When it comes to working out, you’d be hard pressed to find arguments for cutting back. After all, the immediate and long-term benefits of regular physical activity are somewhat staggering. Exercise has been associated with everything from improved cognition and reduced cardiovascular disease to stronger bones, reduced pain, better mood, and an increased chance of living longer. But even with all those monumental perks in mind, it’s important to know that something as wholesome as fitness still has its limits—and pushing yourself too hard, too often can result in an exhausting condition known as exercise burnout. 

Not only can exercise burnout wreak serious havoc on your mental health, but it can also stall your physical progress. By learning how to prevent, manage, and move past fitness burnout, you can continue to stay active and reap all the best parts of a well-rounded routine. Below,  learn how to do just that with guidance from fitness and mental health experts.

What Is Exercise Burnout?

Experts have come to view exercise burnout as “physical or mental exhaustion and a reduced sense of accomplishment that leads to devaluation of sport.” In other words, exercise burnout is a lasting state of fatigue and workout dread or avoidance that comes as a result of pushing yourself too intensely without proper rest.

Our understanding of exercise burnout (sometimes referred to as fitness burnout or gym burnout) devolved from our broader knowledge of burnout. When we talk about burnout in a general sense, it normally refers to a serious and persistent form of fatigue that’s often the result of excessive work stress. Professional burnout has been studied since the 1980s and defined as a “multidimensional psychological syndrome with three symptoms: emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced efficacy.” To better understand how athletes can experience burnout, researchers expanded the definition in the early 2000s in the following ways:

These three factors culminate in what we now think of as fitness burnout. 

“Exercise burnout can occur when you work out or train excessively without giving your body and mind adequate time to rest and recover,” explains Peloton instructor Tunde Oyeneyin, who has experienced burnout during the course of her own fitness journey. “Burnout occurs because of the physical push, but is more so a mental state of exhaustion, no longer having the motivation to exercise.”

There are distinct psychological and physiological aspects of exercise burnout, adds licensed psychotherapist and sports psychology consultant Jenn Mann, PsyD. “Psychological exercise burnout comes when you are tired of your workouts, bored, have trouble being motivated, or are just feeling down about exercise in general,” says Mann, who is also a former elite gymnast on the United States National Team. “Physiological burnout happens when you overtrain. When this happens, you’re not recovering quickly, you’re overly sore in between workouts, you are not progressing in strength or cardio.”

Overtraining vs. Fitness Burnout

While exercise burnout is similar to overtraining, it isn’t exactly the same thing. 

Like Tunde touched on above, exercise burnout largely refers to mental exhaustion and a lack of interest in your workouts. Meanwhile, overtraining has a broader scope and focuses on the mental and physical effects of exercising too much, like poorer athletic performance or disrupted sleep. But there isn’t a hard-and-fast line separating the two conditions. Both can trigger mental and physical symptoms, and they’re highly intertwined.

Plus, as we’ll discuss more below, overtraining can absolutely contribute to exercise burnout. “Training too intensely (for example, not sprinkling in a rest day or two throughout your training schedule) doesn’t give your body time to heal itself while being pushed to do things that naturally require healing,” Tunde says. “Overtraining can lead to exhaustion, which is essentially what exercise burnout is.”

Causes of Exercise Burnout

We all know that regular physical activity has a ton of health benefits, but as Tunde points out, you actually can have too much of a good thing when it comes to working out. “Both overtraining and forfeiting a rest day can lead to burnout,” she says. “A seven-day training schedule is not only a struggle to maintain, but it can be harmful for your body.” 

It’s also important to consider the psychological and emotional toll excessive or uninspiring exercise can take. “Because burnout is also a mental state of exhaustion, it can occur from not enjoying your workouts and/or diversifying them,” Tunde says. “That’s why it’s so important to love what you’re doing, or at the very least, understand the movements you’re doing and how they’re benefiting you on a deeper level, not just superficially.” 

A few specific causes of exercise burnout, according to Mann, include:

Research has shown that intense performance pressure and lack of social support can also contribute to gym burnout.

Signs You May Be Dealing with Fitness Burnout

While exercise burnout may affect different people in varying ways, there are some hallmark signs and symptoms associated with the condition. “Both psychological and physiological burnout can leave you feeling exhausted, uninterested in exercise, affect your appetite, mood, and sleep,” Mann says. 

According to Tunde, some of the most common psychological and emotional signs of exercise burnout include:

A few of the physical signs of exercise burnout include:

“You’ll most likely start to recognize it when these symptoms outweigh your performance,” Tunde says. “Your performance will be hindered, you’ll continue to injure your body or your soreness won’t lighten up, and you’ll begin to lack reasons for exercising.” 

How to Deal with Exercise Burnout

Although no two cases of fitness burnout are the same, there are some expert-approved measures for dealing with the condition and finding a way back to healthy, balanced fitness. 

The first step in healing your relationship with exercise is to let it go for a little while. “Taking some time off can help your mind and your body reset,” Mann says. “Usually a week away from the gym can go a long way, but sometimes people need longer.”

During that time away from a regimented routine, Tunde recommends setting new—and more importantly, realistic—goals for yourself. “I like to say, ‘Start with bite-size chews,’” she says. “Don’t give yourself lofty goals that don’t feel attainable. Set yourself up for success by creating targets that are achievable in order to build your confidence and ensure a positive mindset.” 

Another important aspect of re-establishing healthy boundaries with exercise is to include variety and to explore activities you actually like—not just the ones you feel like you “should” be doing. “Change it up,” Tunde says. “Do what your body actually enjoys doing. If that’s yoga, focus on that until you’re back in the swing of things. If it’s dancing, focus on that. Boxing, weightlifting, cardio—whatever it is.” And if you’re not sure what your “thing” is? “It’s never too late to figure it out,” Tunde says. “Explore and be willing because nothing tends to grow inside of your comfort zone.”

If you’re at a loss for where to start, Mann recommends working with a personal trainer, your doctor, or an online tool to create a customized program designed with your goals and fitness experience in mind. This routine should include a variety of new exercises that will renew your interest in movement and offer novel challenges. Peloton’s Personalized Plans feature can help with this, Mann notes: “This feature combines technology and personal training to create weekly plans to meet your fitness goals.”

Another essential component of the Peloton platform that can be helpful in rebuilding a relationship with exercise is the built-in community. With millions of members across the globe, you can find the unconditional support and encouragement it often takes to get back on the Bike, Tread, Row, or mat. “Lean into the Peloton community,” Tunde says. “It can provide you with a foundation to love what you’re doing and in return love yourself.”

And if you’ve implemented all those strategies and still find yourself feeling physically or mentally run down, it may be time to talk to a professional. “If you take time away from your workouts to rest and recover but find yourself coming back depleted, unmotivated, or just down, it might mean it’s time to talk to a therapist to find out if there’s something more going on,” Mann says. “Your lack of interest in working out may be a sign of depression or another mental health issue that needs to be addressed.”

Exercise Burnout Prevention Tips

Of course, the best way to avoid the negative effects of gym burnout is to prevent it from happening in the first place. Here are Mann’s expert tips for sidestepping the potential downsides of exercise burnout:

The Takeaway

Establishing and maintaining a regular movement routine is essential for your overall health, but it is possible to go overboard and end up with exercise burnout. If you’re relentless with exercise and push yourself too hard, too often, you may wind up feeling dreadful or resentful of your workouts or avoiding movement altogether. Not only can exercise burnout negatively affect your fitness progress, but it can result in everything from sleep problems to mood and energy issues. 

If you want to stay in the fitness game for as long as possible (and who doesn’t?), it’s important to mix up your routine, try new activities, and—this is really important—make time for regular rest. By staying focused on movement you actually enjoy, peppering in variety, and prioritizing balance, you can avoid fitness burnout and keep coming back to movement for years to come. 

“Know that there is no finish line,” Tunde says. “Commit to this being a forever journey. Half the battle is mental, so go into it with a strong mind.”