Various epic stories of some of your favorite athletes, which involve going ham from dawn till dusk, never fail to get your blood to a boiling level. It is possible you develop an urge to triple your cardio routine on a daily basis or even spend an hour extra pumping iron, the real fact is this, the most devoted of the athletes require adequate rest to match their strenuous efforts. They may exert themselves like champions, just to prove a point, most of the times the strongest succumb to overtraining syndrome if their routine does not give them sufficient recovery periods.
What Is Overtraining Syndrome?
Overtraining syndrome, also called OTS, can occur in your body when the accumulated level of stress on your body is greater than the amount of recovery you have allowed. You start feeling it after weeks or months of excessive training without adequate rest. Under performance and plateaus become the norm when OTS sets in and at this point, the typical rest day just won’t cut it anymore, something more than that is needed.
Symptoms to Watch Out For
People suffering from OTS do not only exhibit physical symptoms, they do show emotional as well as behavioral symptoms. How do you know all these, below are the main indicators:
Chronic Fatigue: The energy is not just there. All the times, you struggle through your routine and you feel too tired to push it hard like before. And if decide to have a two-day rest, it will prove ineffective.
Emotional Instability: OTS does this by lowering testosterone and raising cortisol levels thereby creating hormonal imbalance. This results in mood swings which can lead to depression.
Constantly Feeling Sick: Decrease in the glutamine as a results of OTS lowers your immune system response, this makes you to be susceptible to various infections.
Ridding Yourself of OTS
Once diagnosed with OTS, do not delay, start resting immediately. And the longer you delay treatment, the longer you will need to rest. You may need one week of rest, or even 3 to 6 months, depending on the severity of your case. Consult a medical expert for an estimate.
If yours is with shorter period of rest like 1 to 2 weeks, do everything possible to refrain yourself from any physical activity but continue to practice myofascial release and maintaining flexibility. A good diet high in protein and healthy fats are what you need to rebuild the damaged muscles and restore balance to your hormones.
But if you need lengthier rest periods like over one month, follow the advice given above and consider light cross-training after the initial fatigue begins to disappear. You can try yoga or even swimming before returning to more tedious tasks like marathon running. Always remember that the goal is to remain active enough to avoid athletic hypertrophy without exacerbating your symptoms.
How to Prevent OTS
To be sincere, it is more preferable and makes a lot of sense to prevent OTS from occurring in the first place. To prevent overtraining, you need to treat the recovery process seriously as the training itself. Below are few considerations to start off this process on the right note:
Getting enough Sleep: Sleeping too little hinders the recovery of damaged muscles after exercise. A solid 8 to 10 hours of sleep a night is essential for maintaining high energy in dedicated athletes.
Myofascial Release: Getting deep tissue massages after a workout will significantly decrease your fatigue and soreness as well as clean out lactic acids in your system.
Calories, Carbs, And Protein: Here, your total energy and carbohydrate intake really need to match the stress you put on your body. Likewise, 1.2 to 1.4 grams of protein/kilogram daily is recommended for dedicated athletes.
Always Listen to Your Body: You need to evaluate and plan accordingly. Reduce your training if need be. It is not worth pushing your limits when exhausted or when emotionally drained. Learn to take it easy so as to come back fresh the next day.
Finally, if your muscles are still sore and you are still tired after the 72 hour mark, move on with caution and look for the symptoms above. OTS is best nipped in the bud but if left untreated, it can result in other complications in your body system – the seasoned athletes know how to go about this very well. As athletes, we crave the rush of endorphines if we must perform at our best, but managing athletic injuries and illnesses requires long-term planning, not short-term rewards. So I advise you treat your body with respect, always stay alert to the symptoms of OTS, and I am sure you will have a lengthy athletic career.