How do you know if you are "overexercising"?

SPNLuver83

I was just reading a different thread on here and saw someone saw overexercising can cause swelling and other issues.... How do you know if you are overexercising?

About 5 weeks ago I decided to increase my workouts from 6 to 7 days a week, I was stuck and wanted to become unstuck, and it worked and my weight loss picked up again....

Sundays I do 45 minutes of cardio and 20 minutes of core work
Mondays 20 minutes of HIIT and 35 minutes of strength training
Tuesdays 60 minutes of cardio, 10 minutes of abs and 10 minutes of stretching
Wednesdays 25 minutes of HIIT and 30 minutes of strength
Thursdays 45 minutes of Interval training and 15 minutes of abs
Fridays 30 minutes of HIIT and 35 minutes of strength
Saturdays 55 minutes of cardio, 10 abs and 10 stretch.

I've been pushing harder with the strength so my muscles are a little sore like they were when I first started, but otherwise I feel pretty normal. I don't FEEL like I am overworked, so should I be concerned? For the rest of the day I'm usually just at home with my 2 yr old, looking after him. Pretty laid back...

scottc561

You need to put rest days in there. You may wish to lose faster but your body needs time to heal. Over exercising may take time for it to catch up to you, but if you don't rest you will hit a wall. I'm not going to list all the things that can happen, but among them are injury, muscle tearing, hitting plateaus. Your heart is a muscle you have to remember, so you need to rest. I would say workout 3 take 1 off, at a minimum and considering how intense your workouts are you may need more or less. But take break days where you do no hard physical activity. You cannot maintain your 7 day routine forever, you will burn out eventually if you don't injure yourself first, beleive me.

Ps- it appears you don't have alot more to lose, so you have got to realize it will come off slower and slower as you get thinner. Don't let that discourage you.

SPNLuver83

But on the show "The Biggest Looser" doesn't Jillian Michaels have those ppl working out everyday? Don't paid athletes work out everyday?

I am so confused....

I wasn't planning on doing this forever, only until I lost another 15 lbs, then I was going to go into maintenance mode... Would that not be ok?

SPNLuver83

You need to put rest days in there. You may wish to lose faster but your body needs time to heal. Over exercising may take time for it to catch up to you, but if you don't rest you will hit a wall. I'm not going to list all the things that can happen, but among them are injury, muscle tearing, hitting plateaus. Your heart is a muscle you have to remember, so you need to rest. I would say workout 3 take 1 off, at a minimum and considering how intense your workouts are you may need more or less. But take break days where you do no hard physical activity. You cannot maintain your 7 day routine forever, you will burn out eventually if you don't injure yourself first, beleive me.

Ps- it appears you don't have alot more to lose, so you have got to realize it will come off slower and slower as you get thinner. Don't let that discourage you.

I've been going at this since January 2011! How much slower do I have to go??!! lol uuughgghghghhghg

BeautyFromPain

Put at least 1-2 rest days in there.... you also need to stretch after every training session.

scottc561

But on the show "The Biggest Looser" doesn't Jillian Michaels have those ppl working out everyday? Don't paid athletes work out everyday?

I am so confused....

I wasn't planning on doing this forever, only until I lost another 15 lbs, then I was going to go into maintenance mode... Would that not be ok?

I don't know what they do on TBL I don't watch it, and it's only for a couple months right? And no, pro athletes do take rest days. Not sure why you think your body doesn't need rest, but it does. Now of course if your workout is very low intense like walking at a leasurely pace for 15mins a day you can do that non stop without rest days. But if you are doing Hiit training, intense cardio, weight training-then rest is needed. It doens't take alot, just a day off here and there. You'll be surprised how well you'll feel after even just one day of rest from any physical activity. You'll have more energy and perform better on your workouts. If you don't beleive me, go research it on other sites. Such as bodybuilder.com or others have tons of good info and experts that you can ask questions from. Good luck

smplycomplicated

How do i know when i am overexercising? I used to have that problem..I would just go and go and refused to take a day off..30 days straight with not one day off...then one day my body said..um no. I woke up and barely had the energy to get outta bed. I took the day off, and then decided to take the next day off..felt a whole lot better after that and didn't drag through my workouts like i had done before...now I alternate...400-500 cal burn one day..1200-1500 the next.. rinse repeat...and take sunday off.

scottc561

You need to put rest days in there. You may wish to lose faster but your body needs time to heal. Over exercising may take time for it to catch up to you, but if you don't rest you will hit a wall. I'm not going to list all the things that can happen, but among them are injury, muscle tearing, hitting plateaus. Your heart is a muscle you have to remember, so you need to rest. I would say workout 3 take 1 off, at a minimum and considering how intense your workouts are you may need more or less. But take break days where you do no hard physical activity. You cannot maintain your 7 day routine forever, you will burn out eventually if you don't injure yourself first, beleive me.

Ps- it appears you don't have alot more to lose, so you have got to realize it will come off slower and slower as you get thinner. Don't let that discourage you.

I've been going at this since January 2011! How much slower do I have to go??!! lol uuughgghghghhghg

If that's the case, it's not about how many days you exercise. You may be at your ideal weight. You got to remember muscle weighs more then fat. So if you are building some muscle from your exercise you could easily weight 10lbs more then if you were sedentary and skinny. Get your bodyfat % tested, if it is in average range don't worry about losing more, try to tone up from there. You can't go by the scale if you are putting on muscle, because it goes up when exercising. I'm sure you know most of this, but hopefully it helps.

BeautyFromPain

But on the show "The Biggest Looser" doesn't Jillian Michaels have those ppl working out everyday?
yeah, but you think that is sustainable?
A lot of them actually put on a lot of weight when they leave the show.
Don't paid athletes work out everyday?
No. 5-6 days a week. Your muscles NEED time to rest unless you want injuries which will put you out for weeks or even months.


I wasn't planning on doing this forever, only until I lost another 15 lbs, then I was going to go into maintenance mode... Would that not be ok?
If you lost the 15lb whilst exercising so much and then stopped exercising so much you could gain heaps. Diet is 80% what wl is about anyway.

Trail_Addict

Symptoms of overtraining include:
High resting heart rate
always sick
wake feeling unusually exhausted
lethargic throughout the day
moodier than usually
lack of appetite
loss of motivation

there are a few more, if I think of them I'll add.

JNick77

First and foremost. You don't "NEED" rest days. Rest days can also be active rest days. You can have your core lifting and cardio days and then maybe a day where you just do plyometrics, for example, as "active rest". You should probably not go balls-to-the-wall every single day but you know everybody is different. "Train as hard and as frequently as you can without diminishing your body's ability to recover." - C. Thibideau

Typical signs of overtraining:
- Tired but can't sleep
- Lethargic (getting up to pee may take more energy than you have)
- Irritable
- Constant muscle pain
- Depression

There are more and I can't think of them all right now, but those are some key signs. Enjoy your training, be smart, listen to your body, there are no hard-fast rules.

SPNLuver83

Symptoms of overtraining include:
High resting heart rate
always sick
wake feeling unusually exhausted
lethargic throughout the day
moodier than usually
lack of appetite
loss of motivation

there are a few more, if I think of them I'll add.

well I don't have any of those!

SPNLuver83

First and foremost. You don't "NEED" rest days. Rest days can also be active rest days. You can have your core lifting and cardio days and then maybe a day where you just do plyometrics, for example, as "active rest". You should probably not go balls-to-the-wall every single day but you know everybody is different. "Train as hard and as frequently as you can without diminishing your body's ability to recover." - C. Thibideau

Typical signs of overtraining:
- Tired but can't sleep
- Lethargic (getting up to pee may take more energy than you have)
- Irritable
- Constant muscle pain
- Depression

There are more and I can't think of them all right now, but those are some key signs. Enjoy your training, be smart, listen to your body, there are no hard-fast rules.

See, that's what I thought! All my w/o are either from Turbo Fire or ChaLean Extreme, so they all include warm ups and cool downs, so its not like 60 minutes of straight hard cardio or weight lifting.... my long cardio days I do w/o my weighted vest and gloves, and I do extra stretching, so I was kinda looking at those as my "Active rest" days... I would like to think if I was overworked my body would let me know, and I would listen to it... Thanks for the reassurance!

mwcraig34

When you work out you are tearing down your muscles! If you do not rest your body the muscles will not repair themselves and you can damage your body! It is very basic stuff! That is how you grow muscle and remember muscle weights more than fat! So you may have been losing fat but gaining muscle and it can make the scale go the other way!

ninerbuff

Symptoms of overtraining include:
High resting heart rate
always sick
wake feeling unusually exhausted
lethargic throughout the day
moodier than usually
lack of appetite
loss of motivation

there are a few more, if I think of them I'll add.

Add to it boredom with current workouts, lack of effort and intensity, would rather skip it each time it time to train.

A.C.E. Certified Personal & Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

scottc561

First and foremost. You don't "NEED" rest days. Rest days can also be active rest days. You can have your core lifting and cardio days and then maybe a day where you just do plyometrics, for example, as "active rest". You should probably not go balls-to-the-wall every single day but you know everybody is different. "Train as hard and as frequently as you can without diminishing your body's ability to recover." - C. Thibideau

Typical signs of overtraining:
- Tired but can't sleep
- Lethargic (getting up to pee may take more energy than you have)
- Irritable
- Constant muscle pain
- Depression

There are more and I can't think of them all right now, but those are some key signs. Enjoy your training, be smart, listen to your body, there are no hard-fast rules.

See, that's what I thought! All my w/o are either from Turbo Fire or ChaLean Extreme, so they all include warm ups and cool downs, so its not like 60 minutes of straight hard cardio or weight lifting.... my long cardio days I do w/o my weighted vest and gloves, and I do extra stretching, so I was kinda looking at those as my "Active rest" days... I would like to think if I was overworked my body would let me know, and I would listen to it... Thanks for the reassurance!

It all depends on intensity. For someone to come on here and say you don't need rest is borderline rediculous. But apparantly you got what you wanted to hear. Hope it works out for ya.

Trail_Addict

It all depends on intensity. For someone to come on here and say you don't need rest is borderline rediculous. But apparantly you got what you wanted to hear. Hope it works out for ya.

Agree! But I've found that EVERYONE will eventually learn the value of a true "rest" day, be it from listening to experienced people, or the hard way... crashing and falling out of things for a while.

heybales

Don't paid athletes work out everyday?

No, they don't.

Pro's have rest days from workouts, because the improvement for the body only comes through rest and rebuilding and repair.

Training may be everyday, but that is really like short intense efforts with lots of recovery time. Those aren't workouts.

I can't tell if you are trying to create a bigger deficit by exercising and not feeding the workout, or if you think the focus on exercise will really help lose weight.

Muscle weight for sure, you can lose that very easily by the routine you are doing.

Tell ya what, speed it up by eating low carb too, and make the workouts as intense as possible, which actually you seemed to have selected anyway.

This will really tear into the glucose stores very well, requiring muscle to be torn down in a major way to provide glucose to keep the blood sugar up.

And since muscle only has 600 cals per lb, you can lose a lot that way.

Don't plan on eating at maintenance level though, with less muscle you won't need it. Oh, it won't be the muscle you are using totally, but other muscle, you got plenty that isn't being used as intently.

BeautyFromPain

Don't paid athletes work out everyday?

Tell ya what, speed it up by eating low carb too, and make the workouts as intense as possible, which actually you seemed to have selected anyway.

This will really tear into the glucose stores very well, requiring muscle to be torn down in a major way to provide glucose to keep the blood sugar up.

And since muscle only has 600 cals per lb, you can lose a lot that way.

Don't plan on eating at maintenance level though, with less muscle you won't need it. Oh, it won't be the muscle you are using totally, but other muscle, you got plenty that isn't being used as intently.

LOL this made me laugh

Pinoy_Pal

Your body will tell you with aches, pains, fatigue, plateau, etc.

]

SCC88

But on the show "The Biggest Looser" doesn't Jillian Michaels have those ppl working out everyday? Don't paid athletes work out everyday?

I am so confused....

I wasn't planning on doing this forever, only until I lost another 15 lbs, then I was going to go into maintenance mode... Would that not be ok?

On that show they also make everyone work off every calorie they eat so that their net is always zero. Don't go by what you see on TV! There's obviously a reason why they don't revisit the contestants 6 months later to see how they're doing!

BrianSharpe

First and foremost. You don't "NEED" rest days. Rest days can also be active rest days. You can have your core lifting and cardio days and then maybe a day where you just do plyometrics, for example, as "active rest".

Perhaps rest days should be renamed "recovery days" and I agree with the concept of active recovery.......but plyometrics as "active recovery"??????

kdiamond

It all depends on intensity. For someone to come on here and say you don't need rest is borderline rediculous. But apparantly you got what you wanted to hear. Hope it works out for ya.

Agree! But I've found that EVERYONE will eventually learn the value of a true "rest" day, be it from listening to experienced people, or the hard way... crashing and falling out of things for a while.

AGREED!!

If you can work out 7 days a week, your workouts aren't intense enough. Spike up the intensity level and give yourself a rest day or two during the week. You will see better results.

Also, if you can do HIIT for 30 minutes, it isn't HIIT. True HIIT can only be done for 12-18 minutes tops...you'd be wiped any more than that. If you're able to do 30 minutes you're not hitting that 9 or 10 level of intensity.

SUSIE091

Good thread this been there done it and crashed so am trying to do it proper this time

though with someone who has an additive personialty disorder it's damm hard !!

sat suppossed to be day off as taking kids to there sports lol !!

can feel i need to do something lol !!

kateroot

I'd definitely throw a rest day in there somewhere. Your muscles need time to recover.

smplycomplicated

Symptoms of overtraining include:
High resting heart rate
always sick
wake feeling unusually exhausted
lethargic throughout the day
moodier than usually
lack of appetite
loss of motivation

there are a few more, if I think of them I'll add.

^^yep.

smplycomplicated

Even on my rest days i still keep moving. longer walk..10 mins on the elliptical..etc.

SPNLuver83

Symptoms of overtraining include:
High resting heart rate
always sick
wake feeling unusually exhausted
lethargic throughout the day
moodier than usually
lack of appetite
loss of motivation

there are a few more, if I think of them I'll add.

Add to it boredom with current workouts, lack of effort and intensity, would rather skip it each time it time to train.

A.C.E. Certified Personal & Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

don't have those either!

yuliyax

hmmm am I missing something? I usually feel sore when I overexercise, and no one mentioned it, isn't it the first sign?

SPNLuver83

Don't paid athletes work out everyday?

No, they don't.

Pro's have rest days from workouts, because the improvement for the body only comes through rest and rebuilding and repair.

Training may be everyday, but that is really like short intense efforts with lots of recovery time. Those aren't workouts.

I can't tell if you are trying to create a bigger deficit by exercising and not feeding the workout, or if you think the focus on exercise will really help lose weight.

Muscle weight for sure, you can lose that very easily by the routine you are doing.

Tell ya what, speed it up by eating low carb too, and make the workouts as intense as possible, which actually you seemed to have selected anyway.

This will really tear into the glucose stores very well, requiring muscle to be torn down in a major way to provide glucose to keep the blood sugar up.

And since muscle only has 600 cals per lb, you can lose a lot that way.

Don't plan on eating at maintenance level though, with less muscle you won't need it. Oh, it won't be the muscle you are using totally, but other muscle, you got plenty that isn't being used as intently.

I don't understand the need for sarcasm... If you don't want to be nice and offer positive advice, why bother? I am not eating low carb, or low fat, or any of that. I eat back all my calories that I burn, for the most part. Sometimes I end up going a little over... My strength has been increasing, I've been seeing more definition in my body.. it has gotten leaner as well. I don't feel tired, or over worked.... Other than my hour of working out in the AM, I am pretty lazy the rest of the day, lounging around and hanging out with the kids... resting.... I mean, if what you say was gonna happen were to happen, wouldn't after 5 weeks it would have already started happening? My workouts aren't really THAT intense.... I actually find them to be quite easy and I feel great afterwards.... which is why I am not getting what you guys are saying... For 15 months I had Sundays as my rest days, and those days I would just feel sluggish and bloated and always overate my calories...

SPNLuver83

It all depends on intensity. For someone to come on here and say you don't need rest is borderline rediculous. But apparantly you got what you wanted to hear. Hope it works out for ya.

Agree! But I've found that EVERYONE will eventually learn the value of a true "rest" day, be it from listening to experienced people, or the hard way... crashing and falling out of things for a while.

AGREED!!

If you can work out 7 days a week, your workouts aren't intense enough. Spike up the intensity level and give yourself a rest day or two during the week. You will see better results.

Also, if you can do HIIT for 30 minutes, it isn't HIIT. True HIIT can only be done for 12-18 minutes tops...you'd be wiped any more than that. If you're able to do 30 minutes you're not hitting that 9 or 10 level of intensity.

The HIIT 30, as well as the other HIIT I do, includes a warm up and cool down.... so now, it's not straight 30 minutes of HIIT. It's like 5 routines, done twice, 1 minute each with 1 minute of rest..... And my HRM says I'm always at between 95%-104%.