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.

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.

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 normal, trouble in getting to sleep or trouble in staying asleep. Also pay attention to other symptoms including restlessness and inability to focus.

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 are unable to complete your everyday tasks, like your job, because you are always knackered.

If you experience muscle soreness pretty much all the time, you need to take a break, before you actually break something.

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 you notice your heart rate is steadily increasing over a two or three-week period, it’s quite possible that you are overtraining and not scheduling enough recovery time between sessions.

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

Your elevated cortisol levels, caused by overtraining, lead to suppressed immune system function. Once again, overtraining leading to bad performance and no reward.

I hope you found this useful. Need more help? Go to your doctor/dietician/physio and take a break.

Find out more on http://www.verticalwise.com/en/overtraining-signs/