Signs You Need To Stop Your Workout Immediately

When you're on a roll with your workout routine, one of the last things you feel like doing is potentially losing your momentum by stopping your workouts. But there are a number of reasons why stopping your workout immediately is going to be a far healthier choice for you rather than pushing yourself. So, you need to be mindful of the signs and respectful of your body.

One sign that it might be a good time to stop your workout is if you only feel soreness on one side of your body. While overall soreness after a workout is often expected and can even give you a sense of well-being, soreness on one side of your body and not the other could mean that you've worked a body part too hard, and it would be a good idea to allow yourself time to heal (via NBC News). While this pain doesn't necessarily mean you have an injury, if you continue to work out through the soreness, you are opening yourself up to a greater risk of chronic pain down the road and more challenges with recovery.

While it's normal to feel tired after a workout, according to Healthline if you are experiencing constant fatigue, this could be a symptom that you are working out too hard, too frequently — or both. Fatigue results when you don't give your body an adequate amount of time to rest. Fatigue could also be a sign that you are not supplying yourself with adequate nutrition to support your workouts.

Healthline also points out that if you are seeing a decline in your performance during your workouts, if you've plateaued, or your workouts become more challenging, these could be signs that it's time to give your body a rest. And it may surprise you that if you're gaining weight, this could also be a result of you working out too much. This is because overstressing your body while not getting adequate rest can increase the stress hormone cortisol, which can lead to increased belly fat.

You work out to take care of your body, but don't forget that you also need to take care of your body by giving it the adequate rest and recovery time it needs. So, whether you are experiencing any of these signs or not, it's a good idea to regularly give your running shoes a day or two off every week.