How long does overtraining last

Asked by: Virtud Josephine asked in category: General Last Updated: 2nd January, How long does it take to recover from overtraining syndrome? Most athletes will recover from overtraining syndrome within weeks up to months. This will all depend on a few factors such as how overtrained you really are, genetics, and age.

How do you bounce back from overtraining? Unfortunately, a big event is often the way athletes find that they've been working their bodies too hard.

Consider cross-training. No matter your sport of choice, too much of any activity can lead to overdoing it. Get enough sleep. Eat right. Incorporate regular rest days and other activities. How many rest days should you have? Cue the ever-important rest day. It turns out, experts pretty much agree on the number of rest days people who are in good shape and exercising regularly should take: On average, you should be taking two days per week for rest and active recovery.

Can overtraining cause weight gain? Overtraining is when you perform more training than your body can recover from. Once you start putting undue stress on your body, you stimulate cortisol, that in turn raises insulin and leptin levels causing fat gain and hunger and craving cycles.

Overtraining can also have harmful effects on the immune system. What happens if you do too much exercise? As over-exercising can lead to hormonal imbalance or changes, including testosterone and cortisol our stress hormone , it can drive overeating and the body can also begin to burn muscle instead of fat.

These can compromise training sessions and cause your body to hold onto or gain fat, particularly abdominal fat. How much exercise is too much? Too much exercise can lead to injuries, exhaustion, depression, and suicide. It can also cause lasting physical harm. Your adrenal gland, pumping out hormones as you pound the pavement, can only produce so much cortisol at a time.

You may find you have less strength, agility, and endurance, which makes it more difficult to reach your training goals. Overtraining can also slow your reaction time and running speed. If you have OTS, you may feel like your workouts aremore difficult, like they take more effort to complete. Additionally, your heart rate may take longer to return to its resting rate once you finish exercising. When your stress hormones are out of balance, you may find it hard to relax and let go of tension at bedtime.

This cuts into the crucial time your body needs to rest, repair, and restore itself during sleep. Lack of quality sleep can also lead to chronic fatigue and mood changes.

Along with feeling run-down, you may find you get sick more often. You may also be prone to infections, mild illnesses, and upper respiratory tract infections URTIs. Exercising too much without resting enough in between can lead to low testosterone levels and high levels of cortisol, the stress hormone. These hormonal changes are often associated with loss of muscle tissue, weight gain , and excess belly fat. You may find it difficult to stay motivated to work out. Either way, try to make positive changes so you can feel inspired again.

During this time, stay away from any high impact or intense forms of exercise. Give yourself time to make a full recovery. Several treatments and home remedies can promote healing. Rest is the most important factor. Relax and take a break from all activities. Slow down in all areas of your life.

Go for a professional massage that will target the affected muscles. Opt for a deep-tissue or sports massage to prevent injuries and relieve muscle tension. Hot and cold therapy are also options. You can use a heating pad, sauna, or hot bath to soothe aching muscles.

A cold shower or ice pack may help reduce pain and swelling. Individual recovery times will vary. If you take a complete break from activity, you can expect to see improvements after 2 weeks. During this time, you can do gentle exercise to stay active.

Listen to your body during this important time. If you begin training again and start to experience symptoms of overtraining, return to resting. To prevent overtraining, schedule regular rest days after long or demanding workouts. Take a break from targeting a muscle group for 1 or 2 days if you do weight or resistance training. Have a rest period during your workout. Spend months training like this before you consider speedwork, marathons or racing.

We covered this in our post about running while sick. Chronically elevated cortisol levels leave us wide open to coughs, colds and upper respiratory infection s as well as having a catabolic effect breakdown on muscle tissue. Timing and volume of carbohydrate intake is critical, not just for performance during training and racing, but to protect the immune function and allow the body to recover from the stress of training.

The use of carbohydrate during lengthy endurance and tough interval sessions may be useful in preventing carbohydrate depletion. We covered this further in our post showing you how to eat yourself out of overtraining.

They also took in fewer calories, less protein, and less carbohydrate immediately post exercise than the non-overtrained runners. A recovery meal or drink comprising a mix of protein and carbohydrate should be taken on board within minutes of training. This can even be as simple as chocolate milk, but we have a post on other foods you can eat after a run if you would like more information.

Balancing your training schedule, lifestyle, and race goals needs to be the main consideration. This may mean adjusting goals and psychologically assessing what you want to get out of running and competing. A marathon PR may be possible in theory if you had nothing else to do, but combine it with a new born baby, sleep deprivation, and a high stress job; and overtraining is only a small step away. Instead of pursuing a PR every time, enter some fun off-road races or even a triathlon or adventure race.

Learn to listen to your own body, get in tune with the signs and signals and trust what it tells you. Stay healthy, train hard and rest well. Your team of expert coaches and fellow runners dedicated to helping you train smarter, stay healthy and run faster. We love running and want to spread our expertise and passion to inspire, motivate, and help you achieve your running goals.

Budgett R. Fatigue and underperformance in athletes: the overtraining syndrome. Br J Sports Med. Rushall, B.