Is it possible to over exercise?

I honestly believe that over training definitely stalls recovery. Working out is equivalent to digging a hole and your recovery is the equivalent to filling that hole back up. If you continue to dig the hole deeper and deeper, you're going to have a very hard time filling it back up.

About 1.5 yrs ago, I changed my lifts from 5 days @ 70 min per workout to 4 days @ b/t 30-40 minutes per workout and still managed to get just as strong on my bulks and just as lean on my cuts despite reducing the number of sets per workout. People tend to think the more time they spend in the gym, the better their results are going to be, but this isn't necessarily true. Your body needs rest to be able to recover and grow.

I looked at a whole bunch of papers on overtraining when I was at university........ nearly all cases of overtraining are actually due to undereating, and eating more while resuming the same level of exercise fixed the issues.

overtraining is possible, e.g. if you're doing heavy lifting day in day out without the sufficient amount of rest for each muscle group. But if someone's not doing that then it's unlikely that overtraining is the issue and far more likely that it's undereating.

It could be in my mind, definitely something that I have though of. But usually that only works when you're looking at yourself. My husband and I are both showing amazing results from slowing down.
This has got me wondering, maybe i'm slimming down because of less weight training throughout the week?

this is a slightly different issue.... muscles grow when you rest. If you're not giving your body adequate rest time when doing strength training, your muscles will constantly be in a broken down state and never get a chance to go through the repair and regenerate part........... when you do strenuous exercise, muscle fibres are broken down a little, and when they grow back, they grow back just a little stronger than before... recovery usually takes around 48 hrs, which is why it's recommended that you have a full rest day for each muscle group between workouts e.g. if doing full body, train mon, wed, fri, not mon tues wed.

If the body isn't recovering properly, then yes. Also doing an hour's worth of bicep curls isn't going to improve them any better than say 20 minutes worth of curls. Intensity matters as well as recovery.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness industry for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

I went from working 5-7 intense workouts a week to 3 work outs a week and I look better.

If you look better after only 3 workouts then by all means, relax more and enjoy yourself... Proof is in the results... If you stop getting the results you want, then change something. Balance in all things.

Short answer of course is "YES"... You can over-exercise due to issues with recovery time and intensity...

I think the obvious question is what were your 5-7 intense workouts and what are your 3 current workouts?