Tips to Avoid Over-Training

What is Over-training?
          Over-training is what happens when an athlete or individual progresses exercise too much, too quickly. This can lead to injuries, general fatigue, severe muscle soreness, among many other symptoms. 
    In order to improve your skills and fitness level, it is necessary to push yourself to see results. However, if you push yourself too hard, it can result in injuries that may limit your overall progress toward your goals.

Here are some tips to help avoid over-training:

1. Ease into it. If you are new to the sport or the exercise, or are coming back from a period of time off, get into it slowly. Don’t expect to immediately be back at the level you were before a break. Skills take time to develop or re-develop. Aim for consistency, not overnight success.
2. Pay attention to your body. If you are feeling more tired than usual, having sleep disturbances, or  a decreased appetite, these are all signs of over-training. This may mean that it is time to lessen your activity or take a rest break.
3. Don’t increase difficulty too quickly. Exercise and skill progression should be built up gradually. If you’ve been away from the sport for a while, going back into full out training right away puts you at risk for injury.
4. Take breaks. This can be within practice, but also between practice days. You may want to be in the gym for hours and hours every day to get that new skill, but this places you at an increased risk for over-training and injury.
5. Get sleep. Getting a full night’s sleep regularly has been shown to help your body rebuild and repair itself and is important to help avoid injury.
6. Eat well. Proper nutrition is also vital for your success. If you are restricting your calories or not eating enough food with strong nutritional value (i.e. junk food), this doesn’t give your body the energy it needs to get through a practice or workout properly. Not having the energy your body needs also increases your risk for injury.

How Can a Physical Therapist Help?

• Check your flexibility, strength, and endurance of muscles to make sure that this is adequate for the level of activity you are participating in.
• Provide exercises and stretches for you to do to correct any imbalances in muscle structure.
• Ensure that symptoms are truly due to over-training and not something else.
• Correct bio-mechanical or training errors such as technique and posture to avoid placing unnecessary stress on your body.