Overtraining and Achieving Results without Killing Yourself in the Gym

If you've been hanging out with me for a while you may remember a blog that I did last year entitled, "11 Reasons you're NOT getting results."  This year, I'm breaking down those reasons to help you achieve your goals and have the happiest, healthiest year possible! You can find the origianal article here, reason #1 here, and reason #2 here.

Don't get me wrong, exercise is amazing. Really, it's great for you. There are so many benefits of exercising regularly.  Exercise makes you kinder, more patient, more energetic, and more confident. Exercise helps you sleep better, feel stronger, and feel more desirable.  Oh, and bonus! it can help you maintain a healthy body fat level. However, believe it or not, but there is such a thing as too much exercise. 

"What Erin, too much? But I want to lose 50lbs, but I want to have a six-pack, but I want to be a size -0..."

Stop. Just stop. Hate me if you want, but I honestly don't care how big or far-reaching these wants are if you are exercising too much... you could be hurting yourself, and that's just not something I'm okay with. Granted, most people don't have this problem (in fact, they have the opposite problem!), but as someone who has been there (over-exercising), I can tell you there are a few signs you may notice if you are exercising too much. 

1. Exercise leaves you exhausted instead of energized
2. You are unable to sleep, or you can't seem to get enough sleep
3. You feel anxious, depressed or guilty if you can’t find the time to exercise every day
You experience: 
4. General malaise, moodiness and/or irritability
5. Excessive muscle soreness and/or joint tenderness
6. Longer recovery times
7. Increased susceptibility to injury
8. Loss of appetite
9. Reduced immune function (frequent colds, flu-like symptoms, etc.), and
10. Elevated morning blood pressure and pulse rate

Goals are great, achieving them is even better, but it's possible to do more damage than good if you're not careful. Results happen while you're recovering, not while you're working out.  You’ve probably heard of the stress hormone cortisol.  We need cortisol, cortisol isn’t “bad,” however, if you’re overtraining (several hours of intense training most or every day of the week) your cortisol level can actually get too high which does more harm than good. Yes. I repeat, without getting all science geek-y in this blog, it’s important to note that too much exercise can actually have the OPPOSITE results of what you are trying to achieve (unless you’re going for high blood pressure, diabetes, depression, muscle wasting, and abdominal weight gain… which I seriously doubt). Need proof? I actually lost weight and got stronger when I went from teaching 11 classes a week to 4 classes a week. (And I’m already noticing a positive difference by going down to 3 classes each week)

So okay, you're on board. You want to achieve your goals, and you know that working out for 2-3 hours 6 or 7 days a week isn't going to get there.  What else can you do?

1. Rest!
As I mentioned before, your body repairs itself while you're resting.  If you never give yourself time to properly rest and recover, you're impeding your results. Period. Now that you have more time, make sleep a priority and include recovery days (such as yoga or long stretches) in your schedule. 

2. Focus on your Nutrition
This is KEY and one piece that people who over exercise often skip over. If you really are exercising for multiple hours a day, you need to fuel your body for those workouts appropriately. If you don't your body will eventually start rebelling. You may plateau, gain weight, or start losing bone density like it's your job. I don't think I need to tell you that none of these things are ideal. 
If your goal is weight loss (and you have body fat to lose), it is possible to lose weight by adjusting your nutrition alone (and yes, I realize I may be putting myself out of business by telling you this). Take the extra time you have from cutting out hours of working out into doing research into different ways to eat healthfully and meal-prepping to make that way of eating work for your lifestyle. (We'll get to this more in a future article)

3. Move, don't "exercise"
I don't want you to stop moving.  That's the last thing I want. But instead of putting yourself through 2 hours of cardio equipment and an hour of Zumba (or other long and/or intense workout), integrate more movement into your day. Walk to the grocery store or if you can't take more trips from the car to the house instead of trying to do it in as few trips possible.  Take the stairs whenever you can, park further away (you've heard this before), and walk over to a colleague at work instead of calling or emailing. Do double duty by increasing your water intake so you have more trips to the bathroom and work on reason #1 you aren't getting results. Go on a picnic at the park: walk around, play catch or Frisbee. Use a microphone headset when talking to friends and family on the phone and walk while you talk. At home, put on good music while cleaning and take sporadic dance breaks and do your own yard work (instead of hiring a professional... or your child. Better yet, do it with your child!). Okay, I know not all of these will work for everyone, but you get the idea.  You can keep moving without "exercising". 

4. Keep Dalmatian foods out of the house
True, this goes along with focusing on nutrition, but I think it is so important that it has its own bullet point.  If you know what your trigger foods are… don’t buy them. Keep them far, far away.

5. Focus on your Nutrition
Did I mention this already?  We’ll be going over nutrition plans soon, but when it comes to achieving results I cannot understate how important this is. Good, clean nutrition is not a choice when it comes to a healthy lifestyle. Yes I’m putting my bossy-pants on. Yes, it’s that important.

Moral of the story

Most people don’t over-train. It’s really that simple. However, it’s important to know that it IS possible and it’s NOT good for you. When a workout routine goes beyond “normal” and does not include proper nutrition and recovery even lower intensity workouts can be damaging… to your goals, and your body.  This is really just a quick overview of overtraining, the symptoms and how it can affect your body.  If you think there is a possibility that you may be overtraining I highly encourage you to talk to your doctor, a fitness professional, and do some more reasearch.  You are in the driver's seat in this life... take charge, you've got this!

*Note, there are times and situations where more time spent exercising is okay as with professional athletes and people training for figure shows, etc.  However, please note that these people are often on a specific plan including both a nutrition and a fitness regimen that is often (and should be, in my opinion) supervised by an educated and trained professional.