Overtraining

Overtraining

A major, potential, problem with people exercising is overtraining. Many beginners, when they first begin training, over train, I know I did. Overtraining, as the name suggests, is essentially when some trains too much so that their body cannot recover in time. Overtraining is most common in weight training, but can also occur with runners and other athletes. Overtraining can stem from many things. For example, some people feel that the more they workout, the more they will benefit and they allow for no recovery time.

Symptoms of Overtraining

There are a wide variety of problems that can develop through overtraining. This list covers many of them:

• Plateau in performance
• Chronic Fatigue
• Injury
• Sore Joints and Muscles
• No motivation to workout
• Lack of Appetite
• Weight Loss
• Insomnia
• Depression
• Illness
• Lack of Sex Drive

Recovering from Overtraining

Luckily, overtraining is easy to get over. Essentially, the only thing that needs to be done is rest. We still need to maintain your diet as we would normally, but the rest will allow the muscles to recover and get back to the levels they should be.

Prevention of Overtraining

There are simple ways of ensuring that we do not overtrain in the first place. Firstly, and possibly the most important factor, we should allow for a substantial rest period between workouts. If we have an intense arms workout on Monday, then Tuesday we should rest the arms and focus on other muscles. Another good method is to ensure that we have a variety in our exercise routines and training techniques. Outside of exercise, things like a good diet and the correct amount of sleep will help to ensure that we do not overtrain.

Benefits of Weight Training for Fitness and Health

When thinking of our general health and well being weight training is something that should definitely be considered. In this post I will discuss some of the many benefits of building muscle.

Firstly, although cardiovascular exercise is a fantastic method for us to burn fat, building muscle will help us burn extra calories each day. Some sources claim that an additional pound of muscle gained can lead to our body burning an extra 50 calories each day. The good thing about this is that we're burning muscle while we are resting.

An obvious, but important, benefit to weight training is the increased strength we can achieve. For many this is why we begin weight training.

Another great benefit of weight training is that the risk of injury can be reduced. The stronger the muscles we have, the more stress and impact our body can take and we should see increased muscle flexibility, which can help keep us from pulling muscles.

Our physical appearance can improve through weight training. Aside from the fact that muscle building can help us to lose fat, we can also can lean muscle and get a more defined look about us, a look that many people want.

The final benefit that I will mention in this post is the fact that weight training can help our body to function better. Through stronger muscles we can get more support to our joints and will also see an improvement in our posture.

These are just some of the benefits of weight/muscle training, there are others too. Hope these inspire!