Fitness Together Brecksville: What are Some Dangers of Over-Training?

Trainer Tuesdays

Welcome back to the weekly edition on Trainer Tuesdays. Make sure to check in at our blog every Tuesday evening to learn the expertise of our great staff. Aside from being fantastic exercise coaches, they are also extremely knowledgeable in many aspects of health and fitness; so, it's time that you get to know them a little better! Each week, we will post a frequently asked, or sometimes just a fun fitness related question followed by the answers of each of the trainers at Fitness Together Brecksville.

What are Some Dangers of Over-Training?

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Steven Madden: In the world where "a little is good, more must be better", we like to over do things to get results. Unfortunately, when it comes to fitness, that is about as untrue as you can get. Training too much and too often can result in overtraining, which has the opposite of your desired fitness results. Overtraining is the result of not resting your body, specifically your muscle tissue, properly before working the same muscles again.

Rather than spending 30-60 minuets workout, every other day, people want to work for hours, every day of the week. If your muscles haven't recovered from your last workout, you will not have an effective next workout. Ultimately, you will become weaker and lose overall strength as well as being more susceptible to injury, even hurting your immune system making it harder to fight a cold. After that 60 minuet mark, you have largely depleted your testosterone levels (men and women) which is necessary for building and maintaining muscles mass. Exercise causes micro trauma to your muscle tissue that normally heals its self, if given the proper recovery time (24-48 hours).

Overtime, overtraining can lead to serious tendon, muscle and joint pain, increase blood pressure and heart rate, weakness and fatigue, and even increase the risk of heart attack. Ironic really, since most of the people start a fitness regiment to avoid those kind of problems.

Kelly Bailey: We all know it's important to work hard to maintain and improve our fitness level. But real care must be taken to avoid over training. Don't be fooled by thinking over training can only happen to elite athletes. A new exerciser can experience over training as easily as a seasoned athlete. Over training happens when someone exercises too often, at too high an intensity, with inadequate rest. Over training can cause a host of physical and psychological symptoms, including joint pain and weakness, decreased athletic performance, insomnia, depression, and lack of motivation to exercise. Over training also makes a person much more prone to injuries because the muscles are fatigued and weak. The best ways to avoid over training syndrome are to schedule rest days. You can still work out on rest days, but intensity needs to be much lower. Cross training is also a great way to avoid over training. So, for example, if you are a runner, try swapping out one of your running days and go biking or swimming. Most importantly, keep in mind that our workouts break our muscles down. It's the rest period that allows our muscles to rebuild and become stronger!

Jenn Noggle: Throughout many years of training hundreds of people, this is one issue that I rarely see considered or addressed. People think they are being healthy by exercising, but are often working against themselves by actually overtraining. Overtraining basically means that a person is exercising in a pattern that is a higher intensity, duration or quantity than their body can properly recover from. There are symptoms from subtle to more serious, including but not limited to the following: chronic muscle or joint pain, frequent colds or infections, tiring or fatigue easily, frequent injury, elevated resting heart rate and/or blood pressure, stalled progress in workouts or body transformations, poor sleep, poor performance, anxiety or irritability...you get the picture. You can be working your butt off in the gym and be doing more harm than good if you are not giving your body adequate recovery time and nutrients. Besides working or talking with a trainer to avoid overtraining, make sure you give yourself rest days, cross train, and don't increase any distance, intensity, weight, speed, or length of exercise more than 10% in a given week. Make sure you are not only eating enough overall calories, but focus on getting the right kinds of nutrients to aid in recovery (i.e.: lean proteins, complex carbohydrates, healthy fats). In addition to having a plan that factors in these tips, always listen to your body! If you feel like you need an extra day off, take it! Your body may need the rest more than the workout some days!

Taynee Pearson: Most people think there is no such thing as over training, but there is. There is a point where too much exercise can harm you instead of benefit you. Over training can affect a person in many ways. Over training may increase a persons blood pressure to increase, increase musculoskeletal injuries, dehydration, and muscle soreness and tiredness. It is important to find a medium between which is too little and which is too much.

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

What are Some Dangers of Over-Training?

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