We all know somebody who is so passionate about their favorite sport that they often forget to rest adequately. If you're one of them, you should see this article as a wake-up call. Overtraining is real, and its negative effects on your body can be devastating. This is why it's always important to remember to rest properly before you do your grind again.
But you might think, "What is overtraining, and how does it affect my body?" Well, buckle up because, in this article, we will discuss what overtraining is and its adverse effects on you. Let's start.
What is Overtraining?
Overtraining can be defined as a point where a person may significantly decrease performance due to failure to consistently perform at a certain level due to their training load that exceeds their recovery capacity. In short, overtraining is a condition where you have a decreased performance due to a lack of rest.
Because of this, they will cease progressing in physical improvement and have less power. Overtraining is pretty common in martial arts. Thankfully, the effects aren't serious since practitioners deal with the problem early by taking a longer break than usual. The question is, "What are the effects of overtraining when neglected?" Here are some of them.
Prone to Injuries
If you’ve been a martial arts fan or a regular participant in Sports Betting, you know that injuries are common in any sport, especially contact ones like karate, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, boxing, etc. However, when you pair it with a lack of a healthy diet, lack of quality sleep, or general lack of rest, you will become more prone to injury because of decreased performance.
For example, if you don’t have enough rest, your consciousness will start to slip, leading to a decreased level of awareness, which can result in you getting hit by strikes that you can normally easily dodge. Lack of rest can lead to less strength, decreased performance, etc.
Stagnation of Skills
Overtraining can also indirectly impede your development in your craft. When your body is overtrained, it will become difficult for you to improve your body and techniques, making you stuck significantly. By allowing yourself ample rest and recovery, your body will efficiently memorize your moves by increasing your muscles and nervous system exponentially, which you can only do with enough rest.
Emotional Imbalance
Many things can cause a change in mood; however, it has also been associated with overtraining. It makes sense, though, as with overtraining, you are more prone to emotional imbalance since your mind and body are not at their top shapes. If neglected, it can even lead to mental health problems down the line, like depression and anxiety.
Decreased Muscle Strength
In martial arts, it’s common for people to increase their power by building their strength with muscle training. This is a very efficient way since, with muscle training, you’re temporarily deteriorating your muscles and have them rebuilt bigger and stronger. However, before your muscles can do this, they need ample time to rest. This is because, during your rest time, your muscles will begin rebuilding.
This is the reason why you feel sore during the next day. That said, if you overtrain, your muscles will not have time to rebuild themselves, leading to you having difficulty training and having less strength overall. It can even lead to muscle atrophy, which you don’t want as a martial arts practitioner.
Electrolyte Imbalance
Electrolytes are essential to many bodily functions, so it’s important to have your fill of electrolytes every day by consuming the following: sodium, bicarbonate, potassium, and calcium. Exercise utilizes your electrolytes to help your muscles function more optimally.
However, when you overtrain, your electrolytes can lead to imbalance since you’re not properly consuming electrolytes while using them at a high level. But what happens when you have an electrolyte imbalance? Here are a few dangers you might face:
● Muscle spasm
● Seizures
● Twitching
● Bone disorders
● Irregular heartbeats
● Sudden changes in blood pressure
● Mental fatigue and confusion
● Numbness
● Nervous system problems
High Levels of Cortisol
Cortisol is a naturally occurring substance that helps control blood sugar, reduce inflammation, regulate metabolism, and is essential to memory function. When we train, we have an elevated level of cortisol, which is natural as it’s our body’s coping mechanism for stress. However, when we overtrain, the cortisol level doesn’t go down, which can lead to slower healing of the muscles and can even give you difficulty sleeping. To lower your level of cortisol, one effective way is to relax and have some rest.
Adrenal Fatigue
The adrenal glands produce the essential hormones needed to help regulate your metabolism, blood pressure, immune system, stress response, and other crucial functions within your body.
Physical activity, especially martial arts like Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Taekwondo, Karate, boxing, and Muay Thai, can cause a quick depletion of your adrenal function. This is due to the sports' natural ability to help the body produce elevated adrenaline levels. This is due to a sport's level of intensity and the athlete's excitement.
That said, experts suggest that there is a significant connection between chronically overtrained athletes and adrenal depletion. The main reason for this is that highly stressful events and even minor stressors can significantly increase the adrenal depletion of a person.
Of course, this also includes overtraining. Because the body is not getting enough rest, the adrenal depletion is not stopping, which is why overtrained athletes are not healing well from their injuries and have a generally significant decrease in the quality of their performance. Luckily, there are many ways for athletes to lower their adrenal depletion, and of course, one of the most effective ways to do this is to have plenty of rest.
Final Words
Overtraining, unfortunately, is very common in sports. If you constantly overtrain, you might want to start cutting back and have a more proper rest afterward. Your grind would be useless if your body breaks down anyway, so you need to ensure you have a proper rest every after-training session.
