Signs You Aren’t Recovering From Workouts

Nutrition and exercise are tricky, as we need to be eating enough to support our activity and exercise, and there’s a point at which no amount of food can compensate for working out too much or working out too hard.

And while enduring stress is how we can get stronger, improve our lifts, improve our endurance, become a better runner, etc etc… we need our nutrition and workouts to work together hand-in-hand.

Constant stress, too much stress, or chronic under-recovery can be major driver that compounds over time and results in a weakened immune system, higher risk of injury, hormone or thyroid problems, autoimmune issues, digestion and gut woes, and more.

It doesn’t really matter if it’s from not eating enough food, not eating enough carbs, training too much or too hard, not taking enough rest days, or a combination of all the above. Under recovery is under recovery. And you can only positively adapt from what you can recover from.

I used to struggle with a lot of this and it unfortunately took me a lot longer than it should have to put two and two together. So maybe this will help someone out there, too (:

Signs Your Body Isn’t Picking Up What You’re Putting Down

My work day used to end at whatever time I went to the gym. I would walk out a (sweaty) braindead zombie and my ability to concentrate, answer emails, or work productivity to any capacity would become pretty much zero. 

I slowly pushed my workout time out to later and later in the day to compensate… but boyyyy what a red flag.

I also used to wake up repeatedly during the night, every few hours. The first time I’d wake up, I’d usually be starving and ravenously hungry (so I’d eat a banana or a handful of whatever and then climb back into bed). Then I’d spend the remainder of the night tossing, turning, and dozing in and out of sleep every few hours.

I also used to think I wasn’t “getting a good workout” unless I felt super sore and finished every workout gasping for air, covered in sweat, and rolling around on the floor (doh).

 

Potential Signs You Aren’t Recovering From Your Workouts

• You’re constantly getting sick or injured
• You constantly feel beatdown, tired, and exhausted
• You have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep
• You’re always ridiculously sore
• Your joints constantly hurt and ache
• You’re having trouble gaining muscle / gaining strength
• You’re not seeing changes/improvements to body comp
• You’re not performing well during workouts
• Your hormone levels / sex drive aren’t doing so hot
• Changes in mood, irritability, new feelings of depression
• Mental fog, difficulty concentrating

 

Unfortunately I could tell similar stories for pretty much every bullet on the list above.

And then all my years of over training and under-eating in my early twenties definitely caught up to me in my late twenties — as I spent several years struggling with my thyroid health, hormone health, and dealing with awful digestion. But you don’t know what you don’t know.

 

And I now know that I wasn’t:

• Eating enough food for my activity by a landslide (RIP to all the years I intentionally only ate 1200-1600 calories, when I now know my maintenance is closer to 2200-2300 )
• Definitely was NOT eating enough carbs (thank you Paleo, Whole30, and all the carb fear mongering)
• I was terrified of rest days for years, so I definitely wasn’t taking them, let alone enough of them
• I was training at like, RPE 9-10 every day and “competing,” rather than training (RPE 7 – 8.5)
• I was also just doing too much in general because I’d do a CrossFit workout, then extra strength, skill work, AND cardio. Some days I also went to yoga or would run 3-5 miles (cringe)

 

All this to say – your body is always trying to communicate with you. Maybe don’t leave the phone ringing off the hook like I did for years and years on end.

And if you found yourself saying “yes” to a lot of things on the list, it might be a good time to get curious and look at your nutrition and workout habits (and maybe check us out over at Paragon Training Methods!