Most people aren’t aware of this, but almost everyone that’s trained with weights, at one point or the other, has experienced the adverse effects of over-training. Over-training only leads to muscle fatigue, serious injury, hinders muscle growth and can also lead to muscle loss. Over-training is an extremely common occurrence; because a large number of weightlifters just presume that the fastest route to gain muscle is to spend extensive hours in the gym.
The thinking that working out harder will give you better results doesn’t work when it comes to body building. If you train too often without enough recovery time, or if your workout routine is too intensive, that will only lead to over-training.
How to get optimum benefits from your workout
If you want to get optimal gain from your own genetics, you will have to focus on progressively overloading your muscles; you can do this by increasing either the intensity or weight in every weight-training workout. The common mistake that most people make is that they increase the intensity of their workouts to such a degree that the actually go overboard.
Most don’t even follow an appropriate recovery/rest time between workouts. At times, some bodybuilders rest for excessive periods of time, which is even worse. The only way to ensure you get optimum benefit from your bodybuilding and workout routine is to maintain the perfect balance between these two aspects; and that’s what we are going to discuss here today:
How your hormone levels get affected when you overtrain
A number of studies have shown that over-training has a negative impact on hormone levels and the hormone response in the body. Since hormones play a key role in the muscle building process, that can impact your muscle training, negatively; and over-training:
- Decreases testosterone levels
- Decreases thyroxine levels
- Increases cortisol levels
How the Immune system gets impacted
When you overtrain, it affects the ability of your body to fight bacteria and viruses; in turn, this impacts your immune system. Since over-training reduces the number of white blood cells produced in your body, it makes you more vulnerable to various illnesses. In simple words, if you over-train, you are likely to fall ill more often.
Some other noticeable effects of over-training
- Micro tears in the muscle
- Too much accumulation of lactic acid
- Chronically depleted glycogen levels
- Extreme delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS)
- Damage to tendons as well as connective tissues
If you really want to get bigger and build muscle faster, it’s crucial that you first fully recover from your previous workout before you start on the next one. If you work out your muscles before they have been given the chance to recover fully and of you over-train, you automatically break down the muscle before it is able to rebuild itself. This simply means you make it impossible for your body to build muscle.
Note the symptoms and fix the problem
If you are right in tune with your body, you won’t miss the symptoms of over-training and can put a stop to them before the situation gets too serious. If you find yourself losing strength, losing interest in your workouts, find it difficult to warm up, are having trouble sleeping calmly and are suffering from severe aches and pains, there is a distinct possibility that you are over-training.
You should consider taking at least a week off from your workout routine. You can avoid over training by taking an all-around approach. Determine the correct training intensity, eat the right foods, and get the right amount of rest.
If you have any questions about building muscle or want a workout routine that would help, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at Schembri PT. You can send us an email to info@schembript.com or fill in this contact us form and we’ll reply as soon as possible.
Thanks for reading,
Schembri PT Team
02 9648 6405