Overtraining Makes People More Impulsive
Exercise has many benefits for your body and mind. It improves your fitness, strengthens your muscles, tightens your skin and it is also good for your cardiovascular system and even for your cognitive ability. However, overtraining makes people more impulsive and can have negative consequences.
There are many problems you can get if you overtrain with little rest in between. For example, sports can become an addiction. Other common conditions include muscular dysmorphism and addiction to running.
It can also lead to:
- muscle injuries
- heart and respiratory problems
- deterioration of the immune system
- joint aging
- overtraining syndrome
Overtraining makes people more impulsive
Sometimes sports training goes a little too far and escalates into overtraining or overtraining syndrome. This syndrome is similar to a burnout at work and the athlete’s performance decreases sharply, even when he takes a rest. It therefore manifests itself with a range of physical and psychological symptoms.
You can distinguish between physical and mental overtraining just by looking at the symptoms, as we describe below.
Physical overtraining
The physical and physiological symptoms that can manifest in this syndrome include:
- increased blood pressure and heart rate
- high body temperature
- hypertension
- weight loss and decreased appetite
- gastrointestinal disorders
- muscle strain
- susceptibility to infections and reduced immunity
- elevated cortisol
- increase in fatty acids
- a decrease in iron, hemoglobin, and/or glycogen
- mental overtraining
In addition, the following psychological symptoms may occur:
- mood swings
- fatigue and exhaustion
- anxiety
- get irritated easily
- lack of concentration
- low self-esteem and self-confidence
- loss of libido
- sleep disorders (English link)
In addition, a recent study found that excessive training can lead to increased impulsivity. Not only does this fact affect this trait, but it can also have very negative consequences for behavior and health.
Impulsivity is a property that leads to acting quickly, unexpectedly, and excessively when confronted with internal or external stimuli. Thus, the person acts without thinking or considering the consequences.
The research
Last September, a French research group published a study on the effects of overtraining on impulsivity. More specifically, how overtraining affects cognitive control.
To this end, they surveyed a total of 37 triathletes, which they divided into two groups:
- the overtraining group
- the control group
Then 19 of them increased the duration of the training by 40% in each session for three weeks, while the other 19 trained as usual for the same period.
After the experimental weeks of training (of usual or overloaded intensity), the participants received another evaluation session. The researchers divided these sessions as follows:
- For 50 minutes, the athletes performed cognitive control tasks interspersed with three decision-making tasks, within an MRI machine. There they had to choose between two economic rewards: an immediate and a long-term reward.
- A 45 minute cycling session at maximum speed to induce the effects of overworked training. Researchers were therefore looking for signs of fatigue.
- Then perform the same cognitive tasks and make decisions for another 50 minutes as in the first block.
Thus, the researchers observed the excitability of the cerebral cortex, performance in specific tasks, and preference for immediate or delayed rewards.
What have they found?
The researchers were interested in the activity of the cerebral cortex related to impulsivity and the results in the task of temporal decisions. Cognitive tasks were included, mainly to activate the said brain region.
When they compared brain activity after 45 minutes of acute training with activity in the first part of the session, they found a decrease in lateral prefrontal cortex activity during decision-making, not cognitive performance.
This means that overtraining has a negative effect on subjective decision-making tasks, consuming resources and hindering decision-making.
They also found that overtrained triathletes showed a greater preference for smaller rewards, but earlier in the same task, compared to the control group and to their own level before the overload.
Health consequences of overtraining
These results are relevant in several respects, namely:
- On the one hand, cognitive control, unlike impulsivity, helps people to perform tasks in a focused and conscious way. In sports, less cognitive control leads to a greater sense of security, pushing the body beyond its limits. Thus, not stopping or resting when necessary, or preferring a more immediate reward, can lead the athlete to more risky behavior and more injuries.
- On the other hand, the preference for instant gratification is similar to doping. It’s a high that affects the organism and jeopardizes long-term goals. Therefore, it has direct effects on a person’s physical and psychological health.
In summary, as with most activities, accumulated fatigue due to overtraining can have a negative impact, both in the short and long term.
That’s why it’s important to adopt healthy habits, such as learning to make the right decisions and knowing not to push your body and mind to the limit.
