When you've got a major goal in sight, it's easy to push yourself too far, too fast, or too long. It doesn't help that shows such as "The Biggest Loser" depict contestants exercising to exhaustion for hours a day. No pain, no gain, right?
But training too hard can actually diminish your advances both on the track and in the weight room. When you push your body beyond its capacity to recover, or you don't give it the rest it needs to repair and bounce back between workouts, your physical performance and quality of life will suffer. Research shows that overtraining can make you feel irritable, interfere with your sleep, increase your risk of injury, and make you more susceptible to illness.
"There's a place for training harder sometimes and then backing off, but no good can come from overtraining," says Liz Neporent , a spokesperson for the American Council on Exercise and coauthor of "Fitness for Dummies."
To stave off these negative effects, tune in to your body's clues that it's on the brink of exhaustion. The following signals may mean that it's time to back off from your workouts and take some much-needed time for rest and recovery.
You're always cranky
Sometimes there's nothing better than a good long run to help you blow off some steam, but research and anecdotal accounts show that overdoing it session after session can make you angrier and feel more depressed. While moderate exercise can help lower levels of the stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline, working out at high intensities does the reverse. This effect was illustrated in a study by the University of North Carolina , which showed that people who exercised at 60 to 80 percent of their maximum oxygen uptake had increased circulating cortisol levels post workout, but those who worked out at 40 percent capacity lowered their levels.
Changes in mood after intense training are normal, but the effect shouldn't last longer than a day or two. The physical stress of working out at a high intensity prompts your body to release cortisol, which affects your disposition. For example, a study from the University of Richmond showed that competitive swimmers were more likely to feel angry after a long swim than a shortened practice. As your body adapts and gets stronger, it doesn't have to work as hard when performing everyday activities, so your stress levels should fall. But if you're overtraining, as in a super-long swim, your body doesn't have enough time to recover, so you're in a constant state of stress that can affect both body and mind.
It takes you longer to bounce back
It makes sense, the harder you work out, the longer you need to recover. But if you notice that the breaks prescribed in your program aren't sufficient for recovery and you still feel sore and fatigued going into your next workout, you're probably pushing yourself too hard, says BJ Gaddour, CSCS, a cocreator of Workout Muse. If your program is too tough, scale back on your weight, reps, or distance. To avoid overstraining your body, the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons recommends that you increase your load by no more than 10 percent a week. Plus, you should be able to run through a circuit without constantly starting and stopping if it's at the appropriate intensity.
You're sick more often
Generally, fitness is one of the best and cheapest medicines around. A study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine reported that people who exercised 5 days or more every week for 12 weeks were 43 percent less likely to develop an upper-respiratory-tract infection. But if you work out consistently and experience an uptick in illness, it could be your body's way of telling you to back off.
Epidemiological studies report an increased risk of URTI during intense training and 1 to 2 weeks following endurance races, such as marathons and Ironman triathlons. Rigorous bouts of training and endurance races can decrease your body's white blood cell count, as well as its levels of natural killer cells, the cells in your immune system that attack tumors. Depending on the intensity of your exercise, the effects can last anywhere from 3 to 72 hours.
You have trouble sleeping
If you feel spent but still can't sleep, it can be a sign that your body is overexerted. Under normal circumstances, your cortisol levels drop during the night, but when your body is under stress -- whether from juggling too much in the office or pushing yourself too far at the gym -- they'll stay elevated.
"High cortisol levels will make you tired when you shouldn't be, and then wired when you should be sleeping," explains Robert Reames , CPT, a spokesperson for Gold's Gym International .
While there's evidence that moderate exercise can help you get more shut-eye, it's all a balancing act. If you're working out at a frequency and intensity that prevents your body from recovering properly, you'll disrupt your natural circadian rhythm, making it harder to fall asleep and stay asleep.
You have no appetite
You'd think that if you were tearing it up on the track, you'd have an insatiable desire to tuck in during mealtime. After all, when you're training for a marathon it's typical to become ravenous -- just upping your mileage by 2 to 5 miles a week can burn an additional 250 to 600 calories a week. But overexertion can actually cause a loss of appetite. Overtraining can lead to an increase in the hunger-curbing hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine, which can lead to an abnormal loss of appetite. If you don't properly fuel your body during periods of intense training, you'll put yourself at risk of nutritional imbalances, fatigue and injury, says Neporent.
You're getting weaker
Sometimes slower times, faltering endurance, and lighter lifts are signs you should ease up, not buckle down. Overtrained athletes often report having slower reaction times and lower endurance levels. That's because exercise literally causes tears in your muscles. If you skimp on rest time, your body can't repair and rebuild muscle. To get stronger, you need to emphasize rest as much as exercise. Reserve 1 day a week for recovery, and be sure to get a minimum of 7 to 9 hours of sleep, says Reames. Unless your workout plan specifically calls for reducing how much you lift, you should be able to lift the same load at the end of your workout as at the beginning, says Gaddour.
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