Overtraining: How to Know When You Need a Day Off

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Consistent exercise is of utmost importance when attempting to maintain your physical health. High-level dedication is admirable and necessary to achieving your overall goals. However, your body can only take so much of the high stress levels that are directly associated with athletic training. Excessive exercise can lead to overreaching and eventually overtraining, which may result in a need for pain management Los Angeles to recover. In order to avoid overtraining, it is key to understand both what overtraining is and how to recognize its signs.

What is Overtraining?

With consecutive days of training and not enough rest, your muscles will be incredibly sore and you will likely feel physically exhausted. Fortunately, this level of strain, known as overreaching, is generally safe and can be healed by rest alone. On the other hand, if you choose to ignore the signs of overreaching and continue to push your body, you will see further degradation of performance and may begin to notice pain beyond muscle soreness. This is known as overtraining. In a study published in Sage Sports Health, it is explained that the body needs increasing loads to increase performance, but it needs those heave loads at interspersed intervals, not constantly. So, how do you know if you’re overtraining and need a break?

What are the Symptoms of Overtraining?

Symptoms of overtraining can be hard to pinpoint without the help of pain management Los Angeles specialists, mostly due to the fact that the symptoms are relative to the individual. However, symptoms tend to fall under one of three categories: training-related, lifestyle-related, and health-related.

Training-Related

Training-related symptoms are linked directly to your athletic performance. Whether it be running slower than normal, not being able to lift as heavily, or constant thoughts of skipping your workouts, all of these are signs that you may be pushing yourself too hard. This is also where you are most likely to experience physical pain as a symptom, and, as such, is where a pain management Los Angeles specialist can help you most.

Lifestyle-Related

These symptoms will be heavily dependent on how you feel emotionally rather than physically. Anything from increased tension and anger to less energy throughout the day can be indicative of overtraining. As your body dedicates more of itself to recovering from the workout, it’s common for your mental state to take a backseat resulting in more negative emotions than normal.

Health-Related

Health-related can differ depending on how your body reacts to stress and over-exertion. However, it’s not unusual for people suffering from overtraining to experience illness more frequently, an increased heart rate, a loss of appetite, and, for women, irregular menstrual cycles can occur. Again, due to the dedication of the body to healing the overworked muscles, your body suppresses many other functions, which can lead to serious long-term issues.

If you are experiencing any training, lifestyle, or health-related issues, you should immediately take some time off from the gym to recover and recoup. If they are prolonged symptoms, it’s vital to contact a pain management Los Angeles Specialist as soon as possible to create a plan for long-term recovery.

Pain Management Los Angeles | Interventional Pain Doctors

If you’ve been overtraining and are in need of a pain doctor Los Angeles, Interventional Pain Doctors is here for you. Dr. Nicholas Fuller, Dr. Chad Heng, Dr. Daniel Loder, and Dr. Jeffrey Jeng, members of the Interventional Pain Doctors team, are experienced, highly trained, and certified professionals that will help you bounce back from your long-standing pain. To get started with your pain management Beverly Hills, visit our website today.