As someone who has trained for over a decade, you start to learn how your body reacts to certain stimuli. When I am really thirsty, I go for water, not the sugary drinks which leave you even more thirsty. When I am hungry, you go for the nice lean piece of steak, not the piece of pizza that will bloat my stomach for the next week. And when I spend too much time working out, I know the signs that tell me to slow down. I bring to you my top signs for noticing when your body needs a break from the weights.

1)Irregular Sleep

When I overtrain, I first notice that my sleeping patterns become all messed up. I come at night after the gym, have my post workout meal, and don’t fall asleep till 12am. I’ll be laying in bed and the only thing I am thinking about is how good this girl from my college looked on the stair master. That is not too late except I am getting home at 9pm and usually fall asleep around 10:30. As you can imagine, this wrecks havoc on trying to get up in the morning at 6:30. To go along with this, I will also be falling asleep while at my desk. Literally, my eyes will shut and I can fall asleep for like a second. I will be doing some analysis and then all of a sudden I feel myself nod off. It is as if my body is telling me it needs rest and no matter what I am doing that rest needs to happen right away. You can best believe that night I am hitting the pillow when I get home at 6pm.

2)No Energy

There will be times I walk into the gym and feel strong. Maybe I am on a good cycle of supplements and/or my diet was really on point that day. I will start my workout and load the bar for my first working set. Right away, no matter how indestructible I feel, I cannot get nearly as many reps as I normally would have. My muscles are fatigued and I can sense it. The power isn’t there or it doesn’t last longer than the first two reps. Even with the lightest weight I am still struggling. Along with no energy, I have no pumps. My veins are still hidden like the gym is 20 degrees. I then know the muscle fibers are probably still so torn and not healed that I am beating them into oblivion. Time to go home and not lift anything over a pound.

3)Constant Soreness

I think this is kind of self explanatory. Your muscles feel like they have been hit with falling bricks all day and you haven’t even touched a weight yet. Your chest is sore yet you trained it 6 days a go. Even your legs from cardio get sore quicker or are too sore to even run or walk. The key here is to realize the difference between good soreness and bad soreness. Good soreness you still feel like you can do normal functions on a daily basis. Bad soreness and you can’t even keep your shoulders in the air more than 10 seconds without fatiguing. Time to go home, lay down, and pop in Pumping Iron.

4)Depressed State of Mind/Anxiety at a High Level

If you are feeling sadder than normal, and aren’t clinically depressed, as well as noticing that you feel anxious and your overall awareness is too high for your liking, you are probably overtraining. I definitely feel more down when I have beaten my body up. I even then don’t feel like hitting the gym. Your body is so weak that you do not feel like doing anything. However, because you have worked out so hard, your central nervous system is all crazy now, causing this energy to be flowing. This isn’t a good energy though. Its like that panic energy. I myself get this more so because I am prone to panic attacks. It isn’t fun and I suggest getting to a comfortable place and just relaxing if this ever occurs. If it continues, and or the feelings of depression don’t disappear, see a doctor.

5)No Changes in Body Composition

You might be doing every single thing correctly. Your training is top notch, protein is perfect, your carbs are in the perfect range for your body, your healthy fats are high, your bad fats are low, you are taking every supplement you are supposed to (and even some extra goodies), sleeping at least 8 hours, and drinking plenty of water. However, you have gained zero muscle in the past 2 weeks and your bodyfat has stayed the same, maybe even increased. Your body does not have the time recuperate. You are not giving the supplements and food you eat a chance to help your body grow. In turn, cortisol is very high now because of the stress you are putting on your body, resulting in fat storage. Take some time off as you are only doing more harm than good at this point. At one point I was doing a major prohormone stack and not seeing any results the first four weeks. I took three weeks off, still took my supplements and ate well, and gained six pounds of muscle and lost three pounds of fat.

There you have it. They are my top 5 signs of overtraining. There are others but to me they all tie back to these five. If you have any of these signs for more than a couple of days, suspend training immediately. Nothing good will come out of experiencing what I have mentioned. It is not a “rut” your body will come out of. If you don’t give your body time to rest, you will not grow, it is that simple. The old adage, “The more you train, the more you grow” does not mean exactly what it sounds like. Trust me, you will be bigger and stronger when you start up again in a week or two.