Symptoms of overtraining

[addy14]

Hello Friends....
Overtraining, however, frequently involves one or more of the following common signs or symptoms:

• Impaired physical performance
• Reduced enthusiasm and desire for training
• Increased resting heart rate (i.e., your heart rate taken first thing in the morning before getting out of bed)
• Increased resting blood pressure
• Chronic muscle or joint soreness
• Increased incidence of musculoskeletal injuries
• Increased incidence of colds and infections
• Impaired recovery from exercise (e.g., heart rate remains elevated well after the completion of a bout of exercise)
• Increased perceived exertion during your normal workouts

Thanks

 

[cyclissimo]

Undertraining, frequently involves one or more of the following common signs or symptoms:

• Impaired physical performance
• Reduced enthusiasm and desire for hard training
• Increased resting heart rate (i.e., your heart rate taken first thing in the morning before getting out of bed)
• Increased resting blood pressure
• Chronic muscle or joint soreness when you do attempt to train hard
• Increased incidence of musculoskeletal injuries when training hard or racing
• Increased incidence of colds and infections following big days
• Impaired recovery from exercise (e.g., heart rate remains elevated well after the completion of a bout of exercise)
• Increased perceived exertion during your normal workouts

Thanks

 

[daveryanwyoming]

"If you overtrained, it means that you didn't train hard enough to handle that level of training,"

-Floyd Landis

 

[JohnMarks]

There are many factors which can result into overtraining.

• You should avoid performing the same routine activities during training sessions everyday.
• Avoid training when you are physically unfit or have any medical problems.
• You should not take part in frequent competitions as this can drain you both mentally as well as physically.
• One of the most important things that you need to take care while you are training is proper intake of liquids. Dehydration can result into overtraining.
• Lack of motivation, lung infections, increase heart rate while sleeping
• Reduce maximum heart rate, decrease in ability to concentrate, heavy feeling muscles

 

[tonyzackery]

There are many factors which can result into overtraining.

• You should avoid performing the same routine activities during training sessions everyday.
• Avoid training when you are physically unfit or have any medical problems.
• You should not take part in frequent competitions as this can drain you both mentally as well as physically.
• One of the most important things that you need to take care while you are training is proper intake of liquids. Dehydration can result into overtraining.
• Lack of motivation, lung infections, increase heart rate while sleeping
• Reduce maximum heart rate, decrease in ability to concentrate, heavy feeling muscles

• Yep, you should avoid that daily routine activity of riding your bike.
• Yep, the unfit should avoid training; begs the question though - how are you supposed to get 'fit' then?
• Yep, those "frequent" competitions will drain you alright - go tell that to pro and amatuer racers.
• Dehydration can result in overtraining? Since when? Continued hard training when overreached can result in overtraining.
• Never knew a lack of motivation increases your heartrate while sleeping. Who knew??
• Reduce maximum heartrate, inability to concentrate, heavy muscles - sounds like the way I feel after having a couple of choice beverages.

Thanks for the info, John. I'll have to check out your website for other profound tips as it appears you have a wealth of knowledge...

 

[JohnMarks]

Thanks for your reply Tony,
we just try to help each other . You can come and visit us at anytime
cheers

 

[JSWin]

This is a good list. I always thought if there was just pain that this meant you were overdoing it. I try to walk if pain is present. Get off the bike and just simply walk it off. No matter what I am dong as far as cardio this usually does the trick. I will often do this until the pain dissipates and then get back on the bike.

 

[Corzhens]

Even if I'm not a pro, I am aware of those training methods like the progressive resistance training. But then again, it is not for me because I have a metal brace in my right arm. Now maybe you understand why I tend to be a fence sitter when it comes to training and professional cycling. Anyway, an overtrained cyclist will have a slow reflex as if his limbs are too heavy. And if you want to feel it, try to swimm for 2 hours and the next day you would know that feeling.

 

[gavinfree]

Fatigue and poor performance are common evidence of overtraining. However, some people suffer far more severe side effects of pushing themselves too hard for too long. Sure, we all want to train for maximum performance, but far too many people take things past a safe limit, and that's never good.

 

[Keyan]

My body tells me if I am overdoing it. Normally it starts with colds then I lose the interest to move about. Followed by sore joints and muscled pains. Even before the situation progress I would have taken a complete bed rest to recover and before I know it I am back to life again.

 

[Vickeree]

The clinical way to measure if you are overtrained are chronic elevated levels of cortisol although sometimes the other extreme would happen which is abnormally chronic low levels of cortisol and this happens when you are already suffering from adrenal fatigue.

 

[swampy1970]

Most confuse the symptoms of lack of rest and/or sleep with symptoms of over training. More training requires more sleep but not getting enough shuteye isn't over training, it's just not getting enough sleep. There is a point where more rest/sleep isn't the answer but I'd wager than pretty much most cyclists that complain of over training aren't there. Six hours of kip a night don't cut it when you're smashing out hard training pretty much every day.

 

[Tuebec]

I think people get a little too up in arms about how someone should do their training. It's not really helping anyone to say someone's not training as much as they should, or too much, because that's objective to the person doing the training. We each have our own goals and limits, physically and mentally, and our own levels of interest in cycling. It's important to look out for overworking your body too soon, trying too hard of goals before your ready, and being aware of the physical consequences. Just boiling that down to "if you're getting burnt out it's because you're not trying enough" isn't really useful. So I don't think there's anything wrong with OP's list. Awareness of bodily limits and how to not train too much too fast is just as important as the opposite.

 

[swampy1970]

To a point, Tuebec, I agree with you but I don't think that most are aware of how much most people are capable of doing. Sure, you can go out for a few days and train hard and then the legs feel like lumps of lead but go for an hour ride and those lead legs will start feeling lively again. You could probably smash your legs for a few months and be in the same boat. Remove the subjective nature of "feeling" from training and rely on a power meter for the brutal truth. There are more than just a few days where the legs will feel like total s**t and you'll be hitting the required numbers. Unless you're in a specific phase of training that requires you to be hitting 'the big numbers' then overload and **** legs aren't necessarily a bad thing.

As much as I gave Tony Z a lot of **** back in the day, he was an NFL athlete and as such he paid his dues in the sport he loved. At cycling I think he was a bit misguided but each to his own. His comments above reflect my thoughts as an ex Cat 1 rider. Daveryan's quote from Floyd hits the nail on the head. If you want to go hard, you train hard. Damned hard.

At the end of the day, training means that you aspire to reach a higher goal and in order to reach that goal you need to push harder on the pedals. If all you want to do is ride then that's fine too, hit the road, smell the roses and enjoy life.

 

[oportosanto]

Out body is wise, so whenever we feel fatigue we know we are overtraining when the body is simply exhausted and no longer respond. Nothing like making a specific plan to avoid this situation.

 

[rcdpink]

Thanks for sharing all of that info. There are some of us who literally push ourselves pass our limits and end up paying the price in the long run. They always say that it is mind over matter and as such you can use your mind to ignore matter. But actually matter really matters, because as you outlined above, those symptoms can bring you to the grave and then you will not matter anymore.

 

[rcdpink]

Undertraining, frequently involves one or more of the following common signs or symptoms:

• Impaired physical performance
• Reduced enthusiasm and desire for hard training
• Increased resting heart rate (i.e., your heart rate taken first thing in the morning before getting out of bed)
• Increased resting blood pressure
• Chronic muscle or joint soreness when you do attempt to train hard
• Increased incidence of musculoskeletal injuries when training hard or racing
• Increased incidence of colds and infections following big days
• Impaired recovery from exercise (e.g., heart rate remains elevated well after the completion of a bout of exercise)
• Increased perceived exertion during your normal workouts

Thanks

That is very comical. You actually copied and pasted the guy's post, changing around one or 2 words in the sentences.... That smart.

 

[xeylonfm]

There is a thin line between exercise and self-induced injury and the better you understand this difference the better you can cycle. I always liken cycling to weight lifting even though they are poised to achieve totally different goals. For you to know that you are overdoing your cycling, then you would know from the effects which in this case would be directly related to injury, which is some kind of pain in the knees and muscles that just doesn’t seem to go away. In this case you will have crossed beyond the exercise into the self-injury territory which would now render the exercise unbeneficial. Just keep within your comfortable level. One more advice is that for a newbie cycler, please don’t get too ambitions and enthusiastic and cycle like crazy. You will most likely be injured in the process. Begin by short cycles and allow your body to adjust as you augment on the intensity. This is very important folks.

 

[pwarbi]

There's also a thin line between training just enough for what your goals are, and pushing yourself to much so that you'll never get to them goals in the first place.

Sometimes it's not always how much you do, but what you do that's the key, and if you've no experience in training it's easy to get the two confused.