Am I Overtraining or Just Tired From Work

The Only Way to Know If You're Overtraining (It's Not How You Feel)

To answer the question “am I overtraining or just tired from work,” you have to ignore your feelings and look at your performance data. A consistent 10% drop in strength on your main lifts for more than one session is the only real signal of true overtraining. If you feel exhausted but can still move the same weight for the same reps you did last week, you are not overtraining. You are just tired.

Let’s be honest. You’re reading this because you feel wiped out. Every workout feels like a battle, your motivation is gone, and you’re wondering if you’re doing more harm than good. You’ve probably Googled “overtraining symptoms” and found a generic list: fatigue, irritability, poor sleep, lack of appetite. The problem? That exact list also describes having a stressful job, a new baby, or just a bad week.

Feelings are liars when it comes to training. Your brain can’t distinguish between the stress from a looming work deadline and the stress from a heavy set of squats. It all just registers as “fatigue.”

This is where most people get stuck. They try to “listen to their body,” but their body is just screaming “TIRED!” all the time. So they either push through the fatigue and dig a deeper hole, or they take unplanned time off and feel guilty, losing momentum.

The only objective truth is the weight on the bar. Performance doesn’t lie. If you normally bench press 185 pounds for 5 reps, but for two weeks in a row you struggle to get 165 pounds for 5, that’s a red flag. That’s data. But if you feel drained from a long day at work, yet you still manage to get your 185 for 5, you’re not overtraining. You’re just demonstrating mental toughness.

The "Stress Bucket" Theory: Why Work and Gym Stress Are the Same

Imagine you have a “stress bucket.” Every single stressor in your life-your boss, your commute, your bills, your kids, and your heavy deadlifts-pours into this one bucket. Your body’s ability to recover is the drain at the bottom. When stress pours in faster than it can drain out, the bucket overflows. That overflow is what you feel as burnout, exhaustion, and what people mistakenly label as “overtraining.”

Your Central Nervous System (CNS) is the gatekeeper of this bucket. It doesn’t see “work stress” and “gym stress” as different categories. It’s all just a demand for resources. A 12-hour workday followed by a max-effort squat session is a massive dump into the bucket. Do that for weeks on end without adequate recovery (sleep, nutrition), and the overflow becomes chronic.

This is the critical distinction:

• Fatigue: Your bucket is full today. You feel tired, but a good night's sleep or a rest day can drain it enough to perform tomorrow.
• Overreaching: You intentionally overflow the bucket for a short period (1-3 weeks) to force adaptation. You feel beat up, but after a planned deload, you come back stronger. This is a productive tool.
• Overtraining: You’ve been overflowing the bucket for months. The drain is clogged. Your CNS is so fried that it actively inhibits performance to protect you. Your strength goes down, your hormones are dysregulated, and you feel sick. This is a state of genuine illness that can take months to fix. Very few amateur athletes ever reach this state. You are most likely just chronically fatigued from a full stress bucket.

This is the key: your body sees all stress as one thing. The only way to know if your *training* is the problem is to isolate its impact on performance. But how can you measure that impact if you don't have a record of your past performance? Can you say, with 100% certainty, what you lifted for your main exercises three weeks ago? If the answer is no, you're just guessing.

Stop guessing if you're tired or overtrained.

Track your lifts and know for sure. See your progress and keep going.

The 3-Step Protocol to Diagnose Your Fatigue in 7 Days

Stop guessing. Use this simple, 7-day protocol to get a definitive answer. This process will tell you whether you’re truly on the verge of overtraining or just need a short, strategic break.

Step 1: Establish Your Performance Baseline (Today)

Go to the gym for your next planned session. Do not hold back. Warm up thoroughly and work up to a top set on 2-3 of your primary compound exercises. These should be movements you track regularly, like the squat, bench press, deadlift, or overhead press. Perform a set in the 3-6 rep range and record the weight and reps. This is your current, fatigued baseline.

• Example Baseline:
• Squat: 225 lbs for 5 reps
• Bench Press: 185 lbs for 5 reps
• Barbell Row: 155 lbs for 6 reps

Write these numbers down. They are your objective truth for this experiment.

Step 2: The Strategic Deload (The Next 7 Days)

For the next seven days, you will perform a strategic deload. This is not a week off sitting on the couch, which can often make you feel sluggish and out of rhythm. Instead, you will actively promote recovery.

• Training: Go to the gym for your normally scheduled workouts. Perform the same exercises, but cut your working sets in half. For example, if you normally do 4 sets of squats, do 2. Reduce the weight on the bar by 20%. So, your 225 lbs squat becomes roughly 180 lbs. The goal is to move, practice the skill of lifting, and stimulate blood flow without adding any significant stress to your bucket.
• Sleep: This is non-negotiable. Aim for 8 hours of sleep per night. Not 6, not 7. Eight. Go to bed 30 minutes earlier than usual. No screens in bed. Make your room as dark and cool as possible.
• Nutrition & Hydration: Do not cut calories. Eat at maintenance or even a slight surplus. Prioritize protein, aiming for 0.8-1 gram per pound of bodyweight. Drink half your bodyweight in ounces of water daily. A 200lb person needs 100 ounces of water.

Step 3: The Re-Test and Diagnosis (Day 8)

After your 7-day deload, go back to the gym. After a thorough warm-up, attempt the same top sets you recorded in Step 1.

• Diagnosis 1: You Were Just Tired. If you easily hit or even exceed your baseline numbers (e.g., you squat 225 lbs for 6 reps instead of 5), the verdict is clear. You were not overtrained. You were simply carrying too much accumulated fatigue from life and work. The deload allowed your stress bucket to drain. You are now clear to resume your normal training.
• Diagnosis 2: You Were Overreaching/Nearing Overtraining. If you still struggle to hit your baseline numbers, or if they feel just as heavy as they did a week ago, this is a sign of a deeper recovery deficit. Your stress bucket was overflowing, and one week wasn't enough to drain it. You should take another full week of deloading, following the same protocol from Step 2. Then, re-test again. If you're still not recovered, you need to look at your long-term training structure and life stress.

The "Autoregulation" Method: Your Blueprint for Stressful Times

Life is not a perfect spreadsheet. Some weeks you have crushing deadlines, family emergencies, or terrible sleep. Trying to stick to a rigid training plan that calls for a new 5-rep max during these weeks is a recipe for burnout. The solution is autoregulation: adjusting your training based on how you feel *today*.

The simplest way to do this is with the Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) scale. RPE is a scale of 1-10 that measures how hard a set felt.

• RPE 10: Maximum effort, you couldn't have done another rep.
• RPE 9: You had one rep left in the tank.
• RPE 8: You had two reps left in the tank.

Here’s how to use it:

• On High-Stress Days (Bad Sleep, Work is Crazy): Your goal for your main lifts is an RPE of 7-8. You are not trying to set records. You are stimulating the muscle, practicing the movement, and living to fight another day. If your program calls for 225 lbs for 5 reps, but that feels like an RPE 10 today, reduce the weight to 205 lbs so it feels like an RPE 8. You still get a quality workout without overflowing your stress bucket.
• On Low-Stress Days (Feeling Good, Well-Rested): This is your green light. You have permission to push to an RPE 9 or even 10 on your final set. These are the days you make progress and hit personal records.

This approach is governed by one simple, powerful rule: The 2-Day Rule.

Never have two bad training days in a row. If you go into the gym and your performance is down significantly (a 5-10% drop in strength), that's one day. It happens. But if you go in for your next session and performance is still down, you stop. That is your body’s final warning before it starts shutting things down. Your second bad day triggers an immediate 3-4 day deload or complete rest. This rule acts as a circuit breaker, preventing you from ever sliding into a true overtrained state.

That's how you train smart for the long haul. You track your main lifts, apply the 2-day rule, and adjust using RPE. It's a system that adapts to your life. But it only works if you have the data. Remembering your RPE, weight, and reps from last Tuesday's workout is tough. Remembering it from 4 weeks ago is impossible without a system.

Your progress. Your recovery. All in one place.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What's the difference between overreaching and overtraining?

Functional overreaching is a planned period of intense training (1-3 weeks) that leads to a temporary performance dip, followed by a surge in strength after a deload. Overtraining is a chronic state of exhaustion from months of excessive stress and inadequate recovery, where performance plummets and can take months to restore.

How long does it take to recover from true overtraining?

True, clinical overtraining is rare but serious. Recovery isn't a matter of a single deload week. It often requires 4-12 weeks or even longer of significantly reduced activity and a major focus on sleep, nutrition, and stress management outside the gym. Most people who think they're overtrained are just under-recovered.

Can I just take a week off instead of deloading?

You can, but a strategic deload is often better. Complete rest can sometimes lead to feeling sluggish and out of sync when you return. A deload keeps your body moving, maintains the habit of going to the gym, and actively promotes recovery through light activity and blood flow.

Is heart rate variability (HRV) a good indicator?

HRV can be a useful tool, but it's not a magic bullet. It measures the stress on your autonomic nervous system. A consistently low or trending-downward HRV score can be a sign that your stress bucket is full. However, it can be influenced by many factors like a single poor night's sleep, alcohol, or diet, so it should be used as one data point among others, not the only one.

Should I change my diet when I'm feeling this tired?

Yes. When you're feeling chronically fatigued, the worst thing you can do is restrict calories. Your body needs energy to recover. Ensure you are eating at least at maintenance calories, prioritize protein (0.8-1g per pound of bodyweight), and don't be afraid of carbohydrates, as they are crucial for replenishing glycogen and fueling performance.