What is overtraining?
A: Overtraining is a term that is used to express a situation when an imbalance occurs between training and recovery. The symptoms of overtraining can vary from one individual to another.
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
- Reduced appetite
- Dramatic weight loss or inability to lose weight
- Disturbed sleep patterns
- Increased depression, irritability, or anxiety
When you over train, you go into what is called anaerobic mode. Aerobic means “With Oxygen” and Anaerobic means “Without Oxygen”. If you are in anaerobic mode, your body is without oxygen and therefore your body is drawing energy from your muscles instead of fat stores. That is dangerous and sets you up for major problems. One way to know you are in anaerobic mode is if you are working out and you are not in your target heart rate, you are too high, you are out of breath and cannot talk. Your perceived exertion is high on the charts. At this point, you have stopped burning calories efficiently and your muscles are suffering.
What is your target heart rate?
Here is a great calculator that can help you figure it out http://exercise.about.com/cs/fitnesstools/l/bl_THR.htm
At the studio , there is a Target Heart Rate chart. Find your age and your exercise level and it will tell you what your target heart rate should be.
Resting is just as important as exercising in your weight loss efforts. It is vital you take time to rest your body and not work out every day of the week. Resting will HELP you with weight loss. I remember Billy Blanks telling me that I needed to get two rest days in a row if I want to get those last stubborn pounds off and he was right. Same with John, when he rested, he lost more weight.
How? Your muscles need to replace proteins and energy stores for muscles to make a full recovery from workouts. But if muscles are not given enough time to recover fully then the muscles progressively become smaller. What this could mean for weight loss is a gradual decline in lean tissue which will lower the metabolism over the course of a few weeks. We need lean muscle to burn more calories and to have our metabolisms working efficiently. A lowered metabolism will hold back weight loss because less calories are burned overall, meaning they must either lower calorie intake even further (not always recommended) or burn more energy through more exercise which will only exasperate the problem. This can be another cause for the common weight loss plateau who do exercise regularly.
Learning to become healthy is a process with a lot of things to learn and understand. The more knowledgeable you become, the easier it will be to stay in shape. So be smart and avoid overtraining and get those rest days scheduled in!
She is the mother of 4 children ages 18, 13, 10 and 6 and has a passion for helping others get in shape from the inside out. Krista is a walking testimony having lost over 100lbs and has successfully kept it off .
During her weight loss, she had a vision of creating Fit By Faith.
She believed she was to change the atmosphere of the gym and create a different environment for people to work out in. Krista is a former High School Theater Arts teacher and is currently attending college to obtain her B.A in Sports Medicine.
She holds certifications as Personal Trainer with the International Sports Science Association Tae Bo® fitness instructor (Certified by the creator Billy Blanks) Group Fitness Instructor for Adults, Children and Seniors SilverSneakers® Muscle Strength & Range of Motion for Seniors Black Belt 1st Dan in the art of Tae Bo Kwon.
She maintains her certifications annually through continuing education classes and training camps and requires all her instructors at Fit By Faith to do the same. She also competes in races and other competitions regularly.
Krista has appeared in 3 Tae Bo® infomercials on national TV Shape, Collage Video, Looking Good Now and Christian Living Magazines Several times in the Brownwood Bulletin Newspaper.
She has also been featured on several websites such as The Fitness Zone, The Biggest Loser, ivillage as well as the Billy Blanks Website. Krista has been a motivational speaker at many churches and radio stations.
Krista and her husband John, who is co-owner of Fit By Faith, both have hearts to help others to feel good, to be healthy and strive everyday to serve more people in this manner.
