What is overtraining doing to your health?

It’s a simple formula right? Keep your diet in check, exercise lots and you’ll look great, feel great and be healthy, fit and strong. Well while this may be true to a certain extent in theory … it seems that this simple formula may have a few loopholes in reality.The benefits of exercise on ones physical and mental health have been widely documented for many years. Physical activity has consistently been proven to reduce the prevalence of many physical conditions including cardiovascular disease, obesity and cancer; as well as mental health outcomes including depression and other mood disorders. In general, regular physical activity does seem to result in a more positive quality of life when compared to those who don’t engage in regular exercise … but can too much of a good thing be bad? What happens when you exercise too much?Researchers observed the physical and mental changes of a group of female college swimmers throughout progressive (but substantial) increases in training volume when compared to a group of active college women. While at baseline all women showed similar levels of physical and mental health, significant alterations in tension, depressed mood, anger and fatigue as well as increased levels of salivary cortisol were observed following this intense training regime. Other symptoms of excessive exercise may include sleep disturbance, loss of weight and/or appetite, reduced libido and emotionally instability.Do these symptoms sound at all similar to another mental illness…? While the majority of these symptoms appear to lessen or disappear entirely with a gradual decrease in training volume, similarities between the symptoms of overtraining and those of depression are hard to ignore.So why this paradox?  While symptoms may vary from individual to individual (many may not even experience any shortcomings) there appear to be a few reasons overtraining might be triggering detriments in ones health.Physiological: Changes in bodily functions have been observed including suppression of immune system, muscle damage, decreased muscle glycogen reserves and neuroendocrine system imbalances, often causing one to feel run down. Increases in cortisol levels have also been found, particularly impacting mood, irritability, fatigue and overall stress levels.Psychological: With such a big emphasis placed on training, it is not uncommon for many athletes to become burnt out. This may result in a decreased self-esteem, loss of confidence, withdrawal and overall exhaustion. Research has suggested that mood disturbances can also often lead to performance decrements, which can be very frustrating for someone putting in hours of training a day. Many athletes can even become obsessed putting them at risk of other mental illnesses including anorexia, addiction or muscle dysmorphia.What is considered 'overtraining' can often differ from person to person and although these symptoms appear to be more common in athletes, many people – particularly in a society like ours, so heavily focused on diet and exercise – may become fixated on their goals and push themselves too far. This may essentially cause the opposite effect of what they are hoping to achieve, leading to detriments in physical and mental health instead of positive outcomes. While everyone is different and it is unlikely that training an hour or so 4-5 times a week will result in these effects, it is important to listen to your body in order to get the most out of your training; often times it will tell you when something is wrong.