3 Ways to Avoid Overtraining

 Overtraining can do serious damage to your body. For starters, you are putting yourself at a greater risk of injury. By working the same muscle groups over and over again without allowing your body to rest, you can cause muscle tears, pulls or even worse. Here are three ways to avoid overtraining:

1. Get the Proper Amount of Rest

In general, for every two consecutive days that you work out, you should allow your body a day to rest and recover. When you work out, there are a number of muscles in your body that must strain and struggle. This can result in soreness when you first start working out. However, as you work out more frequently, you may not feel this soreness. As a result, you may not think that you need to continue resting. But in order to prevent overtraining, try and rest your body at least several times every week.

2. Take a Prolonged Break from Workouts

If you continue to push your body day after day and week after week, you may notice that it has more trouble recovering when you just take a day or two off. As a result, your body is never fully ready for your next workout. Instead of pushing yourself too hard, you can prevent overtraining by setting aside a string of days to allow your body to fully recover. About eight to ten days of rest and recovery should do wonders when it comes to preventing overtraining.

3. Switch Up Your Workouts

Many times, you may fall into a rut when it comes to working out. You may hit the gym everyday and do the same five to ten exercises because it's more convenient then trying something different. But if you continue to do the same workouts all the time, you're not going to get the best workout possible. In order to prevent overtraining, try to incorporate different workouts into your routine. For example, if you run everyday and you've noticed that your legs are constantly sore, try swimming, biking or another activity that doesn't put so much stress on your legs. If you lift weights everyday, try resistance training or a kickboxing class. This should not replace rest, but it is a good way to keep your workouts fresh.

Working out can be great for your body. But like just about anything else, too much can actually be a bad thing. You can prevent overtraining by keeping the tips above in mind when you workout. It can prevent you from working your body too hard and help you stay in great shape.