Why More Isn’t Always Better When It Comes To Training

Whether you’re training to improve your physical appearance or for health reasons, doing too much and too frequently than what your body is capable of tolerating can be counterproductive instead of conducive to your goals and eventually leave you high and dry in the long run.

This isn’t to say that you should be taking your training lightly and not putting in any effort, but there are a few things that you should be aware of and take into consideration before ramping up your training intensity and volume.

The appropriate time to consider doing more with your training is when:

• Your recovery is on point

• You’re not fatigued at the end of every session

• There’s more in the tank

• You’re injury-free

• You’re confident with your exercise technique

• You’re consistent with your training yet progress and results are stalling

and with that in mind, here are some of the main reasons why more isn’t always better when it comes to training.

1. Physically and mentally burnout. The thing about burnout is that it doesn’t happen overnight but it’s accumulated over time. Fatigue builds up and takes place when your physical demands/energy output far outweighs your recovery, in other words, you’re under-recovering.
   
   Recovery, more specifically the quality of your sleep and nutrition profile, is key to making progress and productivity gains whilst minimizing frequent burnouts. The more often and harder you train, the more you’ll need to pay attention to your recovery. So make sure you’re:

   • Getting 7-8 hours of sleep daily

   • Eating sufficient calories and protein

   • Drinking enough water throughout the day
     
     

2. Stress overload. Stress isn’t inherently a bad thing as many would perceive. Stress is merely a response and signal to help navigate our thoughts and actions, think of stress like the notifications on our phone. And like our phones, accumulating and cramping too much info and data (stressors) into our hard drive can cause problems later down the line such as occasional lags, poor performance, etc.
   
   So the key to optimizing your performance isn’t to reformat your phone or get a new one (unfortunately you can’t replace your body and mind) but rather, to manage your apps (stressors) well and review your activity regularly to keep your tabs in check to reduce your allostatic load (wear and tear from physical, psychological, emotional, environmental stress).
   
   One way to help manage your physical stress levels better from training is to include a deload period in your training regime, where you would intentionally train at a lower intensity or volume than what you’d usually do to maximize your recovery.
   
   

3. Higher risk of getting sidelined. While we can’t avoid injuries, we can certainly manage the potential risks, as the saying goes “prevention is better than cure”. One of the most common injuries that people get from training is an overuse injury. This is largely due to systemic and muscular fatigue from overexertion thus leading to poorer coordination, movement control, strength tolerance, and compensation.
   
   To minimize overuse injuries, you have to know when to push the “go” button and when to hit the brakes. So review your training progress regularly as well as your lifestyle markers as mentioned above.
   
   

In short, if you’re serious about making progress and getting results and keeping them, pay as much attention to the quality of your recovery as you do to your training. I hope you’ve found this article helpful to your training journey, feel free to reach out to me if you’re currently struggling with your fitness and training goals, I’d be more than happy to help.