SIGNS OF OVERTRAINING: HOW TO TELL WHEN YOUR TRAINING IS DOING MORE HARM THAN GOOD

Published: 02/04/2026 | By: Ethan Allen

Pushing harder isn’t always the answer – Ethan Allen has learnt this the hard way. Overtraining is one of the most common reasons athletes plateau, burn out, or pick up avoidable injuries. In this guide, the Sports Direct ambassador explains how to recognise the signs of overtraining, recover properly, and build a training routine that supports long-term progress.

Now then. If you’re anything like me, your default mindset is to push harder, train more, and fight through fatigue. Doing double sessions alongside a full day at work? Pushing an extra 5K on a long tempo run? Banging a few more plates on the rack? That works… until it doesn’t.

Overtraining can happen to anyone – whether you’re preparing for a marathon, a triathlon, HYROX, or just trying to level up your fitness. The problem is, most people don’t realise it’s happening until performance drops or injuries kick in.

I’ve been there myself. Training for marathons, I’ve pushed through sore hip flexors, shin splints and a tight IT band – only to end up missing sessions completely or having to drop out of something I’ve trained so hard for. And that’s the key point: overtraining doesn’t improve consistency, it destroys it.

WHAT IS OVERTRAINING?

Overtraining happens when the body is exposed to more training stress than it can recover from. There’s a difference between:

• Training hard – creating short-term fatigue that improves with rest
• Overtraining – longer-term fatigue and performance decline

Training works by breaking the body down and then allowing it to rebuild stronger. Without proper recovery, that adaptation never happens. This isn’t just for elite athletes – anyone increasing training volume or intensity can experience it.

COMMON SIGNS OF OVERTRAINING

Some of the most common signs of overtraining include:

• Persistent fatigue that doesn’t improve with rest
• Performance decline in runs, lifts, or workouts
• Ongoing muscle soreness
• Increased injuries like shin splints, IT band pain, tight hip flexors and other little niggles
• Waking up feeling exhausted

Overtraining isn’t just physical – it affects your mindset too:

• Loss of motivation to train
• Lack of enjoyment in training
• Low mood, mental fatigue or lack of focus

If you’re asking yourself “how do I know if I’m overtraining?” – it’s usually a combination of both physical and mental signs.

One useful way to catch this early is by tracking simple recovery metrics. An elevated resting heart rate (around 5–10 bpm higher than normal) can be a sign your body is under stress, while consistently low heart rate variability (HRV) often indicates poor recovery. You don’t need to obsess over the numbers, but they can help highlight trends before things go wrong.

OVERTRAINING VS NORMAL TIREDNESS

Feeling tired after a hard session is normal. That’s part of the process of improving. Who doesn’t love a bit of DOMS?

The difference is that normal fatigue improves after rest, whereas overtraining symptoms stick around and often get worse. One of the biggest indicators is performance. If your fitness is dropping despite consistent effort, that’s a clear red flag. Tools like training logs, GPS watches, and heart rate tracking can help spot these trends early.

WHAT CAUSES OVERTRAINING?

The most common causes of overtraining are:

• Increasing mileage or intensity too quickly
• Too many high-intensity sessions
• Not enough rest days
• Poor nutrition or under-fuelling
• Lack of sleep or high life stress

Under-fuelling is also one of the fastest ways to end up overtrained – especially in endurance sports. If you’re not eating enough to support your training load, recovery simply won’t happen. I see this a lot in endurance training – people stack hard sessions on top of long runs without giving the body time to recover.

WHAT TO DO IF YOU’RE OVERTRAINING

If you recognise these symptoms of overtraining, the solution isn’t to push harder – it’s to reset. Here’s what works:

• Reduce training volume or intensity
• Add extra rest days or a full deload week
• Swap runs for low-impact cardio like cycling or swimming
• Prioritise mobility, stretching and recovery work
• Focus on nutrition, hydration, protein intake and improved sleep

A simple deload week could mean reducing your training volume by 30–50%, keeping intensity low, and focusing on movement quality rather than performance. I’ve personally found that swapping a run for a bike session when I’m fatigued can keep consistency high without adding impact stress. When returning from overtraining, build back gradually – start at around 70% of your previous volume and increase slowly based on how your body responds.

HOW TO PREVENT OVERTRAINING

The goal is to train smart, not just hard. To prevent overtraining, focus on:

• Following a structured training plan
• Including rest days and deload weeks
• Balancing hard sessions with easy sessions
• Monitoring your training load and recovery
• Investing in proper footwear and gear

A simple rule that helps: avoid increasing both volume and intensity at the same time. Build one, then the other. For example, using cushioned trainers for long easy runs – and saving race-day shoes for key sessions – can help reduce unnecessary stress on your body.

RECOVERY IS PART OF PROGRESS

One of the biggest mindset shifts I’ve had is that recovery isn’t a weakness – it’s part of the process. The goal isn’t to train as hard as possible every day. It’s to stay consistent over weeks and months without breaking down. Because ultimately, the athletes who improve the most aren’t the ones who train the hardest – they’re the ones who stay injury-free long enough for the training to work.

Train hard, but recover harder – because consistency beats intensity every time.

And, team – please reach out if you have any questions and keep smashing it!!