Overtraining Signs: How to Recognize and Prevent Burnout

Training hard is essential for improvement, but overdoing it can have serious consequences for both your physical and mental health. Knowing the key overtraining signs can help you avoid burnout, injuries, and long-term setbacks in your performance.

In this guide, we’ll explore the most common symptoms of overtraining, how to identify them, and actionable tips to strike the perfect balance between training and recovery.

What Are Overtraining Signs?

You must listen to your body and know the overtraining signs. Is your training becoming excessive and borderline obsessive? It’s OK to be obsessed with a pole. I think that there is absolutely nothing wrong with prolonged social media stalking sessions in search of interesting moves and to generally gaze at your favourite polers. But when it comes to your training sessions, are you overdoing it?

Are you a showcase nutcase or a competition crammer? With only a few weeks to prepare you decide that you can master huge feats of strength and flexibility that are only effectively achieved through years of consistently sensible training.

• It takes approximately four weeks to measure any significant improvements in strength while following a sensible training program.
• When you want to take your training up a notch, use the 10% rule. This guideline states that you can increase your activity by no more than 10% each week. For pole, this could include an increase of your training time or repetitions by 10% per week.

The first symptom of overtraining is that if you suspect that you are overtraining, you probably are. All joking aside, overtraining has very serious long and short-term health implications that you should be aware of.

12 Common Overtraining Signs You Shouldn’t Ignore

What follows is a list of signs that you may be overtraining. If you’re only experiencing one of the symptoms, it may not indicate overtraining.

Decreased Performance: A Major Overtraining Sign

Do you feel that you have hit a plateau? You have been trying to get a particular move or sequence for what seems like a long time, but you just can’t nail it. Every pole athlete has their strengths and their weaknesses.

Think carefully about your training goals:

• Are your objectives realistic and obtainable?
• As a result of responsible training, what can be achieved in the timeframe that you have?

Decreased performance levels can be the result of being psychologically and/or physiologically burnt out. If you are feeling burnt out and you are not progressing, take a step back and take a break for a couple of days.

Rest and recovery must form an integral part of your training schedule. True, your body needs to be stressed to make performance gains, but it also needs time (and proper nutrition) to make those gains.

Weight changes

Inadequate nutritious calorie intake leads to slow recovery and body fat changes. When in training, you need to consume adequate protein and carbohydrates after exercise. Glycogen re-synthesis and muscle repair must be started as fast as possible to ensure optimal recovery. An athlete who does not consume much carbohydrate throughout the day will not have an optimal amount of stored glycogen in their muscle tissue and liver. This can lead to impaired performance since carbohydrate is the prime energy source of the human body. You might also be lacking dietary fats due to the false belief that dietary fat immediately converts into adipose tissue.

Binge training and binge eating

Over-consumption of junk food is a common symptom of the overtrained need to satisfy their insatiable appetite with “dirty food”. This can cause weight gain and lead to suboptimal training results. Increased cortisol levels are caused by overtraining, this can lead to fat storage and result in weight gain.

Insomnia & disturbed sleep

The optimal amount of sleep per night, for decent recovery, is 7-8 hours (or more). Overtraining interferes with the body’s circadian rhythms. Symptoms include waking up earlier than usual, trouble getting to sleep or trouble staying asleep. Also, pay attention to other symptoms including restlessness and inability to focus.
These sleeping and restlessness issues are more likely to occur in anaerobic (pole), power (pole), and explosive strength (pole) athletes.

Chronic fatigue

If you are too tired to even raise your heart rate for a proper warm-up before your training session. There should be no training session. It is also a big red flag if you start to notice that you cannot complete your everyday tasks, like your job, because you are always knackered.

Ongoing muscle soreness

There is a sense of accomplishment associated with muscle soreness, and in some cases muscle soreness is good. It means that you caused some micro-tears in your muscles, and when they recover, those muscles will be a little stronger. But the key word here is recovery. As mentioned previously, if you are not recovering properly, you are overtraining. If you experience muscle soreness pretty much all the time, you need to take a break, before you break something.

Increased incidence of injury

Musculoskeletal injuries due to overuse are very common in the “overtrained”. These injuries include muscle strains, sprains, tears, bursitis, and contusions among many others. If your training session is hitting a fail due to fatigue or lack of mental focus you are very seriously running the risk of becoming injured. Breathe and cool down. And leave. Don’t overstay your welcome at your training session.

Elevated resting heart rate

Keep a tab on your resting heart rate. Increased resting heart rate is the result of increased metabolic rate to meet the imposed demand of training. If you notice your heart rate is steadily increasing over a two or three-week period, you may be overtraining and not scheduling enough recovery time between sessions.

Depression, Irritability, moodiness, and general personality changes

Keep yourself in check by asking yourself the following three questions.

1. What are your motives for training?
2. Have you set yourself realistic goals?
3. Are your friends and family still talking to you?

Chronically elevated cortisol levels caused by overtraining not only eat away at your muscles but also lead to fat storage and impair brain functioning. They also make you a moody pain in everyone’s arse.

Increased incidence of colds or other illnesses

It’s not a coincidence or bad luck that you caught a cold just before or on the day of your competition. Or perhaps you have frequently been experiencing flu-like symptoms? Your elevated cortisol levels, caused by overtraining, lead to suppressed immune system function. Once again, overtraining leads to bad performance and no reward.

Amenorrhea: Hormonal Overtraining Symptoms in Women

Missing or irregular menstruation caused by:

• Low body fat due to rigorous exercise and inadequate calorie intake.
• Overtraining/overstressed body.

There are other reasons you might skip a period, but you can visit your Gynae about those. Missing your period is often a sign of decreased estrogen levels. And lower estrogen levels can lead to osteoporosis, a disease in which your bones become brittle and more likely to break. If you don’t take in enough calcium and vitamin D (among other nutrients), bone loss may result. This may lead to decreased performance, decreased ability to exercise or train at desired levels of intensity or duration, and increased risk of injury.

What Causes Overtraining Signs to Appear?

Several factors can contribute to overtraining, including:

• Inadequate Rest: Not giving your body enough recovery time between workouts.
• Poor Nutrition: Failing to meet your calorie and nutrient needs, especially during intense training periods.
• Lack of Sleep: Sleep is crucial for muscle repair and overall recovery.
• Excessive Volume or Intensity: Pushing too hard without allowing time for adaptation.

How to Prevent Overtraining Signs and Maintain Balance

Preventing overtraining starts with understanding your limits and respecting your body’s need for rest and recovery. Here are some practical tips:

1. Schedule Rest Days

Include at least one or two rest days in your weekly training plan. Rest is essential for muscle recovery and injury prevention.

2. Use the 10% Rule

Gradually increase your training intensity or volume by no more than 10% per week to avoid overloading your body.

3. Prioritize Nutrition

Fuel your body with balanced meals rich in protein, healthy fats, and complex carbohydrates. Proper post-workout nutrition helps replenish energy stores and repair muscles.

4. Monitor Your Progress

Keep track of your performance, mood, and energy levels. If you notice a decline in any of these areas, it might be time to scale back.

5. Listen to Your Body

Pay attention to how you feel during and after workouts. Fatigue, soreness, and lack of focus are your body’s way of signaling that it needs a break.

What to Do If You Notice Overtraining Signs

If you recognize multiple overtraining signs, here’s what you should do:

• Take a Break: Step back from intense workouts for a few days or weeks. Focus on active recovery activities like stretching or walking.
• Consult a Professional: A doctor, dietitian, or physiotherapist can help address the underlying causes of overtraining.
• Reassess Your Goals: Ensure your training program is realistic and allows adequate time for recovery.

Why Rest and Recovery Are Essential

Rest isn’t a sign of weakness—it’s a vital part of your training journey. Your body needs time to repair damaged tissues, replenish energy stores, and rebuild stronger muscles. Skipping recovery can lead to burnout, injuries, and stalled progress.

Final Thoughts: Recognizing Overtraining Signs

Recognizing and addressing overtraining signs can prevent long-term setbacks and help you achieve your goals more sustainably. Remember, training smarter—not harder—is the key to success.

By prioritizing rest, recovery, and proper nutrition, you can maintain peak performance without putting your body at risk. Listen to your body, respect its limits, and you’ll enjoy a healthier, more balanced fitness journey.

We would love to hear from you! Share your experiences and thoughts in the comments below. Have you ever experienced overtraining? How did you handle it? Let’s start a conversation and support each other in finding the right balance in our training.