Posted on December 10, 2015 by Jenny Cromack
Have you ever had periods where you just feel physically and mentally “drained”?
Everything seems to be so much harder, your motivation takes a plummet, you just feel weak and often pick up the little illnesses that usually we would fight off. This could have been a period of your life where you had started to “burnout” possibly through overtraining (or working too much).
Overtraining
Yes it is possible to overtrain! More is not always the best option. You should focus on setting up a well designed routine that allows variation, staged progression, and very importantly sufficient recovery time. Maybe you do train different muscles groups every time you are in the gym, that is fine, but remember that your body as whole is still working in these sessions so even though your chest may be getting a rest on back day it doesn’t necessarily mean your mind, heart, and lungs are too. Too much of anything is not great for us, training is the same so do allow sufficient rest time and be aware that there is a time where the body will tell you no and put up it’s own resistance – this is burnout!
It is very important to allow ourselves time to recover, let the body recuperate, and give it the time it needs to adapt to our stresses. Christmas is upon us and may be the perfect time to step back a little from work, allow a deload in our training and rethink our training goals for the new year ahead.
Burnout Signs
Burnout is described as a syndrome that is often related to overtraining. It is common in elite or high level athletes however it is also common in the workplace or with regular exercisers. It has been linked to high levels and frequent physiological and emotional stress, fatigues, immune system dysfunction, or insufficient recovery time. Therefore, if you are a person who will train relentlessly 6 or 7 days a week, physically hammer your body then go do your day job and pile a load of emotional and mental stress on top of that you may be at risk of experiencing burnout.
Physical Signs:
There are several physical changes that may be experienced when burnout occurs.
- Decreased Performance (Sport, Exercise, or Work)
- Chronic Muscle and/or Joint Pain
- Increased Resting Heart Rate
- Increased Occurrence of Injury, Illness, or Infection
- Weight Loss
Psychological Signs:
A few psychological changes may also occur.
- Increased Anxiety
- Mood Changes
- Lack of Motivation, Ambition, and Enthusiasm
- Increased Irritability
Combination:
Some of the signs may be an element of both physical and psychological.
- Physical and Mental Fatigue
- Sleeplessness or Disrupted Sleep Pattern
- Decreased or Disrupted Appetite
How Can I Prevent Burnout?
Top Tips:
Variety in anything we do is very good for us and stops us becoming stale and dependent upon specific things. Training and life is just the same so here are a few of my top tips for minimising the risk of burnout.
- Periodise Your Training – structure your training year into phases that all aim to achieve an ultimate long term fitness or life goal. Use phases with different health and fitness aims to vary the techniques and stresses the body is put under.
- Vary Training Methods – within your training plans and phases vary the methods you use. By altering the methods, i.e., weights for strength, power, or endurance, or cardio intervals or continuous bouts, it will vary the stresses on the body and minimise an overload of specific types of stress.
- Avoid Unnecessary Rapid Load Increases – make sure your load and intensity progressions are realistic and not too drastic. By rapidly bumping up the load means the stress the body has to cope with is massively increased too and an accumulation of this could lead to burnout.
- Allow Rest Days – rest days are not bad for our progression. We do the majority of our adapting in our recovery periods. So if we remove these periods of recovery when will we adapt and improve? Allow at least 24 hours, ideally 48 hours in the week where you give your mind and body time to rest.
- Listen To Your Body – your body will try and tell to slow down a bit or ease off. When you start to feel a decline in enthusiasm, performance, or start to feel weakness creeping in take a step back, recover, and re-think.
Summing It Up
Burnout can creep up on us and take huge toll on our health, lifestyle, and performance. It saps the body and mind of everything and is a very unpleasant place to be at. So take some of these tips on bored and remember that more is not always best.