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Am I Overtraining? Ask a PT

Last week, we looked at squat depth and how low you really need to squat to get the most out of the exercise. Today, we’re looking at signs of overtraining.

Am I Overtraining?

Question: I train 5 days per week, but my friend says that I may be overtraining. Is this possible? I’m 30 years old. 

Answer: Thank you for putting your age in the question, as age is an important factor. But there are many other factors that can affect your likelihood of overtraining.

But first, what is overtraining, and does it exist?

Overtraining is simply where your body is not recovering adequately from training, and this has led to a number of side effects:

1. * Bad sleep/insomnia
2. * Aching muscles
3. * Poor results in the gym
4. * Low mood
5. * Physical and mental fatigue
6. * Low libido

Those of you who followed early YouTube fitness influencer CT Fletcher may have heard him claim that “overtraining is a myth”. He’s both right and wrong here.  For most regular gym goers, the chances that you are suffering from overtraining are pretty low.

But to pretend that overtraining doesn’t exist at all is farcical. It certainly does. It’s not up for debate. Science has repeatedly proven that overtraining exists [1]. But are YOU training hard enough to suffer from it?

The first thing you need to ask yourself is whether you think you are training hard enough in each session. Then you need to assess how your body is feeling. Is your sleep bad? Do your muscles ache more than usual? When you get ready to bench, how does your body feel?

Check out our article on what is the best recovery strategy

Interestingly, one of the most common side effects of overtraining is also one of the most common … a drop in testosterone levels. This is because the two are highly correlated. Poor recovery from exercise can affect sleep, which affects testosterone production, which affects recovery. A vicious cycle.

So, there are three things to do if you feel that you are overtraining:

1. * Assess your current training, and schedule in a de-load week (where you train with lower weights).
2. * Focus on improving your recovery. Sleep 8 hours, hit your protein target, and reduce stress where possible.
3. * Consider a natural testosterone booster, which can help with stress, sleep, and recovery.

 

It is certainly true that the older you are, the more likely overtraining becomes. But you will also have more training experience, and will likely have a better idea of how your body copes with your training load.

As I’ve said many times before in these emails, listen to your body, and decide for yourself. Only you can truly know whether you are overtraining or not.

References

[1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15571428/

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