Signs of too much volume…
This time of year at the beginning of a new program we find that many people can start doing too much (especially compared to what they did previously).
Sometimes it’s hard to identify that you are doing too much, but one of the signs may be that you’re not progressing, but sometimes that might be you’re not doing enough? Or that your diet is off?
- To know it’s too much volume is that you can feel it in your joints or muscle insertions, lots of soreness – things like shoulders can be bothering you, your elbows might have pain in them?
- You may feel that your warm ups may need to be a little longer to loosen up the joints.
- Lack of sleep – your sleep starts to be affected and you wake more often.
- Regulating body temperature is worse, feeling cold or less tolerant to heat.
These are ways you can tell your body is too stressed, fatigued throughout the day by going too hard.
What you can do…
- Reduce the intensity and volume of your workout
- Take a few days off
- Stop over reaching in each exercise (don’t go to fatigue each set of lifts)
- Don’t neglect mobility work (keeping joints healthy with stretching and light band work)
- Reduce inflammation (especially sore joints) – have cold showers, anti inflammatory foods.
Side note: you do want inflammation to trigger muscle growth, but in the case of too much volume you need to scale it back to prevent injury. - Movement is great – walking, fascia release and yoga is great to incorporate to help keep the body healthy.
Muscle grow during rest and recovery and if you’re not taking the time to focus on this your ‘gains’ may not accomplished.
Train smarter not always harder.
Good luck
