I often get asked, “am I training enough?” I simply answer that usually those (both men and women) who take their fitness seriously, over-train. This leads to reduced results, which people then try and compensate for by training even more. It’s a bit of an vicious cycle as I will explain below: When a goal of exercise is to lose weight or improve energy, over-training can clearly be a major barrier to achieving those goals.
However, certain styles of exercise take the participant to a state of physical exhaustion on a regular basis, which may do more harm than good.
While a regular, high intensity workout routine provides benefits for those people looking to lose body fat and increase their strength and fitness, there is a fine line between training hard and overtraining. Making sure you don’t engage in these physically demanding activities too regularly is an important part of any fitness lifestyle plan.
Allowing time to recover critical as this is when your body actually build stronger muscles, neutral pathways and energy stores.
While short, intense workouts can be great for inducing fat loss, increasing aerobic capacity, and reducing risk for cardiovascular disease, excessively intense exercise can cause a variety of health problems, especially for those dealing with other concurrent stressors (such as a stressful work-life). My recommendation is always doing heavy intense training session for: Woman every 4-7 day and Men 5-7 days when you start. You could decrease the number of rest days by 1 or 2 as you progress in the program, but still be conscious of making time for your active rest days.
Another major effect that extreme exercise has on our bodies is an immediate increase in cortisol, the hormone that is released when the body is under stress. Heavy-resistance exercises are found to stimulate acute cortisol responses, similar to those responses found in marathon running. Chronically high levels of cortisol can increase your risk for a variety of health issues, such as sleep disturbances, digestive issues, depression, weight gain, and memory impairment. Excess cortisol also encourages fat gain, particularly around the abdomen.
Here are a few techniques to avoid overtraining while still gaining the benefits of high intensity exercise and make
sure you have a lover level of cortisol in your body.
1. Reduce the frequency.
Pushing hard at the gym is not inherently problematic, but doing it too often during the week is overtraining. High intensity, high stress exercise should be limited to once or twice a week max, especially for those who are dealing with other health issues or demanding work-life conditions. Compounding those stressors with extra stress from your exercise routine will not leave you healthier, and can easily cause you to become more sick.
2. Get adequate rest.
No only is taking time to let your body recover from exercise important, but getting adequate sleep is vital to avoiding over-training syndrome. Make sure you are getting adequate sleep, particularly on the days you train. Interestingly, one
symptom of over-training is disturbance of sleep, so if you’re feeling restless and having trouble sleeping through the night, you may want to take a few days off training.
3. Mix it up.
While high intensity exercise may be ideal for losing body fat and improving lean muscle mass, we know that high levels of cortisol can cause the body to hold onto fat. For this reason, consider trying a complimentary type of exercise that can help modulate your cortisol levels. Find something you enjoy and that relaxes you and you will find you are recovered more quickly from your more intense exercise schedule. High intensity exercise is a great way to improve body composition and enhance your general health, if done the right way. Remember your body takes time to repair and
adjust – you have to allow time for this to happen.