With the New Year and New Year’s resolutions, the big challenge is not to overdo your workouts.

There is a fine line to be exercising for your health and exercise hurting your health. When I was a top athlete, the only way I trained was all out. The more I worked out, the better I would be — the harder I trained, the greater my successes. And I was successful, but I was also the one who had injury after injury (and paying for those injuries now). I would win a big international judo tournament and get hurt in practice or competition and not able to attend a qualifying tournament for the European and world championships. No pain no gain — is it true? There is some muscle, body pain and lung burning going on when working out hard, whether it is running, martial arts, lifting weights or any other sport out there. But when is it too much? The following are signs and symptoms from the ACSM’s health and fitness journal:

More than 125 signs and symptoms have been identified in other published literature but the most common signs and symptoms of overtraining are:

• Persistent heavy, stiff and sore muscles

• Persistent fatigue, washed-out feeling

• Decreased performance and ability to maintain training regimen

• Increased susceptibility to infections, colds, headaches

• Nagging and somewhat chronic injuries

• Sleep disturbances

• Decreased mental concentration and restlessness

• Increased irritability

• Depression

• Tachycardia (faster heartbeat than normal at rest) and, in some cases bradycardia (slower than normal heart beat)

• Loss of appetite and weight loss

• Bowel movement changes

• With females, absence of menstruation

Here you are thinking you are doing the right thing for your body but in reality you are harming yourself. So how do I know if I am doing too much?

Listen to your body and take extra recovery time when needed. Follow the 10-percent rule; don’t increase training volume and/or intensity by more than 10 percent at a time.

Change up your workout routine through periodization format, with higher intense and volume periods to extended periods of rest and recovery time.

Cross train — a variety in your training is very healthy and beneficial.

Rest accordingly. After a hard workout, your body usually needs at least 24 up to 72 hours of recovery depending on how hard and long you have worked.

You should not feel wiped out after a workout; you should actually feel you could do more.

Proper nutrition and hydration are very important. Seek a professional dietitian, when needed, who is knowledgeable with sports nutrition. We are starting a nutrition course with Dr. Bowser in a few weeks.

Quality sleep is essential. This is the time when your body is restoring and rebuilding. Even if you have challenges staying asleep (like I do), resting still helps your body recover and rebuild.

As with eating, planning and keeping a log on your exercise routines can be very beneficial. Write down what you do at what intensity and time, but also how you felt.

Most people reading think this is for the competitive athletes, which are absolutely a part of a group that believes “no pain no gain” is the only way to work out. As coaches, personal trainers and athletic trainers, we need to guide and support our athletes young and old that training hard responsibly and effectively is the key to a healthy successful career. But it also for the exerciser that is doing it purely for health, body or stress relief that “too much” is not the healthy way to exercise.

Having goals are great, just make sure you build up slowly and let your body adapt to the workouts. So whether you are a competitive athlete, health seeker or stress relief exerciser, make sure you do it for your health and don’t hinder your wellbeing.

To all a very happy and healthy 2024!

Ester H. Marsh is director of healthy living at the J.F. Hurley Family YMCA.