If you think you’ve stopped seeing results and lost all your fitness progress, you might have become a victim of overtraining. It is a common condition among active individuals and athletes.
Overtraining happens when your training surpasses your body’s capability of recovery. In an ‘overtrained’ state, people experience several negative symptoms that range from muscle atrophy to a total loss of motivation—affecting their overall training regimen.
If you wish to maintain a healthy fitness routine and don’t lose track of your progress, it’s crucial to avoid overtraining. Below are seven tips that ensure you continue to see progress.
Take a Couple of Days Off Regularly
Without adequate rest, anybody can quickly succumb to overtraining. That’s why remember that time out of the gym is as important as your time there. When you experience overtraining syndrome, avoid pushing yourself harder. Doing that can slow down or decrease your performance more.
Value your personal time, as well as your physical well-being. Your body needs to rest too. Shop for clothes, shoes, or take a look at different wedding bands as you stroll around Spanish Fork, Utah. It doesn’t hurt to browse and try some on so you’ll have an idea of what you want when the big day actually arrives.
Make a Training Diary
Creating an exercise or training diary enables you to monitor how you feel before, during, and after your sessions—which is crucial in avoiding overtraining. Ensure you keep track of your body’s response to the training, your sleeping schedule, and what you eat and drink for the day. Document as much as you can to help you look for patterns and see what works best for you and what hinders your training.
Take Advantage of a Foam Roller
A simple foam roller can go a long way as it can manipulate your body’s soft tissue. It provides positive side effects on your body’s fascia, musculotendinous, and circulatory system. All these can aid in recovery by improving your blood flow, preventing you from succumbing to overtraining.
Set Reasonable Limits
After an hour, your body’s testosterone levels begin to decline, and your stress hormone, cortisol, starts to rise. Testosterone is responsible for muscle mass growth and maintenance, while cortisol does the complete opposite—leading to weight gain. To prevent this from happening, keep your sessions under an hour.
Practice Proper Periodization
Even if you want to gain the most muscles you can for a year, you can’t train at high intensities all year long as it’s detrimental to your health and may lead to overtraining syndrome. That’s why you need properly ‘periodize’ your workout sessions. Having well-balanced training with gradually increasing intensity is ideal.
Get a Massage
One of the best ways to avoid overtraining is getting a deep tissue massage as it loosens your tight muscles, increases blood flow, and keeps your body free from toxins. Massages can keep your system optimally functioning and your body stress-free.
Embrace Change
Trying new exercises can lead to better and new growth. Adding new workouts and rep ranges into your fitness routine can help you keep it ‘fresh’ and force your body to adapt to the new stimuli, resulting in significant gains while not going overboard. That’s because you can change it from low- to high-intensity exercises for different sessions.
If you wish to train at high levels efficiently, the best way to achieve and maintain ideal fitness and health is by avoiding overtraining, as it impedes your performance and increases your risks of developing injuries. Follow the tips mentioned to avoid succumbing to overtraining syndrome—and get the best results possible long-term.
