Symptoms of overtraining: how to prevent them

When it comes to exercise, many people believe that “more is better”. However, this is not the best thing to do. If you train beyond your capabilities, you are likely to get the opposite of what you want to achieve: you will feel worse. Overtraining or chronic fatigue affects both body and mind and prevents you from making progress.

In this article we tell you what overtraining is, what its symptoms are, its consequences and how to help your body naturally to recover successfully after a demanding workout.

What is overtraining?

As the name suggests, overtraining occurs when a person is overdoing physical activity. Training beyond one’s capabilities.

There is positive overtraining, which is the natural process by which the body adapts and improves performance. In this way, you can feel that you are making progress when you train. However, you need to know yourself well enough to know what is the limit that you cannot exceed.

Although we know its causes and symptoms, diagnosing overtraining or chronic fatigue is often difficult to identify clearly. This is basically because each person is different and symptoms may vary from one individual to another.

Symptoms of overtraining

When we overtrain we can become chronically fatigued. Overtraining can cause both physical and psychological symptoms:

• Exhaustion. People who experience overtraining feel exhausted, not necessarily after training, but all the time.
• Difficulty sleeping and resting. Rest is essential for training, so it should not be lacking. However, when we overdo it with training we can experience sleep disturbances, which complicates the feeling of fatigue.
• Stagnation in sporting progress. A decrease in physical performance is experienced, as overtraining is usually accompanied by pain, physical discomfort and muscle heaviness.
• Injuries and muscular problems.
• Mood swings, with a tendency to apathy and irritability.
• Difficulty concentrating and sustaining attention.

The main cause of overtraining is excessive physical work, although sometimes it can also be caused by an imbalance in nutrition, hydration and adequate rest.

Did you know that experts suggest that an overuse of intellectual work can also trigger chronic fatigue or overtraining?

Consequences of training beyond your means

Overtraining is strongly discouraged, as the consequences can be very detrimental to your health:

• Excessive muscle stress can lead to tissue rupture.
• Lack of rest can lead to changes in hormone release.
• You may experience changes in heart rate.

How to prevent overtraining

It is essential to know how to listen to your own body in order to avoid overtraining. It is also important to know yourself well in order to be able to interpret the symptoms, because although sport is healthy, it can be harmful if we do not measure our level of demand. It is therefore important to know how to detect any warning signs.

In addition, it is necessary to plan your training sessions well and to get professional advice. This ensures that you plan your overload phases properly with your rest phases. The key to success is to recover so that your body adapts to the overload again.

Therefore, to prevent overtraining:

• Listen to your body.
• Rest.
• Practice recovery or active rest with light exercise.
• Plan your training according to your capabilities.
• It is important to get back to calm: recover, replenish fluids, eat, rest, massage, for example with Orgono gel.
• Supplement the diet with nutrients that promote recovery, such as silica, magnesium, zinc or vitamin C. Orgono Articomplex.

Planning is everything. Not just when it comes to training, but also when it comes to nutrition and rest. Anticipate overtraining and set yourself up to give your best without overdoing it.