What To Do About Overtraining Syndrome

Overtraining syndrome is a phenomenon that is most often observed in athletes. Whether they are regular or occasional athletes, the accumulation of excessive training and too little and insufficient recovery time for your body can cause intense and generalized fatigue in your body. Discover in this blog post the manifestations of overtraining and what to do about overtraining syndrome.

What To Do About Overtraining Syndrome

Overtraining syndrome can be the result of an insufficiently balanced diet and repeated intensive training that can lead to injuries.

Thus, to effectively combat overtraining syndrome, and to match the intensity of your sports training with your recovery time, you must first master the concept of overtraining syndrome to better understand it and thus avoid it more easily.

Let’s discover together the manifestations of overtraining syndrome and the method to remedy it.

–What is overtraining syndrome

Overtraining syndrome occurs when your body becomes unable to manage the stability between intense fatigue after excessive training and your recovery time. When the rest period is less than that necessary to ensure recovery of your body, we can speak of overtraining syndrome.

This syndrome has become more widespread over time. Indeed, overtraining syndrome was previously only present within professional athletes with very intense sports activities due to preparation for competitions. It was therefore considered a dysfunction of the body that only affected a small group of people practicing a sporting activity.

With the democratization of sports practice and the increase in sports performance, this syndrome now also affects occasional athletes and is present in all sports disciplines in general.

–The causes of overtraining syndrome

The root cause of overtraining syndrome is an imbalance between excessive training and recovery time.

However, the mechanisms that trigger overtraining syndrome in athletes are also a combination of different factors:

• The uniformity of physical exercises during your training: Your body is too familiar with a routine that is not beneficial to it. Indeed, monotony in sports practice is a real obstacle to the athlete’s progress. This can have a very negative impact on your motivation;
• Excessive training exercises: Excessive very intense physical exercises during sports activity generally lead to excessive fatigue of the body. If you go beyond your capacities too regularly and too intensely, you brutalize your body and you directly risk a rapid deterioration of your health;
• Too sudden an increase in the intensity and duration of training: When the increase in intensity and time allocated to physical exercises performed by an athlete is not done gradually, this can lead to situations of stress and muscle injuries. Go gradually.
• Insufficient recovery time: If your recovery period does not allow you to get back in shape completely, this can lead to overtraining. Your body, despite an already advanced state of fatigue, will have to undergo new training sessions without having fully recovered. Take the time to breathe!
• An unsuitable diet: It is wise for an athlete to eat well when subjected to excessive training. If you do not respect and adapt a balanced diet to your sporting discipline, you put your health at risk;
• Poor treatment of a muscle injury: An athlete, for the well-being of his body, must take the time to properly treat a possible injury. A poorly treated or neglected injury can be the cause of many complications and a drastic drop in your performance;
• Weather conditions: They are sometimes the cause of overtraining syndrome in the sense that your body may not be familiar with sports practice during certain seasons of the year. So, avoid training too intensely in hot weather if your body is not ready for it.

–Symptoms of overtraining syndrome

The most visible manifestation of overtraining syndrome in athletes is undeniably a sudden drop in performance in assiciation with extreme fatigue. However, other symptoms can alert you to the arrival of this syndrome:

• Lower appetite: You no longer necessarily feel the need to eat. However, balanced nutrition is very important in athletes. This has a negative influence on your nutritional balance;
• General body fatigue: You feel a total exhaustion of your body and a surprising drop in your physical capacities;
• Rapid weight loss. As an athlete shows signs of intense fatigue, he may observe a more or less rapid weight loss.
• Sleep disorders: The more general fatigue intensifies, the more the athlete has difficulty falling asleep, nighttime awakenings or restless sleep that occur more regularly.
• Mood disorders: An athlete suffering from overtraining syndrome will tend to be subject to regular mood swings.
• Muscle pain: Cramps and tetany become more regular during sports practice or after physical exercise;
• Loss of motivation: Over time, discouragement can set in because intense fatigue takes over. During training, a drop in the level of concentration and a certain passivity in the face of the sequence of physical exercises can be showing;
• Deterioration of the general state of health: Overtraining can be the cause of a more fragile state of health. After intense fatigue, the health of the athlete can gradually deteriorate because the immune system weakens considerably;
• Loss of regularity of the menstrual cycle in women.

These symptoms can be an indication of the onset of overtraining syndrome. However, only a health professional will be able to establish a formal diagnosis. It is therefore strongly recommended to consult your doctor when these symptoms appear to confirm or not the presence of overtraining syndrome.

Some tips to avoid overtraining syndrome

To better prevent overtraining syndrome, athletes must first master the signals that can announce this syndrome. They should be attentive to the behavior of their body during training before a competition. Here are some precautions to take to prevent overtraining syndrome:

• Have control of your physical capacities. The athlete who controls and knows the limit of his capacities carries out better training sessions, because he knows how to dose the physical exercises, how to increase their difficulty and when to do it;
• Consult your sports doctor regularly. In order to prevent all risks related to overtraining syndrome, athletes encouraged by their coach must be followed by their general practitioner or a sports doctor. This allows you to know how to manage the intensities and durations of your training;
• Manage recovery times effectively: For recovery to be complete after excessive training, you must match the duration of recovery;
• Finding balance in your diet: As an athlete, nutrition is even more important than usual. Hydration is also particularly important and you should never neglect it. Thus to provide all the nutrients to your body and thus give it the “fuel” necessary to achieve your goals. It is therefore important to drink enough water or to opt for an isotonic drink that will provide you with hydration and essential nutrients.

As you will have understood, avoiding overtraining syndrome requires maintaining a delicate balance between training, recovery and nutrition in order to maintain your performance level at its optimal level without risking degrading your health.

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I hope you enjoyed this little guide on what to do about overtraining syndrome and found it useful. Comment down below what you think of this syndrome. Do you find yourself overtraining sometimes? Or share with us your best tips to avoid this phenomenon!

Looking forward to reading your comments, sending you love and positive energy!!!