Do you train every day because you strongly want to lose those ten pounds of excess weight and that’s your only goal? You forget the welfare of your body – it needs a rest from the demanding physical activity.

Fitness instructors recommend a break of 48 hours between workouts to make the muscles enough rest and to exercise optimally on the next training session.

Of course, professional athletes can not afford such breaks, and they usually hit burnout syndrome.

When stress does not help

Initially, this condition leaves no serious consequences on the body of trainees, but later they may be more pronounced and lead to complete exhaustion. Please note that daily stressful situations only worsen the situation. All these factors have an impact on the body, problems accumulate, and one day come out on the surface in the form of the disease.

Usually we believe that psychological factors cause stress (tension, worry about money, job loss, dissatisfaction with marriage, personal achievement, etc.), but physical factors are present in everyone’s life. They may be problems with overweight, insomnia, injuries, menstrual cycle, pregnancy, pain, etc.

Listen to your body and do not work against it.When the body fails to provide sufficient time for recovery after exercise, fatigue accumulates and symptoms of burnout will come to the surface. It depends from person to person whether it be after ten days or several weeks. Once you are in such a serious situation, the real recovery will occur after several weeks.

Symptoms of burnout

Symptoms of burnout are different for each person and depend on the functions of the autonomic nervous system, hormones, immunity and other physiological characteristics of the body. Usually trainees feel constant fatigue, lack of energy, can not thrive in the exercise, despite frequent training.

Physiological and psychosomatic symptoms:

• Depression, low mood, anxiety, confusion, despair, lack of concentration, fatigue
• Loss of motivation
• Problems with sleep
• Loss of appetite
• Shaking hands
• Increased sweating
• Dizziness
• Muscle pain
• Changes in the menstrual cycle
• Power loss
• Frequently injured
• Loss of coordination
• Reduced the maximum heart rate

If you recognize these symptoms in yourself, we suggest the following test to make sure you know you need to change the way you train.

Lie down and rest for 15 minutes. Measure the pulse of you (R1), then stand up, wait 15 seconds and re-measure the standing heart rate (R2). If the difference between R1 and R2 is greater than 20 beats, it is very likely that you are not sufficiently rested from the previous training and your body is under stress.

Listen to what your body is saying, it may exert long-term but you are doing more harm than good. Reduce the duration and frequency of training, make sure your body get enough time to recover between sessions. Talk with a fitness instructor or sports coach who practices in order to create the optimal program for your needs.

Symptoms could be also a sign of other health problems so consult with your health doctor.