respect rest and your recovery period, maintaining exercise time of 45 to 75 minutes maximum.
- Go to bed early, since the hours between 10 pm and 2 am are essential restoration hours for the body. Sleeping for 6-9 hours is key to recovery. It makes you go further and faster, especially if you go to bed and get up at the same time.
- Avoid protein bars, processed foods, man-made dietary supplements, and focus on a diet of healthy foods consisting of vegetables, fruits, whole foods, and meat. If you crave certain foods, this may be a sign of vitamin and mineral deficiency, which you can cure naturally through a healthy diet.
- Drinking water, at least 8 glasses a day.
- Don't train the same muscle groups on consecutive days , which includes running or cycling. A varied training program will benefit you.
- If you have an injury, change your conditioning plan physical at low intensity.
- This active recovery will promote fitness and real healing. Slowly build up a good workout by introducing periods of forced rest and changing the intensity of the workout. Respect your body and it will be returned to you in good physical condition.
- Exercising is a part of your life. You probably have work/life stress, social commitments and need to sleep, eat and enjoy yourself. Finding a balance will improve self-esteem, fitness, and life in general.
With good recovery from exercise you would not have to suffer these problems. Remember that the results will not be better because they arrive sooner.