Hey Everyone!!
It’s been a great start to the new year with many people declaring their fitness goals and taking things to the next level!! For most of you this doesn’t mean working out. (you already kick butt). It means training more often, lifting heavier, and pushing harder in metabolic conditioning. (cardio)
Let me ask a question?? Have you also increased your good food, sleep, hydration, stretching, rolling, Massage appointments, Chiro appointments, Physio appointments, and rest to match this increase in your output??? My guess is. NO.
While I remain very excited for you I would also like to caution you about overtraining and always keep this simple phrase in mind – “Work + Rest = Training”
Signs of Overtraining:
1) Decrease in performance. Despite hitting the gym more often / harder your performances go down.
2) Excessive Fatigue. Are you tired all the time? Struggling outside the gym?
3) Agitation and Moodiness. I don’t think I need to explain this. Ask your spouse. Ask for honesty.
4) Insomnia, Restless Sleep. Hard to fall asleep, waking frequently, getting up feeling tired.
5) Loss of Appetite. You should be eating more and hungry with increased output. Good Food!
6) Chronic, or nagging injuries. Also, soreness that will not go away.
7) Psychological Stress about your workouts. Being obsessed.
8) Frequent Illness. Colds, multiples, or one that will not go away!
Remember that these are. only signs and while they are each to be noted it isn’t a big deal necessarily if you see one of these in yourself. I’d just be concerned seeing multiple signs.
We all have the capability to do more, but, we have to take care of ourselves when we do so. I’ll site another quote, “There’s no such thing as overtraining, there is only under-recovering”. Listen to this and think about your current situation. This post is not meant to shake a finger at you for hitting the ground running in 2018! It’s to shed light on the things you need to do in order to keep running full steam ahead!
Next week we are going to start a Wellness Challenge to help you take a look at how you are doing. This challenge will be 4 weeks long and you will track your workouts, but, also, your food and recovery. There will be points attached and we will have some wicked prizes for the winners!!
The four weeks will be Monday Feb 5th th to Sunday March 4th. Great stuff to keep an eye on leading up the the CrossFit Games Open and maintaining during competition!!
Coach
Image from “Barbells and Beards”
