It’s only when the measuring tape belts in an inch further on your waist, or when the weighing scale matches your intuitive guess, that you finally start to notice the worth of all those hours spent lifting, crunching and stretching. You start living for that moment of satisfied solitude, pushing yourself to reach your highest potential. There’s just one little problem—that feeling can be dangerously addictive. And sometimes, you may not be able to stop yourself from trying to overachieve, causing an imbalance in your body or even an injury. Workouts can be life-changing if done right and for an appropriate amount of time. We spoke to fitness expert Sohrab Khushrushahi of SOHFIT about why it’s important to know when to stop and slow down.
How much exercise is too much?
Khushrushahi is clear that rest days are as important as workout sessions. “Like everything in life, you need to structure and plan your workouts, and make sure they are balanced in terms of both cardiovascular and weight training. You need to be smart about your training and, more importantly, the duration of your training. Your muscles need time to recover, which happens outside the gym, so [you must] give yourself enough rest and recovery time as well,” he says. “A person who trains excessively without proper rest and recovery will have chronically elevated cortisol levels. This hormonal imbalance can cause mood swings, unusual irritability and an inability to concentrate, among other things,” he warns.
He also cautions against thinking that having sore muscles means you’re exercising too hard. “Muscle soreness post exercise is fine. The technical term for muscle soreness after working out is DOMS, which stands for delayed onset muscle soreness. Besides feeling sore, this term also includes a reduced range of motion and muscle strength. You will usually experience this 24 to 48 hours after you try new exercises or increase the intensity of your workout. However, if the pain or soreness continues for a few days after, it could be a warning sign of not only injury, but also over training, and should be looked into.”
How your body might be telling you that you’re overtraining
- A telltale sign of overtraining is a lack of improved physical performance, despite an increase in training intensity or volume. A decrease in agility, strength and endurance, such as slower reaction times and reduced running speeds, are all signs too.
- Overused muscles and joints can cause constant aches or joint pain. If this doesn’t subside in around two weeks, it is advisable to get it checked and consider it as a notable injury. Overtraining taxes all of the body’s systems, and also makes it more difficult to ward off infections.
- Feeling overly drained, tired or sluggish for an extended period of time, especially after adequate sleep, is a common symptom of overtraining. Fatigue occurs when the body is unable to keep up with what is being broken down. We cause muscle breakdown when we train, and if we don’t give our muscles enough time to repair, we will feel tired and risk injury.
- Sleep ideally provides the body time to rest and repair itself. But overproduction of stress hormones due to overtraining may not allow a person to wind down or relax completely, making sleep much less effective, thus compounding chronic fatigue and moodiness further. Lack of sleep is one of the signs of overtraining.
- Over-exercising significantly affects your stress hormones, including cortisol and epinephrine. This hormonal imbalance can cause mood swings, unusual irritability and an inability to concentrate.
How to exercise right
Khushrushahi says that if you’re a neophyte, following a specific schedule can help to minimise chances of injury or stress to the body. “Recovery not only allows for greater performance, but also fewer missed training days over a long period of time. Follow a periodised training program that includes both active recovery and complete rest. Rest can be frustrating, but recognise that a day or two spent on the foam roller or a massage table is better than a day or two spent in a hospital,” he says.
Also read:
Alia Bhatt’s new workout routine will inspire you to hit the gym
How to make sure your HIIT home workout doesn’t leave you with an injury
Workouts can be a pain. Working out when you’re injured doesn’t have to be
