Am I overtraining?

girlalmighty08

I've been working out consistently 5-6 times a week for the past 4 months. My routines are quite varied but typically involve a lot of group classes (mix of cardio/weights, Zumba, kickboxing), with the occasional treadmill and free weights session that I do on my own.

Lately I've been having a dull ache in my hips, mostly at night. It will wake me up and makes it hard to sleep most nights. I'm thinking it's my IT band but I can't be certain, and I'm very diligent about stretching after all my workouts. Does anyone have any tips for moving forward and hopefully getting rid of this annoying pain?

Sarauk2sf

I would rest for a week and see how it feels. You could also foam roll and look at active stretching prior to your workouts (although classes should have that built in) If it continues, see a doctor.

ETA: I mean not do the workouts - you should continue some kind of active recovery such as moderate amounts of walking.

rejectuf

You're not overtraining, but sounds like you could use some extended rest to help your body recover right now.

In the future, try working in deload weeks in which you go easy on your workouts. You don't have to go hard 100% of the time... taking a week of low weight/light intensity can do wonders for your progress and recovery. Try switching out treadmill for something else that is more low-impact.

Foam rolling is a good idea as well. Look up stretches that target the hip flexors specifically and hit them hard.

smslogan317

Overtraining is difficult to achieve, but you can under recover as everyone has mentioned, if you are not giving your body the correct nutrition and rest you can risk injury. I do a 6 day split at 2 hrs a piece, and three of the days I also do 1 hr of cardio at the opposite end of the day from weight training. Rest and nutrition are the key, remember diet is 80% of the success exercise is the other 20

Sam_I_Am77

Sarauk2sf wrote: »

I would rest for a week and see how it feels. You could also foam roll and look at active stretching prior to your workouts (although classes should have that built in) If it continues, see a doctor.

ETA: I mean not do the workouts - you should continue some kind of active recovery such as moderate amounts of walking.

^
Not much else to say past her answer, spot on in my opinion. The only thing I can add I guess is that if you have any muscles that are very tight that don't seem to loosen up with the classes' warm-up routine, take the time to do some static stretching of the muscle prior to the class and hold the stretch for 30-seconds. This is long enough to benefit from the stretch and not enough time to impose any negative effects. Even if it did, the warm-up would be enough to regain any loss prior to the exercise.