The reporter reported coldlyProfessional players often choose to practice in order to improve their skills. Sports and fitness enthusiasts will also overdo it in order to achieve the desired results as quickly as possible. Exercise is good for your physical and mental health, but it's too much. Excessive exercise and training are common "active injuries" in the sports world, but often athletes themselves are not aware of its harmfulness. The positive changes in the body brought about by constant exercise and the dopamine secretion can make people obsessed with it, so that they ignore the degree to which the body is subjected to the stress of exercise.
No pain, no gain, is the motto of the sports world, but it may not be. Excessive exercise and training will not only fail to achieve the desired results, but may even lead to sports injuries, psychological stress and even more serious diseases. Overtraining is a popular field of sports science research in recent years, and researchers use the latest achievements in high-tech, biological science and nutrition to help more sports enthusiasts get rid of the pain caused by "overtraining".
Overtraining is a word that every sports enthusiast talks about. Because in a way, it means a kind of "betrayal" of the obsessive pursuit of bodily motor performance. People who love sports want to put in more effort and get more rewards. Even if you maintain your condition, you have to put in 110% effort, because maintaining the same amount of training will not improve your performance, and it will even decrease due to age. This philosophy is mainstream not only in professional sports, but also in amateur sports.
But no field is too much, and sports are no exception. Even many sports enthusiasts are already victims of excessive exercise and do not know it. It is difficult for many sports enthusiasts to judge the difference between "functional overexpansion" and "overtraining", the former is caused by oxidative stress and lactic acid accumulation, as well as inflammation, and moderate amounts are very helpful for the body to break through the limits and enhance strength. This inflammation can promote muscle adaptation and self-growth of the antioxidant defense system, and a small amount of stress (inflammation) can stimulate greater positive adaptation (muscle growth).
However, this positive response is somewhat dependent, and too much stress from overtraining can adversely affect the muscles and body. When intensive training results in a short-term decline in performance (acute fatigue), "hyperfunction" occurs, followed by the "supercompensatory effect", in which the athlete experiences an increase in performance after proper recovery. But if you don't recover adequately, or if you overtrain for more time and at more intensity than your body can handle, it can lead to non-functional overtraining. It not only leads to stagnation and decline of physical functions, but also leads to psychological disorders and endocrine disorders.
Chronic non-functional overtraining may lead to overtraining syndrome, which manifests primarily as a long-term impairment of exercise capacity, often accompanied by dysfunction of multiple biological, neurochemical, and hormonal regulatory mechanisms. It's important to know the signs of overtraining to help athletes identify if they're overtraining and adjust accordingly. Proper training should keep the athlete energized, acute fatigue after strenuous exercise is normal, but prolonged exhaustion increases the production of inflammatory cytokines. The latter is an effective activator of the body's stress management system, and when it is chronically activated, it causes changes in cortisol, adrenocorticotropic hormone, testosterone, and other hormone levels in overtrained athletes.
Overtraining leads to increased levels of unbound blood tryptophan, and high levels of oxidative stress reduce branched-chain amino acids in the blood, causing the brain to produce large amounts of serotonin, triggering long-term feelings of fatigue. At the same time, increased cytokines can lead to immune system dysfunction, leading to more frequent infections of the disease, especially upper respiratory tract infections, in exercisers. Tissue damage from overtraining can also lead to down-regulation of cell-mediated immune function, manifested by a decrease in the number of white blood cells and a decrease in glutamine levels. In addition, excessive exercise can lead to difficulty sleeping, poor athletic performance or easy injury, greater mood swings, coarse hair, ** and nails, decreased physiological libido, intestinal dysfunction and erratic weight. When more than half of the above symptoms appear, it can basically be judged as hyperexercise syndrome.
How to avoid the physical and psychological damage caused by excessive exercise, the first thing is to reduce the frequency of exercise and increase rest time. For the average exerciser, the frequency of exercise should be 2-3 days per week, more than 4 days may lead to excessive exercise. Research in the British Journal of Women's Health** shows that overtraining may have a higher endocrine impact on female athletes than men. 26% of women who exercise regularly have irregular menstrual cycles, which are one of the characteristics of overtraining. Chloe Hawkinson, a 27-year-old female fitness trainer, has been exercising regularly since she was 16 years old, but after eating almost only protein and overtraining, she developed hypothalamic amenorrhea (HA) symptoms for 1 year.
Luckily, she was helped by Rene McGregor, a nutrition expert in women's hormone health, who developed a personalized exercise, diet, and recuperation plan for Chloe, and after 4 months, Chloe's menstrual cycle finally began to regularize. Chloe's statement proves that during the overtraining period, it is very important to consume more high-calorie foods. High-calorie foods that are easy to digest are better for the body after high-intensity training. For example, eating sweets is better than fruits, and white rice is better than brown rice as a staple food.
In terms of exercise and recuperation, Chloe has adjusted from 3-4 days a week to 2-3 days. In addition, she has regular adjustments 3 times a month. She meditates early in the morning, trains without fasting throughout the month, and has carbohydrates at every meal. She consumes at least 25 grams of carbohydrates every day before training and tries to eat within half an hour of waking up, even on days off. In addition, she keeps a daily exercise diary to relieve the psychological stress caused by overtraining, which can even help her sleep. She also values more rest, gradually shedding her obsession with exercise, trying to stop being anxious about the amount of exercise she has set every day, and turning her attention to something else – not other equally exhausting work, but a way to relax.
Chloe also shared: In addition to getting enough rest, a good night's sleep or a way to calm yourself down is a more proactive way to recover than before. It can be combined with massages, stretching, hot or cold baths, and other high-tech means such as fascia guns and compression pants to reduce muscle fatigue and promote recovery.
In short, it's good to be able to exercise regularly, but sports enthusiasts still need to learn to prevent excessive exercise.