Are Your Workouts Hurting Your Body?

The “no pain, no gain” mentality of working out sounds great in the movies. In reality, the mantra you should live by is “train smarter, not harder.” That way, you avoid pain for exercise altogether.

When you’re training smart, you enjoy all the benefits of living an active and healthy lifestyle. You feel great, look great, see incremental gains in your workout routines, and look forward to stepping foot in the gym.

Pain From Exercise

However, if you’re working out too hard, doing something wrong, and not listening to your body, you’ll feel the complete opposite. And that’s never fun.

Below are some of the most obvious signs that your workouts are hurting your body and not helping you craft the physique you want.

You Keep Getting Sick

If you’re working out smart and living a healthy lifestyle you should get sick less often, not more often. If you’re getting sick on a regular basis, it’s likely you’re over-training and hurting your immune system.

When you overtrain, you put your body through more physical activity than it can reasonably recover from. Not only will you see diminished physical performance, but studies have also shown that overtraining suppresses your immune system.

Your immune system is your last line of defense against infections and toxins. Start training smarter, not harder, to give your body the best chance of fighting off illness.

You’re Always Tired

Excessive tiredness is also a sign that you’re over-training. Apart from muscle soreness and the odd ache and pain, you should feel energized after a workout. You should have a spring in your step, not feel sluggish and tired.

Tiredness or fatigue is a sign that your workouts are hurting your body. You need to find out why this is happening before carrying on with your workout routine. It may also be that you’re dehydrated, not resting enough, or not eating enough calories.

You Feel Dizzy During or After Working Out

If you experience dizziness during or after a workout, it’s likely down to one or more of these four things:

● You do not control your breathing while exercising.

● You’re pushing yourself too hard.

● You’re dehydrated.

● You have low blood sugar.

You don’t have to look far online to see videos of people getting dizzy and even passing out after doing a deadlift. This is because they hold their breath too long while exerting all their energy lifting a heavy weight. In doing so, they don’t supply enough oxygenated blood to their brains.

Endurance athletes like runners often get dizzy because they’re dehydrated. It’s easy to forget to replace all the fluid you lose through sweating, but hydration is crucial. Start investigating the four points above if you get dizzy from working out.

You Feel Depressed or Down a Lot

Working out is proven to improve mental health. Physical activity reduces depression and anxiety. It’s often prescribed as a way to lift a person’s mood and help them feel better about themselves. If you work out often and still feel depressed, anxious, or just down, it’s a sign that something is wrong with your workout routine.

Studies have shown that overtraining is connected to depression and even suicidal thoughts. This is because excessive training causes adrenal dysfunction, which results in increased levels of cortisol, a stress hormone.

You’re in Pain

There’s a huge difference between sore or achy muscles and lasting pain. Muscle soreness, or delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), is totally normal. It’s a sign that your muscles are recovering from a hard workout.

You should not be in pain during or after an exercise session. If you feel pain while working out, you should stop immediately. Working out through the pain is only going to worsen whatever injury you have.

Your Muscles Ache for Days

As mentioned above, some muscle aches and soreness are normal. But DOMS should only feel like a dull soreness. It should surface between 24-48 hours after working out and diminish within 3-4 days.

If your muscles are aching for days after working out – or even getting worse each day – this is not the “good” type of aching that indicates recovery. It may be a sign you’re overtraining or you’re not getting enough rest and good nutrition.

Your approach must change or you could end up getting seriously injured. Not to mention, the aching isn’t going to get better on its own. Learn more about getting the proper workouts and rest to prevent injury and promote wellness.