Are You Training Too Hard?
YOUR BODY DOESN’T NEED HARD
That’s your ego talking.
When it comes to your exercise and training routine, harder doesn’t necessarily mean better.
In fact, I would argue, that when you are CONSISTENTLY working out and training, your “HARD” workouts should actually be few and far between. Most of your sessions should be of a moderate intensity, duration and toughness.
Your body actually prefers NOT to be murdered, believe it or not.
Why Harder Isn’t Better
There is something truly addicting about exercise. The sweat and breathlessness during training, and the euphoria and exercise high after are intense and leave you wanting more and more. However is more and more intensity the answer?
Well, it depends, but generally speaking the answer is no. More often than not what your body needs is consistent movement with a decent stimulus to create subtle adaptation and change. “Murder sessions” as I call them, are such a stressor that your body is left for days to clean up the metabolic mess from that single bout of exercise. Chronically participating in murder sessions with no intention or focus on recovery is doing a disservice to you reaching your goals.
Repercussions from training TOO hard TOO frequently lead to injury, prolonged soreness, an inability for your body to fully recover. More negative impacts from overtraining may include weight gain (despite “doing it all right”), mood changes, injury, poor sleep and decrease in performance.
HOW TO KNOW HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH
As tempting as it may be to strive for that massive calorie burn by exercising with an insane intensity and an insane duration of time, I urge you to consider the PURPOSE behind it. Is it for shits and giggles? For your desire to “burn calories to lose weight”? Or is there logical rationale?
Aim for 80-90% of your workouts to be that Goldilocks intensity, mostly doable with a few minutes of that super intense heart rate elevation. This is just enough to ensure the body must adapt to that stimulus, but not so much so that it will create lasting negative effects.
If strength training, this means 2 out of every 10 training sessions might be brutal. If you’re doing an OTF workout, this means you’re prioritizing AT LEAST 2-3 days of recovery. I love Orangetheory because the template design team periodizes intensity (meaning, not all workouts are going to “murder you”, but there are a few spicy ones that intentionally challenge you more).
PRIORITIZE MOVEMENT OUTSIDE OF “EXERCISE”.
Holy hell, THIS people, THIS is what yields weight loss and sustains weight maintenance. Make intentional daily movement (leisure walks, light stretching, playing outside with your kids or friends) the priority.
And for the love of all things, please include rest days into your week. It doesn’t mean DO NOTHING, but it also means don’t do the SAME THING. Your body is a machine, but all machines need maintenance. You can’t expect it to keep running if you continue to take, take, take and never give back.
If you found this helpful, please let me know! Tag, share and keep on getting better people. Happy Friday!