Symptoms of overtraining:
- Insomnia
- Irritability
- Elevated morning pulse (10beats per minute higher than normal for several days in a row)
- Consistently elevated blood pressure
- Body aches
- Fatigue
- Loss of appetite
- Depression
- Decreased or lost motivation to exercise
- Increased frequency of colds and influenzas
- Increased frequency of injuries
While some people don’t want to work very hard in the gym, others drive their bodies too hard in effort to achieve their goals more quickly, or just very ambitiously push their bodies to the limit every day. They believe the “no pain, no gain” approach and find themselves plagued with injuries or symptoms of overtraining.
The role of proper rest and exercise program intensity, duration, and frequency is important.
If you don’t train with fitness professional, then your approach to exercise should be “train, don’t strain.” That is certainly the most enjoyable approach to exercise.