Overtraining is quite a common phenomena. In many ways overtraining can be as damaging as undertraining. It is important to be able to notice the signs that you are overtraining. This requires a degree of self-awareness; it is important to learn how to listen to the signals of the body. These are some of the effects associated with overtraining.
- Loss of Enthusiasm to train and race. This is a big signal. But, just because you don’t have enthusiasm to go training in the rain doesn’t necessarily mean you are overtraining – there could be many other reasons for loss of enthusiasm
- Difficulty in raising your heart rate. You will notice the effects of overtraining most, when you try and do interval training. This is an important signal to back off. Overtraining is not so much related to quantity, but, also the intensity of training.
- Sleeping patterns disturbed. If you are often tired in the day, but, struggle to sleep at night – This is a signal of overtraining.
- Loss of libido
- Dislike the thought of going out training.
Sometimes overtraining can be purely physical, but, often it can be psychological as well.
It is also possible to misdiagnose overtraining. For example, these factors above might be caused by:
- Under nourishment. If you are training hard, make sure your diet keeps up.
- Virus or illness.
- Stress from other aspects of your life
Related Articles
Doing Too Much: the overtraining syndrom – by Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team Blog
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