adminREGULAR workouts are supposed to increase your muscle mass and decrease your body fat, right?
Well, yes, with a caveat. Some folks ramp it up too much especially when they start a new training regimen to prepare themselves for, say, a gruelling marathon or triathlon.
Overdoing your workouts can actually lead to diminished strength and increased body fat — your body’s way of begging for a break. While your body can handle a particularly tough workout, it also needs time to recover from the stress overload.
The best way to recover from that particularly tough workout?
A day or two of rest followed by a light bout of exercise is recommended.
Also make a point to get at least eight hours of sleep a night, which your body will need to repair those tiny muscle tears that occur during workouts and enable your body to build new muscle.
Good nutrition is also key: Think lean protein (fish, skinless chicken breast and tofu), whole grains and plenty of fruits and vegetables.
Here are the 10 ways your body will let you know if you’re headed for exercise burnout:
A drop in your workout performance is one of the earliest signs of overload.
Altered performance levels are often more apparent in endurance activities such as running, swimming and cycling.
A significant decrease in motivation or enjoyment of the activity can be a major sign of burnout.
This more often occurs in weightlifters, sprinters or soccer players who are driven by speed and power.
Depression, anger, confusion, anxiety and irritability are common when your body is overstressed physically. Those same stress hormones you release when you’re emotionally stressed are also released when you’re physically overloaded.
Persistent muscle soreness that lasts for hours or days after your workout is a sure sign you need more rest.
Also when you put more stress on the heart, it has to work a lot harder.
An increase in your normal resting heart rate, say, from 50 beats per minute to 65 beats per minute, could indicate that you’re placing excessive stress on your body.
Mental or physical grogginess is a hallmark sign of over-training.
The knee-jerk reaction to sluggishness is to exercise for an energy boost, but it’s a catch-22.
Another workout might wake you up short term, but you’ll be worse off later on. A decrease in appetite can occur in the middle to later stages of over-training, and goes hand in hand with feelings of fatigue and lack of motivation.
By slowing down bodily processes like metabolism, the body attempts to force a reduction in its workload.
If you’ve lost weight but noticed an increase in body fat, you could be in the later stages of exercise overload. The body responds to prolonged stress by elevating levels of stress hormones, including cortisol.
Over time this will lead to increased storage of adipose tissue, as well as inhibit steroid-like hormones that normally help increase muscle.
A decrease in muscle mass can cause you to shed a few pounds, but this isn’t a good thing since it means your body’s less efficient at burning fat.
Don’t try to push through that exercise funk, “or you’ll keep sliding down — to a weakened immune system, inflammation and outright injury.” Not a good thing. Prolonged over-training can take weeks, even months, to recover from and can put your health at risk.
Chronic inflammation, for example, has been linked to diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
Bottom line: Nurture your body and give it a much-deserved break when it needs to rest after that tough workout.
Siba Guzha is a fitness trainer at Body Focus Gym Executive. 1st Floor Meikles; 79 Herbert Chitepo Street, Mutare. Tel: 020 6417 ext 218 Cell: 0772 789 110. Email: [email protected]
Online Reporter