Signs of Overtraining and How to Recover

You are probably not overtrained

I am going to start with something that might sound dismissive but is genuinely important: true overtraining syndrome (OTS) is rare. Like, really rare. Most recreational lifters, even serious ones, never actually reach the point of clinical overtraining.

What most people call "overtraining" is actually "under-recovering." They are training at a volume and intensity that their body could handle if they slept 8 hours, ate 3,000 calories of nutritious food, managed their stress, and had a balanced life. Instead, they sleep 5-6 hours, skip meals, are stressed about work, and wonder why they feel run down.

That said, overtraining syndrome is real, it does happen, and it can seriously mess up your training for months if you ignore it. I pushed into it once about four years ago during a period where I was training twice a day for a competition while also dealing with a bunch of personal stress. It took me about three months to fully recover. So I take this seriously and you should too.

The key is distinguishing between normal fatigue, functional overreaching, non-functional overreaching, and true overtraining syndrome. They exist on a spectrum, and knowing where you are on that spectrum determines what you need to do.

Overreaching vs overtraining: the difference matters

Normal fatigue. You trained hard this week. You are tired. Your muscles are sore. You sleep a little extra over the weekend and feel great on Monday. This is not overtraining. This is training. It happens every week.

Functional overreaching (FOR). You intentionally pushed hard for 2-4 weeks. Volume was high, intensity was high, maybe you reduced your rest periods. You feel beat up and your performance has dropped slightly. You take a deload week, and within 1-2 weeks you bounce back stronger than before. This is actually a good thing. Many periodized programs intentionally create functional overreaching before a deload to drive adaptation.

Non-functional overreaching (NFOR). You pushed too hard for too long (4-8+ weeks without adequate recovery). Performance has dropped noticeably. You are not recovering between sessions. Minor injuries keep popping up. A single deload week is not enough to fix it. You need 2-4 weeks of significantly reduced training to recover. This is the warning zone.

Overtraining syndrome (OTS). This is the bad one. Performance has tanked. You feel terrible physically and emotionally. Sleep is disrupted. Appetite is gone or out of control. Your resting heart rate is elevated or depressed. Hormonal markers are off. Recovery takes months, not weeks. Meeusen et al. (2013) published a joint consensus statement from the European College of Sport Science defining OTS as a prolonged maladaptation to training stress that requires months of rest for recovery.

The progression is: normal fatigue, then functional overreaching, then non-functional overreaching, then OTS. It is a spectrum. The earlier you catch yourself on this spectrum, the faster you recover.

The real signs of overtraining syndrome

Here is where most articles on overtraining fail. They list "decreased performance" and "feeling tired" as signs of overtraining, which is about as useful as listing "coughing" as a sign of lung cancer. Those symptoms could mean anything.

The hallmark of true overtraining is a cluster of symptoms that persist despite normal rest. Not one or two bad days. A pattern that lasts for weeks and does not respond to a deload.

Here is the actual diagnostic picture, based on the research from Kreher and Schwartz (2012) and the ECSS consensus statement:

Unexplained performance decrease. Your numbers are going down, not just stalling. Weights you could handle three weeks ago feel impossibly heavy. Your endurance has dropped. Your power output is lower. And this is not explained by poor sleep on a particular night or missed meals.

Increased perceived effort. A weight that should feel like an RPE 7 feels like an RPE 9. Everything requires more effort than it should. This is called "increased perception of effort" and it is one of the most reliable markers.

Inability to recover between sessions. Normal DOMS goes away in 48-72 hours. If you are still sore from Monday's session when Thursday's session rolls around, and this keeps happening week after week, you are accumulating fatigue faster than you can dissipate it.

Persistent fatigue. Not the kind that goes away with a good night's sleep. The kind where you wake up tired after sleeping 8 hours. Where you feel like you need a nap at 2 PM every day. Where your baseline energy level has dropped noticeably.

Mood disturbances. Depression, anxiety, irritability, loss of motivation, apathy about training. These are not just "feeling bummed." Overtraining syndrome has significant overlap with clinical depression, and researchers believe it may involve similar neurochemical mechanisms, particularly disrupted serotonin metabolism (Armstrong and VanHeest, 2002).

The stages of excessive training stress

Think of it as a progression:

Stage 1: Sympathetic overreaching (early). Your nervous system is in overdrive. Resting heart rate is slightly elevated. You feel wired but tired. Sleep is restless. You feel agitated and want to train harder even though you should not. This is the fight-or-flight phase.

Stage 2: Parasympathetic overtraining (late). Your nervous system has essentially given up. Resting heart rate may be depressed (lower than usual). You feel flat and lethargic. No motivation. No drive. Performance has cratered. This is the shutdown phase. By the time you reach this stage, you are looking at a long recovery.

Most lifters who get into trouble are in Stage 1. They feel amped up and think the solution is to train harder. It is not. The solution is to back off before you slide into Stage 2.

Physical symptoms to watch for

Track these over time. Any single one in isolation does not mean much. But if you are experiencing three or more consistently over 2+ weeks, pay attention.

• •Elevated resting heart rate (5+ beats above your normal baseline)
• •Decreased heart rate variability (if you track HRV)
• •Recurrent illnesses (colds, upper respiratory infections, cold sores)
• •Loss of appetite or unexplained increase in appetite
• •Persistent muscle soreness that does not resolve with rest
• •Joint pain that comes and goes without a clear cause
• •Disturbed sleep (difficulty falling asleep, waking up at 3 AM, restless sleep despite being tired)
• •Decreased libido
• •Unexplained weight loss or weight gain
• •Increased frequency of minor injuries (pulled muscles, tweaked joints)
• •Chronic heaviness in your legs
• •Swollen lymph nodes

The immune system effects are particularly noteworthy. Gleeson (2002) documented the "open window" hypothesis: after intense training, there is a period of immunosuppression lasting 3-72 hours. If you are training again during that window repeatedly without adequate recovery, you create chronic immunosuppression. This is why people who are overtraining get sick all the time.

Mental and emotional symptoms

These are often the earliest warning signs, and the ones most lifters ignore because they do not seem "physical."

• •Dreading workouts you used to enjoy
• •Apathy about your training goals
• •Increased irritability and short temper
• •Feeling anxious for no clear reason
• •Difficulty concentrating at work or school
• •Emotional flatness or feeling "numb"
• •Loss of competitive drive
• •Social withdrawal

I knew I was in trouble when I walked into the gym and felt nothing. Not tired, not motivated, not anxious. Just flat. I had been training twice a day for about six weeks and competing in powerlifting while running my coaching business. The combination of physical and psychological stress had pushed me past the line.

How to test if you are overtrained

There is no single definitive test for overtraining syndrome. It is a diagnosis of exclusion, meaning you rule out other causes (thyroid issues, anemia, depression, sleep disorders, etc.) and what is left is OTS.

But here are some practical monitoring tools:

Resting heart rate. Take your pulse every morning before getting out of bed. Track it for at least two weeks to establish your baseline. If it creeps up by 5+ beats consistently, you are accumulating stress.

Grip strength. Keep a hand dynamometer (about $20) and test your grip strength each morning. Grip strength is a surprisingly sensitive marker of neuromuscular fatigue. If it drops by more than 10% from your baseline, something is off.

Subjective wellness questionnaire. Rate these on a 1-5 scale each morning: sleep quality, energy level, mood, muscle soreness, willingness to train. If your average score drops below 3 for more than a week, consider a deload.

Performance tracking. If your training numbers are consistently declining over 2-3 weeks with no other explanation (poor sleep, illness, undereating), you are overreaching at minimum.

Blood work (if concerned about OTS). A doctor can check cortisol levels, testosterone, thyroid function, iron/ferritin, and inflammatory markers. Low testosterone paired with high cortisol is a classic OTS pattern in male athletes. Cadegiani and Kater (2017) developed a hormonal panel approach to diagnosing OTS that has shown promise.

The recovery protocol

The recovery approach depends on where you are on the spectrum:

For functional overreaching (caught early)

• •Take a standard deload week (50% volume, maintain intensity)
• •Sleep 8-9 hours per night
• •Eat at maintenance or slight surplus
• •Reduce life stress where possible
• •Resume normal training after 1 week

For non-functional overreaching

• •Take 2-3 weeks of reduced training (50-60% volume, 70% intensity)
• •Focus on sleep quality above all else
• •Eat at a slight caloric surplus with high protein
• •No training to failure during this period. RPE 6-7 maximum
• •Add stress management practices (walking, light yoga, meditation, whatever works for you)
• •Retest your performance markers before returning to full training
• •Do NOT try to "make up" for lost training. Just ease back in

For true overtraining syndrome

• •Complete rest from structured training for 1-2 weeks
• •Then 2-4 weeks of very light activity (walking, swimming, easy cycling)
• •Then 2-4 weeks of reduced training (50% of your normal program)
• •Then gradual return to normal training over 4-6 weeks
• •Total recovery time: 2-4 months
• •See a doctor. Get blood work. Rule out other medical conditions
• •Consider talking to a sports psychologist, especially if mood disturbances are significant
• •Address the root causes (programming, life stress, sleep, nutrition) before returning to your previous training load

The mistake most people make is trying to rush the recovery. They feel better after a week off and immediately jump back to full training. Then they crash again, worse than before. Be patient. The fitness you "lose" during the recovery period comes back quickly once you are actually healthy. The fitness you lose from chronic overtraining does not come back quickly at all.

How to avoid overtraining in the first place

Periodize your training. Have planned deload weeks. Follow a program that varies volume and intensity over time rather than going all-out every single week. If you are designing your own programming, the simplest approach is 3 weeks of progressive loading followed by 1 week of deload.

Track your training volume. Know your total weekly sets per muscle group. If you are above 20 sets per muscle per week and you are not an advanced competitor, you are probably doing too much. Israetel et al. have published extensive guidelines on maximum recoverable volume (MRV) for different muscle groups. For most people, the MRV is lower than they think.

Prioritize sleep. I keep saying this because it is the most impactful and the most ignored. 7-9 hours per night. Consistent sleep and wake times. Dark, cool room. No screens 30-60 minutes before bed. If you only change one thing about your recovery, make it sleep.

Eat enough. Training in a caloric deficit while trying to maintain high volume and intensity is the fastest road to overtraining. If you are cutting, reduce your training volume by 20-30%. If you are training hard, eat enough to support it.

Monitor your stress load holistically. Training stress is only one type of stress your body deals with. Work stress, relationship stress, financial stress, sleep deprivation, illness, travel. They all draw from the same recovery pool. During high-stress life periods, reduce your training load. Your body does not know the difference between stress from deadlifts and stress from a project deadline. It just knows it is stressed.

Learn the difference between productive discomfort and warning signs. Training should be hard. You should be tired after a good session. You should be sore sometimes. That is normal. What is not normal is feeling exhausted before you even start warming up, dreading every session, getting weaker instead of stronger, and feeling mentally foggy all the time.

Listen to your body, but also listen to the data. Track your resting heart rate, your training performance, your sleep quality, and your subjective wellness. When the data tells you to back off, back off. Your future self will thank you.