4 things you can do instead of overtraining

How much is too much?

If you’re reading this, you are probably an avid exerciser.

So, have you ever thought you might be doing too much?

Exercise should be considered as stressful.

It involves you deliberately putting stress on a host of physical systems that then adapt to this stimulus.

However, if you do not let the system recover, the system will not adapt.

Welcome to Overtraining. 

Something that we come across far too often is individuals overtraining.

Overtraining can be defined as when a person exceeds their own ability to recover from strenuous exercise.

Put simply, if you train regularly and put a lot of hard work in but don’t give the same amount of respect to your recovery, chances are your system will be over done and break (injury, lose motivation, plateau/decrease in results.)

So, what does recovery look like?

It involves everything from a good night's sleep, eating the correct food and most particularly, in a training sense, reducing the volume of work you are doing that session/week/month!

Any decent training program will include a deload phase, particularly before performance/testing (you’ve probably heard of tapering).

However, with the current fad of HIIT people often don’t get given OR give themselves an opportunity to recover.

This doesn’t mean sit on the couch and veg out (although for some it might be necessary). There are plenty of great alternatives for recovery which include:

• Yoga

• Massage

• A walk

• A workout - AT LESS INTENSITY THAN WHAT YOU NORMALLY DO.

3 - 5 days of a different modality (yoga instead of conditioning, a walk instead of weights) will keep your body going longer and stronger then simply just flogging the same system over and over again expecting the same result.

So, take a moment to think - are you too attached to pushing yourself and the endorphins that come with a hectic workout?

Smarter, not harder folks.