Overworking your muscles during exercise is a risk of any dedicated athlete. The desire to improve quickly and continue pushing oneself to new levels of achievement must be tempered with an understanding of the risk of overtraining. As the muscles become fatigued through exercise, they lose strength and elasticity. Without rest and time to heal, they are liable to get pushed beyond their limits, resulting in tears to the individual muscle fibers and, at worst, tears of entire muscles. It is important for lifters and other athletes to know how to identify overworked muscles before the injury strikes.
Step 1
Evaluate your muscular improvement over the past several weeks, even months. One of the most tell-tale signs of overtraining is an inability to improve muscular strength and/or endurance. If you are trying to build muscle weight, your body weight may not change significantly over the course of several weeks, suggesting that no muscle growth is occurring.
Step 2
Move your muscles and check their soreness leading into a workout. If the muscles are constantly sore, you may be constantly exercising them before they are ready. You might also feel a lack of energy leading into a workout and throughout your day. Difficulty sleeping could indicate overtraining that is affecting your ability to rest and therefore rebuild worn out muscle.
Step 3
Identify sharp pains in the muscles, if they exist. This usually manifests itself as stabbing pains that become worse in a muscle when the muscle is used. Pain of this nature suggests that a muscle strain or other injury has already occurred and requires medical attention. Rest the muscle and apply ice and elevation. If several days of at-home treatment do not improve the muscle, visit a doctor.
Step 4
Reduce the intensity and/or frequency of your workouts if you are unable to determine whether you are overtraining. If you notice improvement in your physical condition along with increased strength and/or size in the muscles, you can reasonably assume that your prior workout level was overworking the muscles and stunting your progress.
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