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Are you over-training?

Exercise can be fun, but don't overdo it

Enthusiasm can often lead you to overdo things in a gym. The symptoms of over-training are often ignored. After all, if you've been busting your chops in the gym, the more you train the better you are supposed to feel. And if you feel weak, you attribute it to an inadequate diet or a wrong technique.

But over-training is a common problem. Some athletes know they are over-training when they've `hit the wall' during a workout. But symptoms can be subtler. If your regular workout feels more difficult than usual, if fatigue sets in early, if you achieve your target heart rate with less effort than usual, if you feel less coordinated in your actions, and if you've demonstrated decreased strength, endurance or speed during a physical test, you just might be over-training.

Over-training occurs when the body does not recuperate in between workouts. The commonest cause is inadequate rest, followed by being stressed out in between sessions.

The body needs a calm mind to help it recover, and edgy folks have edgy muscles and ligaments. Insomnia, irritation or anger, depression, and an easily stressed temperament are enemies of muscles and ligaments and not just of the mind.

Over-trained muscles feel sore after every workout and long after, they ache for no apparent reason; they also get injured easily. Such injuries are frequently serious requiring long periods of recuperation (a ruptured biceps tendon or Achilles tendon), or they may manifest themselves as persistent niggles that refuse to heal. Loss of appetite is common and an inadequate diet exacerbates the syndrome. The body is prey to frequent colds and illnesses.

The treatment for over-training is rest. Long periods of it. Followed by a gradual return to exercise. The longer you've been over-training, the longer the period of recuperation. If you are serious about your time in your gym or your athletic career, have a trained sports physiologist analyse your workout schedule. Otherwise, follow the rule of moderation and you will do fine.

RAJIV M.

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