Stop before you drop: doubling up your workouts won't double your progress. Here's how to tell if you're overtraining

Work hard and reap the rewards.

Work too hard and lose those rewards.

There's no doubt that smart, dedicated training sculpts your thighs, trims your abs, increases your energy, banishes your blues and even helps maintain your weight. Nevertheless, when excessive, the very exercises that empower you can also rob you of all that progress.

But aren't you supposed to train hard? Pushing through one last set with the weights and going to the gym for an extra day of intense cardio should help you achieve your goals faster, right? Not necessarily. Contrary to the popular mantra "no pain, no gain," pushing yourself too hard, too long and without adequate rest decreases performance and increases the likelihood of health problems. In other words, you overtrain.

Overtraining is a generic term that describes many tiers of excessive exercise. Basic fatigue and muscle soreness caused by a few days of intense workouts are considered hallmarks of overload training, a common and necessary part of your routine. When your muscles don't recover, overload training evolves into overreaching, characterized by fatigue, decreased performance and a recovery time of about 2-3 weeks. If you skip that recovery time, overtraining syndrome develops. In addition to the effects of overreaching, overtraining extends your recovery time and can cause health problems.

not just exhaustion

Symptoms of overtraining syndrome are subtle, sometimes taking months to develop, and are marked by physiological, performance and psychological changes. "It's a little more than being tired," explains Beth A. Ribblett, director of training and education at Elmwood Fitness Center, a division of Ochsner Hospital in Harahan, Louisiana.

If you're waking up sore and stiff due to a few intense workouts, you're fine. If that soreness and stiffness refuses to budge over time, that's your warning. Muscle soreness should usually dissipate within about 48 hours of an intense workout, says Lisa Leonard, an online personal trainer with Body Trends (www.bodytrends.com). Depending on your fitness level and the intensity of the workout, however, some muscle soreness may extend beyond 72 hours.

Besides soreness, those who overtrain also exhibit the following symptoms:

* SLEEP DISTURBANCES: Getting too much sleep or too little sleep; waking up fatigued despite a normal amount of sleep.

* PSYCHOLOGICAL REACTIONS: Burnout, boredom, depression, irritability, anger.

* IMPAIRED PERFORMANCE: Decreased strength, decreased endurance, delayed recovery, general intolerance to training.

* DECREASED IMMUNE FUNCTION: Increased susceptibility to colds, flu and infections; slow rate of healing.

If not controlled, overtraining may lead to permanent, more devastating consequences. Excessive exercise--especially when combined with excessive weight loss--interferes with hormones, disrupting your menstrual cycle. No cycles mean no hormones, and no hormones mean bone loss. In essence, you deprive your body of bone-preserving hormones, increasing your likelihood for developing osteoporosis prematurely as well as decades down the road.

pieces of the puzzle

What causes overtraining syndrome? Excessive training without reasonable rest, when your body can't catch up with the frequency and/or intensity of your workouts. Exercise is a stress, and the intensity and frequency of that stress influences the amount of rest the body requires for recovery. But exercise isn't the only piece of the overtraining syndrome puzzle.

Dieting can also contribute to overtraining. Muscles need calories for recovery, and deficient calories are the most important nutritional factor in the development of overtraining and exhaustion, states Therese Franzese, MS, RD, director of nutrition at Chelsea Piers in New York City. Inadequate nutrient intake limits the body's ability to recover from exercise, increasing the likelihood of overtraining.

Your personality also increases your risk. Individuals with a Type A personality and professional athletes--who constantly push themselves and desire to compete and achieve perfection--are more likely to develop the condition than others are, notes Ribblett. Trying to reach a goal too quickly is another mistake. For instance, if you're trying to change the shape of your body for a reunion or your wedding and you're allowing yourself just one month to lose 20 pounds, this unrealistic goal may throw you into an overtraining nightmare.

rest, relax and recuperate

Fortunately, treatment is nearly effortless. You don't have to forgo your routine forever in an attempt to heal; just give your muscles time. "If you have problems taking days off, consider doing some yoga or stretching, so you're doing something for your body that's still movement-oriented," suggests Liz Neporent, MA, director of special projects for Plus One Fitness and co-author of Weight Training for Dummies (Hungry Minds Inc., 2000) and Fitness for Dummies (Hungry Minds Inc., 1999).