How to Avoid Emotional Burnout
Maintaining a balanced training regimen without burning out in training can be tricky. To make progress, you need to challenge your body, but this can lead to overtraining if you’re not careful. Having a predictable workout routine can help you stay consistent, but it can also lead to boredom and lack of motivation. Having goals can help you stay focused, but if your goals are unrealistic, it can also affect your motivation.
“People are less likely to experience burnout [during exercise] if they are working toward appropriate goals, enjoying their activities, and having fun,” said Chris Gagliardi , certified personal trainer and academic content manager for the American Council on physical exercise .
What do the first signs of burnout look like?
When it comes to athlete burnout, the early signs can be mental, physical, or both. Some of the early signs include chronic muscle or joint pain, decreased athletic performance, decreased interest in exercising, fatigue, frequent illness, and long recovery times.
As Kelsey Decker, a StretchLab Certified Personal Trainer, told Lifehacker, increasing the intensity or duration of your workouts can lead to persistent soreness, extended recovery times, permanent injury and fatigue.
“It’s important that we listen to our bodies between workouts and during workouts,” Decker said. “The consistency of days in a row or the length of a workout can have an effect on overworking our bodies.”
Prioritize rest and recovery
Rest is an important part of any exercise program. As Gagliardi suggests, when it comes to recovery from a high-intensity workout that stresses the muscles or the cardiovascular system, a rest period of 48 to 72 hours is recommended.
“A day of rest doesn’t necessarily mean no physical activity, but that you give tired muscle groups a chance to recover,” Gagliardi said. Rest days may include walking, stretching, another lower intensity workout, or another body part workout. It’s important to make sure your body has enough time to rest, as the recovery process is just as important to progress as a high-intensity workout.
Set realistic goals
Achieving progress without burnout means setting realistic goals that should be achievable within a reasonable amount of time. “If the goals you set are unrealistic, it can lead to frustration because no matter how committed you are to achieving them, it may not be safe or possible,” Gagliardi said.
If you’ve set a goal that’s realistic but takes a long time to reach, like going from a completely sedentary lifestyle to running a marathon, that can also feel overwhelming. Instead, to keep you motivated and avoid overtraining, it’s helpful to break down a big goal into smaller ones, such as training for a 5K, 10K, and half marathon before attempting a marathon.
How to recover if you burn out in training
If you find yourself training to the point of exhaustion, it will take some time to recover. Decker suggests trying a new low-intensity activity like walking, stretching, or yoga. The idea is to allow your body and mind to heal.
And, as Gagliardi points out, when you’re recovering from workout burnout, it’s important that whatever activities you choose are ones you find enjoyable so that you stick with them.