Avoiding Exercise Burnout

amberlynwellbeing
Jan 18, 2023
2 min read

We live in a society that values ‘hustle culture' and ‘the grind’, but what happens when you can’t keep up that pace?

What is Burnout?

You can have burnout it any area of your life, common ones are, job, academic, and exercise. Burnout in a general context is emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion due to a prolonged stress. I want to talk specifically about exercise burnout.

Exercise burnout is characterized by several things; fatigue, low productivity, as well as decreased motivation and performance. Those are fairly broad symptoms so let’s get more specific

Symptoms:

Persistent muscle soreness
Skipping the gym or a workout
Trouble sleeping
Irritability
Joint or muscle pain
Weakness or fatigue
Post workout discomfort

Having one or two of these symptoms may not necessarily mean that you are in burnout, but it could be a sign that things need to change. There are different phases or degrees of burnout, but today we are just scratching the surface. So, what do you do either to avoid burnout or when you start to feel it coming on?

How to Avoid Burnout:

Set a realistic timeline - often times we want to achieve our goals much more quickly than we can do sustainably and healthy, you need to be patient with yourself.
Allow time for recovery - rest days are just as important as your intense workout days, if you need to day or more than one day off, then do it. Pushing yourself through exhaustion will do nothing helpful for you.
Have reasonable workouts - if you are pushing yourself to the max every time you workout and you’re there for hours you are limiting your possible gains.
Switch up your workouts - changing up a workout here and there can be helpful for your body and mind, go outside for a workout.
Listen to yourself and your body - your body will tell you what it needs once you learn what it’s telling you. Trust your instincts. Explore your relationship with exercise and your why.
Set new goals - maybe your priorities have changed, maybe your original goal is currently attainable, setting new goals can be helpful to renew your motivation.

Now let’s say that you have pushing through workouts and you are deep into burnout, what do you do then?

Recovering From Burnout:

Rest - you’ll need to take some time off from intense workouts, let your body and mind rest. Resting and getting out of a burnout state will be a lot better for you in the long run that powering through the discomfort
Change it up - do something outside of your normal exercise routine. Go for walks/runs, do some yoga, go hiking, do a spin class or go for a bike ride, do a dance class , martial arts. Don't limit your activity just because it’s not what your ‘normally do’.
Reach out - reach out to a friend, reach out to a mental health professional, reach out to a family member. It’s ok to ask for help, everyone needs help sometimes.

Burnout is a very real thing and it happens a lot more frequently then we may think. Don't be afraid to slow down when you need to.