Do you sleep, dream, eat, drink, walk, talk exercise? Do your discussions start and end with how much and what exercise you did today, yesterday, the day before, the day before that, and so on? Are you obsessed with a certain type of body, which may or may not seem attainable? Then you may belong to a certain breed of individuals who are obsessed with exercise.
Needless to say, that teenagers and adults between the age of 20-35 years form a major chunk of this breed. The Oxford Dictionary of Sports Science and Medicine defines it as “a combination of signs and symptoms of overtraining which typically causes the sufferer to feel mentally fatigued in absence of physical fatigue and causes deterioration of performance.”
No doubt exercising must be an integral part of your daily routine, but becoming obsessed with it, can have its own dangerous consequences. Just like you need breaks at work, your body needs rest, in order to maintain good health. Exercising places a positive stress on your body, and the body trains itself to adapt to it by making the body stronger, thus improving health. However, for this adaptation to take place, the body needs rest. When the body is over-stressed, repeated stresses are placed before any adaptation can take place, which confuses the body.
For example, consider the case of men lifting heavy weights for the same body part everyday, with an aim to look like Hrithik or Salman quickly, and find that they have hardly gained any muscle over the previous months. Please remember, that our body muscles need anything from 24-48 hours of rest. Moreover, the growth hormones are secreted while we are sleeping, which is why there is need for enough sleep (six-eight hours) daily.
The classic symptoms of overtraining are:
Depression, mood swings, difficulty in concentration.
Chronic, persistent fatigue.
Increase in the resting heart rate. Dehydration.
No health gain.
Increased/decreased appetite.
Low bodily immunity and increased susceptibility to infections.
Overuse and increased risk of joint injuries.
Muscle and joint pains.
Factors like depression and fatigue also lead to over-eating, in many cases which may actually lead to increase in weight, thus causing further depression in people trying to lose weight by exercising heavily, everyday.
The only way to get out of this trap is to decrease the frequency of exercising or take a complete break and rest for a few weeks or change the activity to a less intense one.This might mean hitting the gym every alternate day instead of everyday, altering the workout schedule, trying out other modes. Apart from the general population, sportspersons and athletes who over-train are more prone to ‘overuse’ injuries like Tennis elbow (Lateral epicondylitis), Swimmer’s shoulder (Rotator cuff tendinitis and impingement), Runner’s knee, jumper’s knee (Patellar tendinitis), Shin splints etc.
In fact, the main problem for a coach is to know just how much to ask of an athlete without pushing him or her into a state of failing adaptation or overtraining. Don’t just decide your workout schedule for yourself. Get a professional opinion, or better still, get it designed by an expert. Too much of anything is bad. Use common sense while applying the, ‘No pain no gain’ formula. A slight discomfort is what you should be aiming for, not self torture. Listen to your body. Enjoy training!
Sindhu Ramachandran is an engineer but with a passion for people and learning, found her calling in the domains of human behaviour and connection. What followed is an eight-year research into ‘Intentions of Human Behaviour’ which has now morphed into a project called “Simplifying Life!” Deeply spiritual in her outlook, she is an avid reader, an amateur documentary-film maker and very interested in mystical sciences, besides dabbling in writing when inspired by the environment around her!