Many times, we are our worst enemy when it comes to our fitness. Some of us lack the knowledge of how to train, how long to workout, what type of exercises, how much weight to use and how long our cardio sessions should last. Sometimes, you might just be guessing or watching someone else in the gym or talking to a person in the gym that looks like they know what they are doing. Before you know it, some people find themselves doing exercises the wrong way, doing too many sets, too many reps and working muscle groups too often. This is all due because a person simply does not know what they should be doing and how they should be doing it. Just as anything in life, it’s best to start out doing things the right way so that you don’t have bad habits that you need to change, which for some is usually difficult.
How can you tell if you’re overtraining? Well, a few key signs include aching joints and muscles, not much energy, a low desire to workout, not getting results and all of the exercises just start to feel heavier than usual along with having injuries. We need to be smart when it comes to our training so that we don’t have an injury that can set us back weeks, months or even years. A long career in fitness is a smart approach and always listening to your body is very important. Injuries usually don’t just happen all of a sudden. Many times people have a slight pain and don’t know how they got it. Its our body saying, “Hey, something is wrong here”. If we avoid it and continue training as usual, it’s not going to just go away. It will get more aggravated and hurt even more. The best thing to do when we get one of those pains is to contact our physician and rest the area that is bothering us until we know what the problem is. Once we get a clean bill of health and the pain is gone, make sure to train smart and listen to our body.
I have seen hundreds of people think they know everything about working out and the first thing they want to do is attempt to lift more weight than anyone else and walk around looking at themselves in the mirrors with the smallest and tightest clothes they can find. There are people who think there is a quick fix that will help them get in shape in a few weeks. They start out by doing long grueling workouts a few times and then they are never seen again. Why? Because they lacked the knowledge about getting started the right way. They are incredibly sore and give up before they really got started. Everyone needs to gradually build their strength and stamina over time. If someone has not been working out and decides to start, the last thing they should do is try to lift too much weight or do cardio training for way too long.
A good example for comparison, is when someone tries to start their car when it’s freezing outside and they try to drive off. Our car needs to be warmed up before we just take off on those cold frigid days. If we start our car and try to take off, it will make all kinds of weird noises and most of the time just quit. Our bodies are very similar. They need time to warmup and they need to be taken care of so that they work better and longer for us.
If you feel that you are overtraining, sit down and take a good look at your workout program. How many sets and reps are you doing for your muscle groups? Are you training a muscle group to often? Make sure you’re not doing lots of sets on your smaller muscle groups. Many guys will be in the gym doing 20 sets on their biceps workout, even though the bicep is a muscle that is small compared to back or legs. You will see those same guys neglecting leg workouts or only doing a few sets. Many times, they will not even do squats or they do their squats as high as a sky scraper. Lots of people like to train the “show muscles” and neglect other muscle groups. Unfortunately, this will make them look like a cartoon character on the beach with legs like a sparrow and a big upper body.
So the bottom line is that anything in life we take part in needs to be in moderation. Listen to your body and always use good form. Don’t try to do a workout program that someone on tons of steroids is doing or someone who has been training 20 years when you just start out. Remember to train for your own individual needs with a training program setup for your age, health, goals and schedule. Start out with short workouts doing both cardio and resistance training. Gradually bring them up as your strength and stamina get better. Take a week off from training once every 4 months. What, a week off? Yes, by doing this you will give your body a break from the workouts letting your tendons, joints and muscles heal if they have any issues lurking you’re not aware of. It will also give you a hunger to get back to working out after a week of absolutely no workouts.
