Are you over-exercising?

How to spot the signs that you're pushing yourself too far
By Vern Pitt

Fighting fatigue
It might sound obvious, but tiredness is the first warning sign your body gives when it needs to stop. Most people complain of being tired after a weights session, but true fatigue is a little harder to diagnose. Fitness expert Neil McTeggert explains, "an increase of 10 per cent or more in your resting heart rate (taken every morning) can indicate that the body has not fully recovered and therefore needs more rest."

Mind games
As your body comes under more stress it can affect your most precious organ - your brain. Military Fitness Instructor Stuart Amory explains, "when I see clients, their training diaries are enthusiastic, but they feel really depressed." This is because overtraining depletes your glycogen stores - which are needed to keep your brain functioning. Once the stores are used up, it becomes increasingly difficult for the brain to accommodate demands, leaving you feeling anxious and sometimes depressed.

Weaker by the week
"Keeping a training diary and recording each workout lets you see progression. A lack of progression could signal overtraining," says Mcteggart. "It's easy to think that the solution to not seeing results is to increase your exercise routine - when in fact you need to do less." This is because in order for a muscle to grow it firstly has to recover. If you overtrain your body it can't return to the level it was at before exercising.

Tied to the bed
While your partner suggesting this might sound appealing, being resigned to a day under the duvet from infection certainly isn't. Persistent colds or the flu are an alarm bell to overtraining. "When you overtrain the demands you're putting on your body outweighs your resources," explains performance coach James King. "It can take a toll on your immune system and your capacity to respond decreases."

Get it sorted
"Prevention is better than cure," states McTeggart. "Always consider quality over quantity." If you are overtraining, the only cure is to rest or reduce. You might think its mad to reduce your fitness programme but this is one time when a little madness could do you a lot of good.