No matter how experienced the athlete, I think overtraining is always a risk.
I hold my hands up – I’m guilty of overtraining on many occasions, and it is taking me a long time to learn. I think it comes back to a fear that if you don’t workout, you will lose your progress, muscle, or gain fat. In fact, injuries will do this to you sooner so it is definitely best to rest and rebuild. I know you have to be disciplined. (Where some people struggle to pull themselves off the sofa to get active, many of us are the opposite – perhaps too active for our own good!)

My current marathon training is bugging me because my body isn’t used to endurance work and it is taking its toll. I like to challenge of long runs but I’ll go back to HIIT when the London Marathon is done! I’m on a 3 day rest to try to let my knees and joints heal. Let’s hope it works! Marathons just aren’t good for my body. Are they good for anyone’s in fact?

For anybody else who dislikes injury, I have pulled together some of my thoughts and tips in an article: http://www.lmdfitness.com/training/overcoming-injury-stop-exercising/

On the muscle building side, I used to lack discipline for resting, and couldn’t resist sneaking to the gym on my ‘off’ days to work on a different body part. My work rate was excellent but I was training dumb if you like. You have to train smart! I know now the importance of rest and nutrition. The exercise is just one part of the equation. Cheers for bringing up this classic and very important topic JC!