In an industry that’s always pushing you to perform at your max, it can be easy to ignore key signs of overtraining. The truth is, your body isn’t supposed to be pushed past its limits 100% of the time, and many of the people who’ve refused to take a break from constant failure-training are now experiencing health issues.
To help you maintain longevity, we’re informing you on what overtraining looks like & what to do about it!
Overtraining comes from consistently pushing your body past its limits without proper recovery. Yes, we need to train hard to build muscle tissue & achieve our goals, but we have to work WITH the body rather than against it to truly see long-term results.
Signs of overtraining:
- Consistent fatigue / irritability
- Trouble sleeping (trouble falling / staying asleep)
- Anxiety or depression
- Trouble managing weight (rapid weight gain)
- Skin issues like acne or eczema
- No longer able to hold a pump or hit PRs in the gym
- IBS-like symptoms: bloating, diarrhea, constipation, acid reflux, poor digestion of foods
- Food intolerances
- PMS symptoms in women
So, what do you do if you’ve gotten to the point of an overtrained body? First and foremost - incorporating more REST is key so the body can actually begin recovering. This can look like dropping training to 3-4x / week, and dropping intensity to ~3 RIR (reps in reserve) to take a step back from training to failure. Don’t fear loss of progress - your body NEEDS this rest and it will actually benefit your physique in the long term.
We also need to understand the cortisol (stress hormone) component. Years of overtraining contribute to extremely high cortisol, which we know causes issues with:
- Fatigue & irritability
- Anxiety
- Fat loss & muscle building
- Trouble falling / staying asleep
- Poor reproductive hormone production
- Excess inflammation
- GI imbalances
This means that in addition to managing your training frequency and intensity, it’s important to manage cortisol as well since those who’ve overtrained also have cortisol issues.
Strategies to manage stress:
- Prioritizing proper nutrition
- Improving sleep quality
- Deep breathing
- Meditation
- Light walking outside
- Journaling
- Therapy
- Incorporating a stress-reducing supplement
The good news: PureFactor’s Chill Factor can change the game for your stress management so you’re feeling like yourself again! Chill Factor is a powerful blend of scientifically backed, clinically dosed ingredients capable of bringing down cortisol levels, alleviating anxiety and providing an overall calming effect. This leads to:
- Better sleep and recovery
- More resilience to stress
- Improved blood sugar management
- Better body composition
- Better energy and vitality
With managed cortisol, you’re able to not only combat those negative symptoms of overtraining, but your recovery is improved allowing you to see better physique progress.
Tired of all your hard work in the gym not yielding the results you deserve? It might be time to take a step back, give your body more rest & introduce a stress-mitigation supplement like Chill Factor: you’ll be surprised what can happen when your body’s able to finally recover!
