Top 5 Signs You’re Working Out too Much

Exercise has plenty of health benefits including lower blood pressure, increased muscle mass and higher bone density. If some exercise is good, a lot of exercise must be even better, right? Wrong. While some exercise is good, too much physical activity can lead to weakness, injuries and excessive soreness.

1. Getting Weaker. When you exercise moderately, your immune system can actually get stronger. When you over do it, your immune system does the opposite and you’ll start getting sick. Catching a cold more often than you normally do can mean that you are working out too much. If you get sick, rest until are completely healthy and start back up at a slower pace.

2. Exercise Plateau. If you’re having a hard time making any new gains, you may have reached a plateau which can be caused by exercising too much. As you workout, muscles begin to breakdown. While you rest, those same muscles get repaired and the result is that you get stronger. If you keep hammering away at them,they’ll never get stronger and you’ll be stuck lifting the same weight or running the mile in the same time.

3. Feel Tired. If you exercise too hard, you may start to feel tired, weak and lethargic. You won’t feel like going to the gym but for some reason, you’ll force yourself to go regardless. Being tired and not wanting to exercise can sometimes be a sign that your body is telling you to stop and rest.

4. Excessive Muscle Soreness. After you workout, a little muscle soreness is fine. If it crosses into a more severe form of soreness in which you can barely move without hurting, you need to slow down a bit.

5. Joint Pain. Joint pain is also a sign that you have been overexerting yourself. When you workout too hard, you can do some serious damage to joints. Just like muscles, joints need time to adjust to the workload you throw at them.

The Bottom Line

Exercise is not infinitely beneficial. Moderate exercise will yield many positive health benefits while excessive exercise will do the opposite. The saying, “too much of a good thing” applies perfectly to physical activity.