Lesson 4.4 Part 1

Remember, if you are prone to overtraining, your mantra should be,

"Rest makes me stronger."

Rest means taking a total break from exercise. How long that break should be depends on how long you've been overtraining.

A month of intense exercise without enough recovery time calls for a break of at least three to five days.

anorexia

A serious mental illness characterized by an abnormal fear of becoming obese, leading to unwillingness to eat and often resulting in death if not treated.

The occasional bad exercise day can actually be a good thing.

A workout where every step, stroke, kick, lift, dribble, or bat swing is a struggle can actually help improve your game — if you push yourself through it.

How to Be a Healthy Athlete Stay balanced.

Working out should not be your entire life. Don't use sports or exercise as an excuse to neglect family, friends, or schoolwork, and remember to incorporate relaxation and fun into your daily routine too.

For a while, overtraining may make a person feel good about giving 110% to exercising all the time,

but it will hurt athletic performance in the long run.

If you or someone you know trains heavily and refuses to cut back even if they are sick or injured,

, ask a coach, teacher, or any trusted adult to help you address the situation.

Some symptoms of overtraining can be measured, such as low blood sugar, elevated stress levels, or not being able to keep your heart beating at its usual rate during exercise.

But this doesn't happen to everyone who exercises too much, and plenty of other indicators can signal when a person might be overtraining

Signs of Overtraining

Decline in performance Fatigue, even after rest muscle soreness, even after rest Constant minor injuries Slow healing of cuts and bruises Insomnia Oversleeping Loss of appetite Depression and irritability Loss of competitive desire Proneness to colds and viruses

How to Be a Healthy Athlete Get enough rest.

Do you take days off from exercise? Do you vary the level and intensity of your workouts? Do you sleep at least eight hours a night? If the answer to all three of these questions is yes, then you are definitely taking the time to rest. If the answer to any of these is no, make sure you are taking enough time to rest.

How to Be a Healthy Athlete Eat well.

Does your diet consist mostly of snack food, fast food, and soft drinks? If so, your eating habits could use an overhaul. Fatty, sugary food won't keep your energy level high or your body healthy. Eat whole grains, lean meats, fish, fruits, and vegetables, and always remember to drink plenty of water.

The most common symptom of overtraining is fatigue.

Even after a reasonable rest, people who are overtraining feel tired and sluggish.

overtraining

Excessive physical training in time and/or intensity that stops yielding benefits or improvement.

There are two major reasons why resting is an important part of physical training. (1)

First of all, rest makes the body stronger. Although it may sound like the supreme slacker motto, it's a scientific fact: Hard training breaks the body down and makes it weaker. Rest lets the muscles recover and adapt to the demands that working out puts on them. The result? The body gets stronger, and you arrive at a higher level of performance.

Another group of obsessive exercisers often falls under the eating disorder category.

For example, people with anorexia are usually fanatic about working out, determining exactly how many calories they have to burn to make up for whatever morsel of food they have consumed.

How to Be a Healthy Athlete Play for yourself.

If you play a sport because someone else expects you to, or if you think that winning is the only reason to play, you need to find some new motivation or another sport. It's fine to want to do well because it pleases others, but it needs to please you, too.

doping

Illegal use of performance-enhancing substances in competitive sports.

This kind of compulsive over-exercising is a serious and sometimes life-threatening type of mental disorder.

It requires professional intervention and treatment

How to Be a Healthy Athlete Expect your best - but not more

Setting goals for yourself is great, but beating yourself up over not meeting them is bad. Assess yourself honestly, and be willing to revisit your goals if they are too difficult. If you do your best on any given day, that's all you — or anyone else — can ask for.

So, what do you do if you find yourself sore, exhausted, and apathetic — in short, burned out?

The answer is: rest. It's the only treatment for overtraining.

There are two major reasons why resting is an important part of physical training. (2)

The other reason resting is important is to avoid burnout. Driving yourself relentlessly through workouts without taking the time to recover puts you at risk of overtraining. Overtraining hurts more than just your athletic performance. It can burn the joy out of your sport and other areas of your life.

Stay on the alternate day schedule for several weeks. Try out some new, different forms of exercise.

Think about the factors that caused your burnout in the first place, and do something about them so you do not find yourself a repeat offender of overtraining

Sometimes exercise can be compulsive. Some people are so obsessed with working out that they will continue to exercise regardless of illness or injury.

When they can't exercise, they suffer from withdrawal.

Exercise is generally viewed as a good thing. That is because it is a good thing. But it has its down sides, too.

You can be injured. You can get into a competitive situation where the focus is so much on winning that fair play and safety are forgotten. You can come up against people who do illegal drugs and may urge you to do them too. You can even make yourself sick, literally.

When you are ready to start exercising again, ease into it. Work out only every other day and at a lower intensity than normal.

You can soon get back to working out at your original intensity, but make sure you aren't exercising as much as you did before.

The most common symptom of burnout is ____________. Other symptoms include ________ blood sugar and ______________ stress levels

fatigue, low, and elevated

Sometimes exercise can be ______________. This kind of compulsive overexercising is a serious and sometimes _______________ type of mental disorder. Another group of obsessive exercisers often falls under the _____________ disorder category

obsessive, life-threatening, and eating

Unfortunately, people suffering from this illness usually deny that there is anything wrong,

often because they genuinely believe they are normal and healthy.

"______" may be the dirtiest four-letter word in sports, but you have to do it - regularly

quit

Driving yourself relentlessly through workouts without taking the time to ________ puts you at risk of ________ .

recover and overtraining

But a series of bad exercise days

should make you reconsider how you are working out, and why

A burned-out athlete isn't just tired;

someone who is overtraining is likely to be moody, irritable, and fed up with everything.

Worse, overtraining weakens the immune system,

throws daily habits like eating and sleeping out of whack, and makes a person generally miserable.

People who obsessively exercise or starve themselves are

walking not thin ice