The new year is always a great time to define new fitness goals. But if you have grand plans of running your first marathon or jumping headfirst into HIIT (high-intensity interval training), you should take steps to prevent overtraining.

“Taking steps to improve your fitness or lose weight is always a good thing,” says Jeffrey Klott, MD, an MU Health Care orthopaedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist. “But it’s important to recognize that when you cross the line between healthy exercise and an unhealthy level of training, it can cause long-term health issues.”

To help you achieve your fitness goals in the safest and most sustainable way possible, Dr. Klott shares what you need to know about overtraining and how to prevent it.

What Is Overtraining and Overtraining Syndrome (OTS)?

When you push yourself physically, you expect to be sore. But if your exercise and training are not balanced with appropriate recovery, you may be overtraining. Over time, chronic overtraining can lead to more than just soreness — it can cause overtraining syndrome (OTS), a condition that can cause severe fatigue and larger health issues.

“There’s no real consensus on when overtraining or OTS occur,” Dr. Klott says. “It is different for everyone. But there is a point when you break down your body to a degree that it cannot recover easily.”

OTS happens mostly to competitive athletes — up to 60% experience it during their athletic careers. But overtraining can happen to anyone at any fitness level or age.

How to Prevent Overtraining

Pushing your body past its limits once or twice won’t cause OTS. But regularly overtraining is a cause for concern and increases your risk of injury.

Dr. Klott says you can reduce your risk of overtraining by taking these steps:

1. Understand Your Risk of Overtraining

While anyone can overtrain, some people are at higher risk, especially those who participate in:

• Endurance sports, such as marathon runners or cyclists
• Indoor sports, such as swimming
• Sports with weight cut-offs or body image factors, such as wrestling or competitive gymnastics

You’re more likely to experience acute overtraining — pushing yourself too hard for a short time — with group activities or when a goal is put before you, such as a spin class with a leaderboard, a Crossfit workout, or a race you are trying to finish but aren’t fully prepared for. While those activities involve their own health risks, they are less likely to lead to OTS.

You may be more likely to overtrain regularly if you:

• Are highly driven or a perfectionist, which may make you more likely to ignore signs of overtraining as you strive for a fitness goal
• Have underlying mental health issues and replace prescription treatment with the endorphin-driven response you get from exercise
• Jump into a new sport or activity without coaching or ramp-up time

“Research shows people with a mental health history can be predisposed to overtraining, as they may be less likely to recognize the signs or symptoms for themselves,” Dr. Klott says. “But a large part of the population overtrains because their body is not physically ready for the demands being placed on it.”

2. Know the Signs of Overtraining and OTS

Overtraining goes beyond typical soreness and lasts for more than a day or two.

“The day after a vigorous spin class, run or strength-training session, you can feel it in the muscles you worked,” Dr. Klott says. “But overtraining can make you extremely tired and feel like you can’t get out of your chair or climb the stairs.”

If you ignore those signs and continue to train without giving your body time to heal, your body may respond in other ways, including:

• Anemia (low iron) resulting from a lack of nutrients
• Bone density issues and fractures, when your body is forced to take energy from bones, leaving them too weak to sustain prolonged activity
• Insomnia and poor sleep related to hormonal changes that occur with overtraining
• Menstrual and hormonal changes as your body enters survival mode
• Extreme muscle stiffness, which may be the first sign of rhabdomyolysis (muscle breakdown and death)
• Sudden changes in BMI (body mass index), often the first sign of OTS in men
• Symptoms of an eating disorder, since research shows that people with OTS have a higher-than-average rate of eating disorders

“Your body pulls energy and nutrients from wherever it can just to function and stay alive,” Dr. Klott says. “We are seeing high school, college-age and 30-year-old women who have osteoporosis at the same level as someone in their 70s because their body is taking energy from anywhere to maintain normal function.”

3. Listen to Your Body

Being attuned to your body is one of the easiest and most effective ways to prevent acute overtraining, says Dr. Klott. When a workout leaves you too tired or unable to move three or four days later, you need to pull back and let your body recover.

“If something feels out of the ordinary for you, consider curtailing your activity a bit,” Dr. Klott says. “You don’t have to go cold turkey or completely stop the activities you’re doing, but pull back a little until your body finds its balance and you recover. Then, learn from it and don’t push so hard next time.”

If you find it challenging to listen to your body, wearable technology may help. It can track bodily functions and sleep to provide a wellness score that may guide your training.

4. Fuel Your Body Appropriately

Overtraining can occur when your body does not have enough energy to support your workout.

“At the end of the day, it comes down to how much energy (calories) you consume,” Dr. Klott says. “How much do you eat versus how does your body burn? And don’t just calculate what you burn in your workout. Include how many calories you use throughout the day, too, outside of when you exercise.”

Dr. Klott adds that this is another way that wearable technology can help. It can estimate how many calories you burn a day. If you log your food for a week or so, you’ll know whether you’re properly fueling your body.

5. Take a Slow and Gradual Approach to Fitness Goals

Weekend warriors and people beginning a vigorous workout regimen can quickly overtrain and get injured. A slower approach will not only reduce your risk of injury, but it’s also more sustainable and better for your health in the long term.

“People are motivated and passionate, but instead of going at a gentle jog, they immediately sprint, and as we all know, you can’t sustain a sprint for long,” Dr. Klott says. “Gradually work up to your goal so that your body has time to adjust to the increased activity load.”

6. Change Up Your Workouts Regularly

Repetitive workouts can cause stress fractures and joint injuries. That’s why Dr. Klott recommends balancing high-impact exercise with yoga, stretching or lower-impact workouts.

“If you take a global approach to health and working out, you end up working different muscle groups every day and exercise them differently with strength training and aerobic exercise,” Dr. Klott says. “That’s a long-term successful strategy for overall health.”

7. See a Medical Professional at the First Signs of OTS

There are no diagnostic tests for OTS. If your overtraining is severely impacting your health, a health care provider can diagnose OTS by excluding other issues. Your primary care provider (PCP) is always a good first option. But if your symptoms are hormonal or affect your menstrual cycle, Dr. Klott says you can also contact your OBGYN. An orthopaedic specialist can help with fractures and other musculoskeletal problems.

“It may take a multidisciplinary approach to get you back on track,” Dr. Klott says. “We need to figure out the best way to change your thought process and activity to bring you back to a sustainable fitness level.”