Are you exercising too much? 10 signs you may be burned out and 10 simple ways to recover

Weak, heavy, achy legs. Sore muscles. Jolts of adrenaline waking you up in the middle of the night. Worsening allergies. Weight gain despite increased exercise. Decreased workout performance. Longer recovery times. Irritability and impatience. Increased reliance on caffeine to get through the day.
 
Have you experienced any of this lately? If so, then like me, you may need to take a step back and reconsider your current workout routine. Unfortunately these were some of my experiences recently after following some of today’s fitness trends just  a bit too loyally. Top of my list were intermittent fasting, working out in a fasted state, high intensity workouts and trying to follow a low carb diet, just to name a few.
 
Like many others during the COVID pandemic, I put too much pressure on myself to be productive and to check everything off my to-do list (which was filled with healthy pursuits). Now don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that these practices don’t have benefits when implemented correctly. But this is where it can get tricky. They must be done correctly or you could find yourself feeling like I did. But when we are constantly bombarded with information, it can be difficult to sort through so many conflicting messages.
 
We are all different. What works for one person may not work for another. So how do you know what the best workout routine is for you? Listen to your body. I realized that subtle as it may be, there is a difference between tired legs and weak legs. There is a difference between being sleepy and feeling outright fatigued. There is a difference between general anxiety and random panic attacks.  There is a difference between just feeling lazy sometimes and feeling like you’re running on zero.
 
To determine what is and isn’t working for you, you must learn how to read your body. Unfortunately we don’t come with instruction manuals. But our bodies were gifted with the ability to send our brains messages about our bodies. The key is to feel these messages, listen to them and then to take action accordingly. Because I am here to tell you that if you don’t, you may end up physically burned out and totally sapped of energy.

Something was amiss
In my case, the first clue that something was wrong was my sudden lack of interest in my workouts. I felt amazing when I first started my morning workouts. I had lasting energy afterwards and I actually looked forward to them. But somewhere along the way, this changed.

I stopped looking forward to my workouts and I started dreading them. Not because they were boring but because my body was rebelling against them.  Granted, I could have consulted with a nutritionist to learn how to better fuel my body before and after exercise. That would’ve been a wise thing to do. But hindsight is 20/20, right?

Signs of burnout

• Feeling tired, moody and more irritable than usual
• Insomnia
• Feeling weaker, despite exercising more
• Heavy limbs
• Low motivation
• Getting injured from your exercise
• Requiring longer recovery time in between workouts
• Getting sick more often
• Changes in appetite (usually decreased)
• Increase in resting heart rate
  

*Note: Always be sure to check with a medical professional when you experience any new or worsening symptoms. They may be caused by exercise burnout but something more serious may also be going on. Always best to err on the side of caution and get checked out.

Things you can do to recover from exercise burnout

• Put less pressure on yourself. Ignore the numbers for a while and just focus on healing.
• Nourish your body by consuming  high quality fats and proteins, healthy carbs,  and fewer processed foods.
  
• Make sure you are properly hydrated. This can make all the difference in the world for your energy levels.
  
• Get more sleep! There is nothing more restorative than getting some solid shut eye.
  
• Cut back on your caffeine intake. Your adrenal glands need time to replenish themselves too. Too much caffeine can be taxing on the body.
  
• Seek opportunities to move that are less strenuous.
  
• Create a varied exercise regimen, by incorporating a range of physical activities that you enjoy. Don't be afraid to get creative!
• Ease your way back into exercise slowly. This can take a couple weeks. Right now, less is more.
• Reassess what your workout goals are. Ask yourself why you were pushing yourself so hard in the first place. Figure out how you can realign your goals to make them more realistic.
• Don't forget to engage in daily self-care. Pamper yourself regularly.

After I made some of these changes, I  began to notice a difference in only a few days. I was less irritable, I slept soundly (no more jolting awake!), my legs felt strong again, I no longer needed midday naps with caffeine to make it through the days and I even felt lighter (I don’t own a scale so I can only guess that I lost some weight).  I felt like my old self again.

The best workout (for me)
During this time when I was trying to figure out how to stay active and healthy without burning myself out, I just happened to run into an old friend. When I saw her again, I was shocked. She had totally transformed herself from being unhealthy, inactive and slightly overweight, to being a fit, strong, tanned walking machine. She said she had never felt so good before. I drilled her to try to uncover what else she had been doing besides walking that made her so fit. Surely, she must’ve been hitting the gym regularly, counting her calories, and doing the whole intermittent fasting thing. But no, she just walked. And walked and walked. She walked every single day in all types of weather.
 
Inspired by my friend, no weather was too bad to make me cancel a walk. In Maryland, you’d rarely make it out the door if you waited for the perfect weather to walk. Each day I decided to walk just a little further. By the end of one week, 1 mile became 2 miles, then they became 3 and eventually they topped out to an average of 3-4 miles per day. I felt amazing. Instead of feeling fatigued or weak, I felt energized. I realized that this is the effect that exercise should have on you!
 
To maintain the routine, I began a ritual to reward myself after my longer walks. I’d come home, hop in the shower, and treat myself to a nice cool beverage as I basked in the afterglow of the effects of serotonin, dopamine and whichever endorphins I believed had been flooding my system. This is something that I can continue doing indefinitely and I have no plans of stopping any time soon.
 
There are many people who scoff at the idea of walking as a sole form of exercise (no pun intended!).  But to me, there is nothing that feels more natural than putting one foot in front of the other.  After jolting awake more times than I care to remember, I was afraid to push my body too hard for a while. But when I started walking in nature again, I felt like I was my old self again. The act of walking just felt so effortless but at the same time it yielded so many benefits. Best of all, I couldn't burnout from it.
 
So what’s next?
I've already slowly reintroduced strength training back into my exercise routine because I understand its many benefits for a healthy body. But thankfully I also understand the importance of rest days, of sufficiently fueling my body before/after workouts and of not putting so much pressure on myself to “be healthy”.

In the end, I am grateful for having listened to my body. I had been “jolted awake”, both literally and figuratively. I will continue to closely monitor the feedback that I get from my body and I will never ignore the signs of burnout. But regardless, I know that rain or shine I will keep on walking, one foot in front of the other.