An athlete in weight training or any sport is susceptible to overtraining. Such is the faultless enthusiasm and determination to reach ones goals, an athlete can find themselves suddenly deteriorating, so recognizing the symptoms of overtraining early can help to put you back on track before further regression occurs.
Overtraining tends to be a central nervous system issue more than anything, which begins effecting hormones and takes a toll on the entire body.
Early symptoms of overtraining may be…
- Struggling to make even small improvements
- Tiredness, mental fog and fatigue
- Lack of motivation
- Feelings of negativity/depression
- Weight/strength/speed loss
- Irritability and restlessness/anxiety
- Difficulty sleeping
- Susceptibility to illness due to compromised immune system
A person may overtrain in the following ways…
- Training too frequently
- Training with too much volume
- Training too intensely
- Doing too many other physical activities
- Not sleeping properly/enough
- Not eating properly/enough
If you feel you are beginning to experience some of the aforementioned symptoms of overtraining, use the above list to determine any ways in which you may be overtraining. It is likely in your enthusiasm you are overdoing it in a few areas, and maybe under-doing it in others, such as food and sleep.
L-glutamine is a supplement commonly used to fight against overtraining by keeping the immune system fuelled, so it doesn’t force it to drain the muscles of glutamine and impair protein synthesis.