Signs of Over Working Your Workout

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Working out is a great way to burn fat and gain muscle, but what about when it does not? Sometimes, when we kick-up our workout routine or begin training extra hard, our body responds in not expected ways. These responses are signs that your workout may be a bit more intense than your body can handle. If you are seeing any of these signs in your daily life, it may mean you are overworking your workout.

You Cannot Complete Your Usual Routine

One of the biggest ways to know if you are overworking your body is when your usual fitness routine is too much to handle. When we are no able to do a normal workout, it is a sign that our body is failing us. If you have recently changed your routine and increase your workout, it is common to feel discomfort or an inability to finish. What is not normal is not being able to finish a normally average workout at all.  

This could be happening for a few different reasons. One of the main reasons that most trainers see is because of a massive increase in your workout load. Sure, our bodies can handle weights, cardio, and an extra metabolic workout all together for a certain amount of time, but not forever. If you are doing more than one form of exercise per day on high intensity, there is a pretty high chance your body is starting to get weaker from a lack of proper recovery.

You Stop Losing Fat

One of the most popular reasons people begin working out is to gain fat and loose muscle. If your workout results have changed from losing fat to losing muscle, you could be overworking your body. When we overwork our bodies, our hormones get turned upside down. This is due to a higher than usual output of the hormone cortisol. This hormone is a steroid that is released from the adrenal cortex in response to high stress. Our bodies use cortisol for insulin retention. When there is too much cortisol in our system, we have a much greater insulin resistant, meaning fats will burn away with much greater difficulty. Since our bodies have an abnormal hormone balance and a lack of fat being burnt off for energy, it is common to see mood swings and muscle loss as well.

If you have been experiencing unusual insomnia, issues with anger, aggression, depression, or loss of motivation, you may need to reduce your workout load.

Sluggish Movements

Having sluggish movements is one of the more complex signs of overworking your workout since it is common for people to feel tired after a workout. The big difference between healthy sluggish and unhealthy sluggish is the amount of downtime needed. It is common to feel tired directly after a workout for the next hour to three hours, depending on the intensity. If you are feeling tired or your limbs feel heavy for more than a few hours, you are most likely overworking your body.

Our bodies need time to recuperate after a grueling sweat session. That is normal. What is not normal is when we are tired for days on end. This means we are going through some massive recuperation that our muscles, ligaments, and joints are not able to handle.

Core Workouts for New Moms

Goodness, it feels like all media has babies on the brain right now, and when it comes to all those celebrity babies being born, I am the same. Kim K and Kanye West just had their little baby girl, and we are less than a month away from having a new heir to the British throne. I am so crazy excited about the royal baby and have been obsessively hoarding any magazine with pictures of the Royal Baby Bump. Side note, Raising a Royal Baby by Us Magazine has some really cute pictures of Will and Kate when they were little wee ones. 

In honor of all those new baby Mommas out there, we have some core workouts that you will love! If you are not a baby Momma, do not fret, these core workouts are great for toning at tightening all the tums out there!

FitSugar Total Body Workout

This workout is guaranteed to melt those calories away and get some toning in at the same time. One of the best things about it is that the whole workout is about ten minutes long! I would completely recommend doing this after your usual workout or on one of those days when ten minutes is all you have. This workout is title the Victoria's Secret Model Workout, just to incentivize your new workout!

Amanda Russell Ab-Sessed

No ab workout guide is complete without some ab exercises by the poster-girl for abs, Amanda Russell. This workout is great, it is super short and most the moves are those you already know, plus some more unusual exercises. Amanda does some great exercises that can be changed up depending on your fitness level.

This workout would be great after a run, or even, after the FitSugar Total Body Workout above. If you would like to double up on your daily dose of Amanda, try this Fat Incinerator Workout before the Ab Routine.

 Tone It Up

The ladies over at Tone It Up created a super simple how-to for working the lower abs. The video is very short, only focusing on one exercise. If you want an insane ab workout, do these workouts in order. All three of these together should only take about 20 minutes to complete. The best part is that all of these workouts will also work the inner and outer thighs. Yay for a massive bonus in the toning department!

Workout to Reduce Bloating

No one likes being bloated. That bloated feeling we get can be due to a few different factors. Those who have recently stopped exercising for more than a week are more likely to get bloated. Of course, the foods we eat also have a great deal to do with how bloated we get. Try this twenty-minute workout to reduce the bloat on those days when you feel like a bubble ready to pop! To really kick up the results, try adding a few of these foods into your diet.

This exercise works with cardio and core training. Cardio and core exercises are two of the best ways to reduce the bloat since cardio helps unneeded gas pass through our system and core strengthens our abdominal muscles.  

Warm up with 30 seconds of jumping jacks, followed by 30 seconds of knee-ups. Repeat this once. Then, do 12 reps of each exercise and 3-4 sets, total. Rest for ten seconds between sets. 

Standing Leg Lift

Begin standing straight up, legs hip width apart and the weight in your right hand. Extend your right hand over your head, giving your body a slight curve to the left and bring the right leg out so your toes can barely touch the ground. Then, lift the right leg in the air while bringing your right arm down towards the leg. Be sure to keep your knee and chest facing forward. Once the right hand and leg touch, lift the arm back up overhead and bring the leg back to the extended pose. Complete 12 per side. 

For advanced, use a resistance band or weight held in the moving hand.  

Jumping Lunges

These are a great leg and cardio workout! Begin by bringing the right leg back into lunge position. Hold this position, then jump up into the air, bringing the right leg forward and the left leg back. Complete one more lunge, then jump in the air again, alternating legs with each jump. Continue to complete 12 lunges per side.  

Three Way Crunches

Lay on your back with legs bent and feet on the floor. Place hands under your neck and lift off the ground so nothing above your shoulder blades is touching the ground. Contact your abdominal muscles so you are being lifted off the ground by your abdominal strength alone. Hold this position, then return to starting. Contract your right oblique abdominals so your right arms moves towards your right hip. Return to starting and complete the same crunch on the left side. Be sure that your shoulders do not touch the ground between each crunch. That is one rep, complete 12 reps, total before moving on to the next exercise.

Plank Jacks

Get into plank position with arms directly under your shoulders and a straight back. Begin by jumping legs out to the side, like a horizontal jumping jack, then jump legs back to starting. To really increase the workout, complete one plank jack, then jump legs up towards your arms and back to starting. Complete 12 plank jacks. 

Windshield Wipers

These are great for our abs! Lay on your back with legs together, straight up in the air at a 90 degree angle. Begin by lowing legs to the right, making sure to keep both hips on the floor. Hold this position, then bring legs back up and over to the left side, without pausing at the top. Hold this position, then bring legs back to starting. That is one rep. Complete twelve reps, total. For an advanced workout, contract your abs and lift your bum off the ground when you return to starting position.

For extra support, place you hands under your tailbone.  

Knee-Up Kicks

This is very similar to knee-ups, but you kick your foot straight out before binging it back down to the ground. Bring the right knee up like a usual knee-up, then kick the right leg straight out in front of you. Tuck it back in, and alternate bringing the left knee up and kicking the left leg out. Complete twelve per side, making sure to keep arms tucked and hips even the entire time. 

Standing Leg Lift Part I

Standing Leg Lift Part II

Jumping Lunges Part I

Jumping Lunges Part II

Three Way Crunches Part I

Three Way Crunches Part II

Plank Jacks Part I

Plank Jacks Part II

Plank Jacks Part III

Windshield Wipers Part I

Windshield Wipers Part II

Knee-Up Kicks Part I

Knee-Up Kicks Part II

Reading Round-Up

There have been a few articles, videos and such that I have come across along my perusal of the Internets... In the name of research, of course. Most of these have helped me immensely with their little tid-bits of knowledge, and most have been on a list of things I have been holding my breath to share. Finally, that day has come. Get ready and hunker down, there are quite a few things on this list, all of which I am super happy to have found!

Running

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I found this article back when I was doing my massive running shoes research (like that has ended, ha!) . This guy has so much information, I had to bookmark it and save it for future sharing. It really has nothing to do with running shoes, so I could not reasonably link it in any of those articles, but it does talk quite a bit about running your first marathon. If you, like me, are realizing that you will be running a half or whole marathon sometime in the near future, you will benefit from this article. It has inspiration and tips for all aspects of the race.

The article is over on the Running Shoes Guru website and was a little golden internet nugget when I found it. I still refer back to it at times when a little extra running comfort is needed.

Grain Wisely

I should first say that I love NutritionElla's blog. She is super sweet and has lots of great info on nutrition, not to mention all of her super-cute pictures... She even shows design updates of her new San Francisco apartment. Score-sees! This article is a bit more numbers driven than most others, and I love it. It is all about healthy wheat and how to get them in good quantities. The article is short and sweet with simple math that is easy to remember. I cannot count the number of times this bit of knowledge has been helpful, especially when grocery shopping.

Ella also refers back to the scientific study this post is based on. If you really want an interesting, hunker down and read article, this is it. I would suggest reading the study's abstract alone, if for no other reason than to better understand whole grains. It is interesting, promise.

If you look at the date this article was published, you will realize that I am an internet hoarder. There, it has been admitted.  

Body Weight Exercise

If you follow me on Pinterest, then you may have already seen this earlier in the week. Otherwise, it is new! I was looking at some of the online workouts of at Women's Health Magazine and found something that is straight up this fitness enthusiast's ally- a body weight workout. We travel a ton and when I am at home I like my closet space to be for cute shoes and to-die-for tops more than random fitness equipment. That makes body weight workouts a must for me.  

A body weight workout is a workout that uses your body weight instead of exercise weights, bands, or anything else. This workout has different exercises that will work different parts of the body. Everything is also broken down into reps, sets, and breaks. Just the way I like it! 

Safe Cycling  

This is another post from a blog I love. Twenty-Six and Then Some is a blog created by Page, an incredible triathlete. Her blog is great for inspiration and little fitness tips along the way. I also love, love, love hearing about her training days and the little updates on how training for triathlons effects her life.

When we were in San Francisco, we got a crash course in cycling rules. Since then, we have rented bicycles during a few of our vacations. The rules we learned in San Francisco have made such a difference in any cycling outing. I would highly recommend checking out this post if you are a) renting a bike on a summer vacation or, b) looking into or are a beginner cyclist. Page has tons of great tips and goes beyond the usual rules on proper right and left hand turns.  

This post is pretty recent. See, my hoarding is getting better! Also, this pic has nothing to do with cycling other than the bicycle, I just though it was pretty. Enjoy!

Weight Loss Yoga

Let's end with a workout video. Although I have quite a few more internet finds to share, I think ending before heads explode is wise. Maybe we will have a part II readin round-up next week for a few others in my archive.

If you have read more than five posts on this blog, you have probably figured out that I am obsessed with most any Jillian Michaels' workout. All her workouts are great and this Yoga Meltdown is no exception. These moves are pretty common yoga poses, but they have a little extra in the cardio field. The extra cardio makes this 30 minute workout great for toning and for fat burning. I was dripping sweat by minute 15, dripping sweat. 

Try this guy out for a great home-based power yoga workout. It is heaven for abs, backs, and arms. Plus, Jillian has three different levels of experience so everyone from the newbie yogi's to the experts can get something from this workout.