When “Discipline” Turns Into Overtraining — Here’s How To Tell

For many of us, working out is supposed to make us feel better. More energized. Stronger. Healthier. But what happens when you’re doing all the “right” things–exercising consistently, pushing yourself, eating carefully—and instead feel exhausted, sore, and stuck?

On the mindbodygreen podcast, Shannon Ritchey, P.T., DPT, shared why overtraining is far more common than most people realize, and why it often masquerades as discipline, motivation, or commitment. 

As a Doctor of Physical Therapy, personal trainer, and founder of Evlo Fitness, Ritchey has spent years helping people rebuild strength in a way that actually supports their bodies instead of breaking them down.

Her perspective is deeply personal. In her mid-twenties, Ritchey believed that endless intensity was the path to fitness. She exercised daily, sometimes multiple times a day, stacked cardio with lifting, and ate in a calorie deficit. On paper, it looked like dedication. In reality, it led to chronic pain, inflammation, and burnout.

Overtraining doesn’t always show up as an obvious injury or complete exhaustion. In fact, many people are technically functioning while their bodies are quietly struggling to keep up.

Some of the most common signs Ritchey sees include persistent soreness that never fully resolves, joint pain that feels “nagging” rather than acute, low energy despite regular exercise, and poor sleep quality. Mood changes, increased irritability, and stalled progress in strength or body composition can also be clues.

What ties these symptoms together is nervous system overload. When training stress consistently outweighs recovery, the body shifts into a more protective state. Hormones involved in stress regulation, appetite, and sleep can become dysregulated, making it harder to adapt to workouts, even if you’re exercising frequently.

Ritchey experienced this firsthand. By her early twenties, she had back pain, hip pain, shoulder pain, and wrist pain. Physical therapy and massage provided temporary relief, but nothing truly resolved the issue. It wasn’t until she stopped exercising for a short period during a move that something surprising happened. She felt better than she had in years.

One of the most persistent myths in fitness is that more effort always leads to better results. But physiologically, strength and muscle aren’t built during the workout itself. They’re built during recovery, when the body repairs tissue and adapts to the stress it’s been given.

Ritchey realized her training was creating a perfect storm: high-frequency workouts, repeated movement patterns, and loads that were simultaneously too light to stimulate muscle growth and too repetitive to allow joints to recover. Lightweight, high-rep workouts layered on top of lifting sessions meant constant stress with very little payoff.

Once she shifted toward hypertrophy-based training, using enough load to challenge muscles and allowing adequate recovery between sessions, everything changed. Within months, her chronic pain disappeared. With improved nutrition and adequate protein intake, she also experienced body recomposition, building muscle while losing fat, all with significantly less intensity and time in the gym.

If you suspect you might be overtraining, the solution isn’t to stop moving altogether. It’s to rebalance how stress and recovery show up in your routine.

Start by reducing frequency or intensity before cutting exercise entirely. Fewer, more focused strength sessions often lead to better results than daily workouts. Allow at least one rest or low-intensity day between training the same muscle groups, and pay attention to how your body feels going into, not just after, your workouts.

Nutrition matters, too. Undereating, especially protein, makes recovery harder and increases the risk of fatigue and injury. Fueling adequately supports muscle repair and nervous system resilience.

Overtraining isn’t a failure of willpower or toughness. It’s often a sign that your body is asking for a different approach. When recovery is treated as a core part of training (not an afterthought), results tend to come faster and last longer.