With spring finally here, you’re only a hop, skip and a jump away from summer. This can make you want to ramp up your fitness training, in order to get beach body-ready, what if you’re putting your wellbeing at risk? How can you tell if your exercise regime is doing more harm than good to your wellness?
Exercising for up to 90 minutes several days a week is usually a good thing for most healthy people, but you are an individual and you need to take into account your fitness level and how your body responds. Overzealous training can actually weaken your immune system and increase your risk of injury and illness, so when you see the following signs, it’s time to ease off the exercise.
Firstly, are you feeling exhausted, rather than energized? You know you’ve gone overboard when you leave the gym ready for a nap. Are you also tucked up in bed because you’re feeling under the weather? If you get ill a lot, this could be a sign that you’re overtraining. When you exercise too much, your immune system becomes suppressed, and this makes it harder to fight off cold viruses.
However, when you are laid out on the sofa, it’s a good time to check your pulse. If your resting heart rate is higher than usual, this is a sign that you need to give your body a rest. Even if you have a mere 10% increase in your resting heart rate, it can signal that your body needs time to recover. Do your legs feel heavy? If a lead feeling in your legs has taken the spring out of your step, they may need a rest. During the recovery time, try stretching, self massage with an arnica anti-inflammatory oil, and warming the muscles with heated pads.
Finally, are you sore all the time? It’s usual, and even a good thing to experience muscle soreness after exercise – how else are you going to know you’ve worked your muscles? However, if you stay sore for more than 48 hours after a workout, you’ve overdone it. You need to ease into exercise, and spend weeks – not days – slowly adding distance or intensity to your workout.