Are You Exercising Too Much?
Exercise is beneficial- a crucial component if you want to live a healthy life. But if you don’t give rest to your muscles, over-exercising can become dangerous for you. Exercise is a strenuous activity that demands proper resting and healing time for your muscles.
Pushing your limits as you hit the gym isn’t healthy and can cause significant damages to your body. Muscle strains and sprains are one thing. You may develop even more acute diseases because you’re exercising way too much to be within the healthy range.
Four Warning Signs Of Overtraining
How do you know about the right time for slacking off the workout for some time? Here are four symptoms you should be alert about!
1. Intense Pain In Lower Legs
If you feel your lower legs shaking and in extreme pain, that’s a critical red flag showing that you need to tone down your workout right away. If you ignore the throbbing and swollen lower legs, you may develop foot conditions like shin splints! Because of this, you will need to search for shin splints treatments near you to control the overuse of your muscles.
2. High Fatigue
Do you feel incredibly exhausted that all you want to do is lie down and not do anything else? You don’t feel sleepy, but still, there’s a dose of fatigue that keeps you from moving your body.
If that’s the case, it indicates that your body is on a burnout where you feel low on energy. You can wash the fatigue away by easing your workout routine and eating nutritious foods filled with proteins and vitamins.
3. Mood Swings
A grave sign of overtraining is when you start feeling agitated or irritated. Even the most minor things may cause your anger to escalate and spoil your mood. Did you know that overtraining can result in other mental illnesses like depression and anxiety as well? It’s why overstraining and too much exercise is so hazardous.
If you go through a whiplash of emotions and feel agitated with everything that breathes near you, it’s high time for a de-stressing session. Instead of exercising, you can indulge in yoga and meditation. That maintains both your body’s flexibility and cures your mood swings.
4. Decline In Productivity
Exercising too much without giving your joints and brain a break they need to recover can result in high fatigue. That further leads to a demotivation to do anything. You start feeling unproductive and can’t concentrate on your tasks. Be it your personal, academic, or professional life. You start feeling a lack of strength to perform your best.
When this happens, you may start getting fed up with your regular exercise routine as well. You may begin jogging or running lesser and feel your stamina decline. If you don’t intervene and start taking better care of your body at this stage, you may, thus, end up jeopardizing your health.
Three Ways To Prevent Overtraining
Instead of spending time, money, and efforts for treatments of overtraining, isn’t it better to avoid reaching such intense stages?
It’s crucial to know how you can exercise without overtraining. There’s a fine line between an effective workout and over-exerting your muscles. But don’t worry, below are a few tips to stick within the effectiveness and avoid overtraining.
1. Rest One Day
You can’t exercise 7 days a week. The best way to maintain your workout routine is by resting for one day. Be it a Saturday or a Sunday, reserve it as a non-workout day. That allows your muscles ample time to relax and your joints to recover from the intense physical activities.
2. Get Proper Sleep
If you indulge in intense exercising, the least you can do is sleep for proper hours to revitalize your body. A long and deep slumber is the perfect way to avoid overstraining your mental and physical aspects.
3. Maintain A Workout Log
A vital tip to avoid overtraining is by maintaining an exercise log. The log must include the days and duration of your workout and the type of exercise you perform each day. You can accomplish a sense of progress and reduce risks of extra fatigue and post-workout pains like shin splints.
Final Thoughts
Understanding when your body and muscles are at their limit makes you take appropriate action right away. Sometimes regular massage sessions or light medication can solve all your overtraining issues. However, sometimes, things may get intense, and you may need to add proper treatments to ensure your recovery.
Above, we mentioned four signs that reflect the need to lower your exercise and three tips to avoid over-exercising. Be sure to follow them to live a healthy life.
Remember, you should exercise to improve your mental and physical fitness, not deteriorate it further!
