How do you know if youre doing too much?

[mosschops30]

because at the moment i seem to be constantly in pain. But i do look amazing so its working

On a normal week i either work with my trainer (fat burn, squats, lunges, weights, core) or i'll do his tailored workout in the gym.
The pain in my muscles from this normally lasts about 3-4 days.
Then i do a body combat class, which again leaves me aching for another two days.
Then a swim another day.
Plus walking to and from school every day.

So is it normal to be aching this much, ive been back to exercising properly for about 3-4 weeks now.
Am i overdoing it?

Bump

I'm no fitness expert but it sounds like you could be doing too much.

Pain is a message from your body. Listen to it and heed it's warning. Your body is wise and will tell you what it needs.

But if you exercise and feel nothing surely youre not working the muscles?
How do you find a happy medium

I'm no expert either but I work out everyday but probably in shorter bursts than you, about 45 minutes. I also intersperse the cardio and strength training with yoga and pilates which give my poor muscles a good stretch. I've built stamina and strength gradually doing this with no injuries.

If you're coping with the pain and it's just muscular pain from the exercise rather than damage, I'd say press on, especially since you're getting results!

I went to a trainer for a while, and I could barely get down the stairs from the gym afterwards, then for nearly a week I felt as if my lower body had been beaten with a baseball bat.

Not really conducive to keeping it up, and I stopped after a few weeks, but I knew if I perservered the pain would lessen.

Might be worth asking your trainer if you should take it down a level for a bit, if you think the pain might make you more likely to give up.

No i dont think the pain is too much, but i do seem to be in pain most of the time.
It is deffo muscular, no joint pain.
I quite like that i feel it days after, at least i know im working.

As long as the pain is just DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) and not the sort of pain that indicates a potential injury which should be rested then you should be fine. When you overtrain your body will let you know, you will find that you start to regress in your workouts, ie fail to finish what you normally can achieve, can't lift the same weight etc, you feel more tired all the time and it can often cause you to sleep badly as well. These are all signs that you need to make sure you have more recovery time between high intensity workouts etc so either more days off, or substitute lower intensity activities on some days such as yoga, walking, steady state swimming etc. I reached this stage last year some time whilst training for a half and trying to keep up my three weights sessions a week, I was tired all the time but couldn't sleep and both my running and weight training suffered until I cut things back.

Also, don't worry if you don't feel any DOMS after a workout, it doesn't mean that it hasn't been effective.

Has your PT introduced you to foam rolling? If not this is something you could do at home in between your workouts which will probably help with the DOMS.

Doesn't seem overly much as 3 gym/swim sessions per week, plus walking - unless your walk to and fro work is 2 hrs each way in which case I would be more worried about the Dcs than yourself.

I found when I went to a personal trainer that I ached a lot as they have ways of making unusual muscles work.

I would say if you were doing too much you would feel exhausted rather than sore, more stretching would probably help.

The foam rolling looks good i will try that.