Yes – you DO NOT need to exercise every single day. But, you should be active. Many people are great at being all or nothing with exercise, and with the popularity of high intensity workouts, learning how much is enough is important.
Why? When it comes to exercise there is a point at which more does not give you any more health benefits – at 150-300 mins total exercise (through a variety of modes) you reach the maximum. Above that, there is an increased risk of injury and also a reduction in fitness amongst other things. You definitely need a good reason to be training 2 hours every day and even elite athletes schedule in rest! It’s important to realise that both chronically undereating or exercising too much without enough recovery can lead to overtraining.
Here’s the top 5 signs of overtraining:
- Your performance has reduced.
Have you been training more but not getting stronger or faster? If so this might be because you are doing too much and not allowing your body to rest and recover means that your muscles are actually not growing! Exercise creates small tears in the muscles that can only be repaired during rest. You might also find that the same type of effort feels harder or your heart rate elevates more during a similar workout or you need more recovery during sets.
2. You feel very very tired.
If you are sleeping more than usual or feeling like you just can’t get out of bed, then chances are you might be overdoing it. It is normal to have a bit of muscle soreness or fatigue, particularly early on when you start training, but if your training sessions regularly mean you are crashing in the afternoon, or you are too tired or sore to go about your day without feeling it, then it might be time to have a rest.
3. You keep getting injured or sick.
Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) is sometimes celebrated a little too much. No pain = no gain? Acute or immediate pain in joints or muscles are a sure sign that you might be injured (so stop!) but muscle damage can impact the stability of your joints and increase your risk of injury too. If you have muscle aches that don’t go away for a few weeks this is another sign you need to slow down – DOMS should only set in 24-48 hours after exercise and usually lasts only 1-2 days. Because physiological stress such as exercise lowers the activity of your immune system, you can get sick more easily.
4. You’re exercising more but your weight isn’t shifting.
Too much training especially combined with eating less can lead to low energy availability where your body will try to conserve energy, as a way to protect itself from the chronic stress of exercising. This can cause your weight to plateau or in some cases even contribute to weight gain.
5. You feel moody, agitated or stressed – all the time…
Exercise certainly helps us with energy and mood boosting endorphins but it actually represents a stress to the body – this is particularly a concern with doing high intensity training more than 2-3 times per week. Higher intensity training especially increases cortisol and adrenaline release – there are your stress hormones – and so you can experience mood swings, irritability and even difficulty concentrating and difficulty sleeping, along with the long term health impacts of chronic stress.
So if you recognise any of these signs and know that you might be doing too much, then seek the help of a professional to help you plan out your sessions or use the common sense approach – listen to your body and rest if you need to! Substitute your usual gym session with a session stretching or a light walk instead.
