We all want to build muscle fast and sometimes too fast, which leads us to think more is better, this isn’t always the case.
Overtraining, simply put is a condition in where your body can no longer recover correctly from the demand you place on it daily. You need to have a deload week if you find yourself overtrained.
This can happen for a variety of reasons but mainly due to too much exercise and too little rest!
If you want to prevent overtraining all together, simply switch to a progressive overload program as these sorts of programs have rest periods built into them so you never have to stop building muscle fast!
This leaves you with many unwanted side effects but I am going to list the 5 biggest in my opinion:
1 You get sick more frequently and can’t shake that cold/flu
So you’ve been training for months and months hard every session and all of a sudden your throat gets sore, or you are coughing inexplicably.
Heavy weightlifting especially compound moves such as squats and deadlifts are very taxing on the CNS ( Central Nervous System )
If we do not give our bodies adequate time to recover from these brutal workouts, it will eventually affect our immune systems.
This leaves us susceptible to colds and flues and often leads us into a trap where we don’t want to skip gym and rest but then we never get better either.
Don’t make this mistake!
2 Aches and pains that won’t go away
Now I am not talking about muscle soreness the next day after a hard session.
I am talking about constant nagging pain in joints, tendons or muscles themselves.
The worst thing we can do when we have chronic nagging pains like this is to carry on training and not rest them as this often times leads to injuries.
This is your bodies way of telling you to listen and take it easy, don’t ignore the warnings you will regret it!
3 Feeling Fatigued and Tired All The Time
Are workouts starting to feel like chores? When you start do you wish its over already? Do you have this feeling of being constantly tired?
This is because you are run down and over-trained, as simple as that.
Fatigue is a cumulative effect and it is the product of weeks and weeks of training too hard and/or resting too little.
It is at this stage that your body simply tells you its had enough and needs time off by just being lethargic all the time, literally crying out for some sleep and rest!
You will notice the difference after a de-load week, you will be in the mood to train and you literally won't be able to wait to get back to the gym!
4 Decreased Appetite
This is another telltale sign of overtraining.
If you used to be able to polish a huge plate of food, were always hungry and on the lookout for food to build muscle fast.
Then over time, you find yourself battling to finish meals and having no appetite this is another huge sign you are overtrained.
Simply take some time off and let your body recover and get everything back to the way it should and you will find your appetite will return naturally!
5 Training Hard Every Session
This is not so much a symptom of overtraining but one of the major causes of it.
Stop doing the workouts you see in these muscle magazines that the pro’s do! You need to remember that these guys are using a whole host of steroids and other performance enhancers.
Not only that, they also have access to excellent nutrition, and they literally eat, train, and rest for a living.
These workouts are far too much for the average lifter who wants to build muscle fast who is doing things naturally and this very quickly leads to overtraining!
Switch to a program that incorporates progressive overload which will allow you to never have to take off the gym as it has rest time engineered into it.
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Conclusion
The biggest thing I want you to take away from this article is this, if you have even 1 of these symptoms, simply take a step back!
Take a week off, get some good sleep in and some good rest off the gym.
Stop doing the workouts you see in these muscle magazines that the pro’s do! You need to remember that these guys are using a whole host of steroids and other performance enhancers.
Not only that, they also have access to excellent nutrition, and they literally eat, train, and rest for a living.
These workouts are far too much for the average lifter who wants to build muscle fast who is doing things naturally and this very quickly leads to overtraining!
Switch to a program that incorporates progressive overload which will allow you to never have to take off the gym as it has rest time engineered into it.
Conclusion
The biggest thing I want you to take away from this article is this, if you have even 1 of these symptoms, simply take a step back!
Take a week off, get some good sleep in and some good rest off the gym.
This will set your training far ahead of what it would have been had you just carried on training while being over-trained.
More is not always better, especially when it comes to training!
More is not always better, especially when it comes to training!
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