Diagnose & Cure Signs of Overtraining Muscles in Bodybuilding

OVERTRAINING CHECKLIST

Stagnant exercise poundages
To build bigger muscles, you have to follow a curve of using heavier poundages with consistently good form. Lifting the same poundages for month after month will not make your muscles grow.

Fatigue
If you constantly feel tired in the days following a workout and still feel wiped out by the time of your next workout even with extra sleep, then you are almost certainly overtraining.

Reduction in training enthusiasm
If you do not look forward to your training as much as usual and have trouble completing a full workout, then overtraining could be the cause.

Sleeping difficulties
This could include having trouble getting to sleep, even though you are very tired, and/or having trouble getting back to sleep when wakened during the night.

General sickness
Feeling under the weather much of the time and getting frequent colds can be signs of overtraining.

Diminished endurance
Aerobic work that used to be perceived as manageable may start to feel quite demanding.

Diminished discipline
This manifests itself through an inclination to cut corners in your training and dietary habits.

Diminished appetite

Reduced level of concentration during each set.

Anxiety
Being overly anxious and worried about your training, both in and out of the gym, are signs of overtraining.

OUTSIDE FACTORS

While a propensity to attempt too many workouts, exercises or sets can be a major factor in landing in the overtraining zone (and some people train too hard by abusing forced reps, drop sets and other upping-the-intensity techniques), other outside-the-gym factors must be considered.

Stress occurs in all aspects of life. In some cases, the manifestation of overtraining symptoms is due not to what you are doing in the gym but to what is occurring in your life. Situations that crank up the stress level include going through a divorce or a major relationship problem, dealing with serious financial difficulties, moving, unemployment, working two jobs, changing jobs, caring for a sick child, shortchanging yourself of sleep and skipping meals. Any of these factors can be hugely stressful and can have a serious impact on what was previously a productive training schedule.

If you find your recovery machinery going out of whack due to stress factors, you need to fine-tune your training regimen. Always modify your training in relation to how your life is progressing outside the gym. This is one reason why the training program of a bodybuilding superstar can be useless or even harmful to you. Such a competitor, besides being blessed with extraordinary genetics (which includes above-average ability to recover between workouts), is usually able to train free of the everyday worries that afflict most of us. His job is training, ours isn't.

If you are burning the candle at both ends in your personal life, then you must do something to remedy the situation. Cutting back in the gym or merely tinkering with out-of-the-gym factors is not enough. You need to address and solve the personal or domestic problems that are affecting your training.