10 Workout Warning Signs to Watch For

So you’re working out regularly.  It’s going well, you’ve been seeing results.  But lately you aren’t seeing the same improvement you were at the beginning.

So you ramp it up.

You work out an extra day, maybe even every day.  Or you add an extra five/fifteen/fifty minutes to your cardio or circuit.  Or more intensity. Or more weight. Or, dog forbid, all three.

But instead of seeing the desired results you’re feeling…tired.  In fact, you feel like you are having to work harder just to maintain what you worked so hard to achieve.  You’re feeling grumpy about the lack of improvement and you become disillusioned about your routine. Why is this so hard?

Does this sound familiar? I hope not, but if it does take a look at this list of ten warning signs below. Have any of these cropped up since you’ve increased your training intensity or workout length? They may be a signal that you need to give your body a break.

1. Increased resting heart rate
2. Persistent muscle soreness
3. Difficulty sleeping
4. Irritability
5. Loss of motivation
6. Depression
7. Decreased appetite
8. Sudden weight loss
9. Increased incidence of injury
10. Increased susceptibility to infections

If you experience any of these symptoms, and especially if you are experiencing more than one, you should make an appointment with your doctor and get a physical exam to ensure you don’t have an underlying medical issue.

But if you aren’t sick, these symptoms can be a signal that you are over-training.

The trick is figuring out whether or not this is the case. One great tool to figure out how your body is feeling is to monitor your resting heart rate. Checking your resting heart rate is simple and it can be a very reliable indicator of how your body is reacting to the stress of working out.

The catch, though, is that you need to check your resting heart rate regularly *before* experiencing any negative symptoms.

Why?

Because you need to determine your normal resting heart rate as a baseline so you can then tell when it is elevated – which is the signal that your body may be under too much stress. Make sense?

Here’s what you do:

When you wake up in the morning, before you sit up or get out of bed, check your heart rate. Placeyour fingers on your neck, find your pulse (yes, of course you have one…) and count the beats per minute, or, if you are in a rush you (yes you – Miss type A, you) can take a count for 20 seconds and then multiply it by three.  Take note of it!

Get in the habit of doing this before you get out of bed each morning, or at least a few times per week. It only takes one minute – or less – of your time but most of us are too lazy to do it consistently when our bodies are feeling fine.

But the benefit of getting into the habit of checking your heart rate when you first wake up is that when your resting heart rate is elevated, you know right away that something is going on with your body.  It may be overtraining or it may be illness coming on. Either way, isn’t it good to know?

Next week we’ll look at ways to work out smarter, not harder.

Hit me up if you have any questions in the meantime.