After reading the question asked by one of our readers this week asking whether or not she is doing too much or too little training, I started thinking about how much exercise is too much. It’s a very fine line, and those involved in high performance or elite sport will know that it is not an easy topic or decision to make deciding whether your athlete is over-training.

Especially with high volumes of training that these athletes do, it’s not always easy to determine whether the athlete is doing too much or too little.

In regard to people just starting to exercise, over-training is still a very real phenomenon. You know- the kind of person who goes for an early run, then gyms at lunch and finishes the day off with action netball. As mentioned earlier, it’s not very easy to determine over-training but here are a few “symptoms”...

• Dehydration or constantly feeling thirsty
• Problems with sleep or sleeping too much/too little
• Continual fatigue throughout the day
• Joint and muscle pains/problems
• Bad headaches
• Unable to maintain correct technique during exercises
• Elevated resting heart rate taken first thing in the morning
• Unable to raise heart rate to peak during exercise
• Illness and sickness: This is usually the effect of over-training. Which therefore means that you did not pick up that you were doing too much and you will get sick as your immune system is affected by too much training.

If you are concerned that you are over-training, I suggest you stop training until you know for sure and speak to your doctor.