How much is too much squash?

When it comes to being active, we’re constantly bombarded with the message that we need to go harder, longer and stronger if we want to improve. But pushing yourself too hard can not only cause a plateau, it can do more harm than good.

Playing too hard and too often without sufficient recovery can push you towards overtraining and puts your body under stress. When this happens you cannot effectively recover. This means your performance will not match the effort you’re putting in and you’re also likely to suffer from disrupted sleep, moodiness and an increase in injuries.

This can cause a vicious cycle if nothing is done. Overtraining causes your training progress to plateau – then when you notice the drop in performance, you try and push yourself harder and this only makes things worse. A more is better mind set is simply not true. Athletes often periodise, training intensively for weeks and then change the intensity and frequency of their training so they are never close to exhaustion.

Signs of overtraining:

• Disrupted sleep
• Moodiness, a short fuse or depression
• A plateau or drop in progress
• An increase in injuries
• Increased frequency of illness
• Feeling exhausted rather than energised after playing squash

With this in mind it is important that you take action and constantly review how your body is feeling. While regular squash is great, don’t shy away from looking after yourself so you can enjoy this game for longer.