What is overtraining? Overtraining refers to the phenomenon where the intensity, frequency, and duration of training exceed the body’s ability to adapt and recover, leading to a series of negative physical and psychological reactions. Muscle growth requires rest, and overtraining can affect muscle repair and growth, thereby impacting fitness efficiency and overall health. Let’s examine some symptoms of overtraining to see if you are experiencing any of them.
1. Persistent Fatigue: The body constantly feels extremely tired, with muscles remaining sore and not recovering even after adequate rest.
2. Declining Performance: Training results are poor, and exercises or movements that were once easily completed become difficult, with performance not matching previous levels.
3. Frequent Injuries: The body’s resistance and muscle endurance are weakened, making it prone to muscle strains, joint pain, and other injuries.
4. Reduced Immunity: Frequent illnesses such as colds and fevers occur, indicating a noticeable decline in the body’s resistance to diseases.
5. Sleep Disturbances: Issues such as insomnia, vivid dreams, and easy awakenings may arise, affecting sleep quality.
6. Emotional Fluctuations: Easily becoming irritable, anxious, and depressed, with a loss of enthusiasm and positivity towards training.
How can we avoid overtraining and achieve further progress in fitness?
Firstly, we should control the duration of our workouts, generally maintaining between 40-90 minutes, to increase effective exercise time rather than spending the entire day at the gym.
Secondly, choose exercise activities and training intensities that suit you, starting with low-load training and learning the correct movement trajectories and proper exertion, instead of engaging in high-load training, which can easily lead to muscle strains and fitness accidents.
Thirdly, balance work and rest, especially when performing resistance training, allocate training for muscle groups reasonably, and allow each target muscle group to rest for 2-3 days to provide sufficient repair time. This can eliminate soreness and promote muscle growth.
Fourthly, ensure adequate sleep. Avoid staying up late and sleep for more than 8 hours a day; adequate sleep aids muscle repair, and the recovery speed of muscles during deep sleep is accelerated, leading to better daytime mental state and increased strength.
Fifthly, supplement with high-quality protein. Muscle growth requires amino acids for support, which we can obtain from high-protein foods such as eggs, fish, shrimp, and chicken breast. Supplement with 1.5-1.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight daily. If you weigh 60KG, you should supplement with 90-108 grams of protein per day.
Sixthly, after a workout, do not rest immediately but perform a set of stretching exercises to relax the target muscle groups. This can alleviate muscle soreness, congestion, and tension, and aid in muscle repair.
