7th October 2025
There’s a certain Kiwi pride in giving it everything you’ve got. Early mornings, late sessions, that extra rep just to prove you can. But as NRL performance coach Aaron Sculli points out, there’s a difference between healthy hustle and running yourself into the ground. Overreaching, he says, is the short-term fatigue that helps you adapt and get stronger. Overtraining is when your body stops bouncing back—and starts breaking down.
Sculli has seen what happens when drive turns to damage. Immune systems tank, energy vanishes, and people end up with issues like hormonal imbalance or even chronic fatigue. It’s a brutal reminder that sometimes, less really is more. Luke Hines, an integrative health coach, calls overreaching a “nudge” outside your comfort zone. But overtraining? That’s when you start feeling like a zombie no flat white can fix.
The warning signs are easy to brush off at first. A dip in performance, injuries that won’t heal, sleep that doesn’t refresh, a constant edge of irritability. Then there’s the mental toll. A study from the University of Basel found overtrained athletes showed higher fatigue, tension, and even anger. It’s not just your muscles that burn out—your mind does too.
Young athletes are particularly at risk, Sculli warns. Between school, rep teams, social pressure and the classic Kiwi “she’ll be right” attitude, they’re often training like pros without the same recovery. The fix isn’t complicated, but it does take discipline. Rest days aren’t lazy days—they’re part of the plan.
Hines keeps it simple: listen to your body, plan your recovery, and remember not every session needs to be beast mode. Sleep, hydration, and proper food are the real secret weapons. And maybe swap a HIIT class for a beach walk or a game of backyard cricket once in a while. Balance counts.
If you’ve pushed too far, don’t panic—Sculli says recovery starts with rest. Sometimes that means scaling back to slow walks, gentle movement, or even a proper break. Sleep, he insists, is the number one recovery tool. No ice bath or sauna can replace it. Muscles repair, the brain resets, and the whole system recalibrates when you simply stop and rest.
“Train smarter, not harder,” Sculli says. It’s about quality, not quantity. Or as Hines puts it, “Push yourself, but don’t wreck yourself.” In a world that glorifies the grind, that might just be the strongest move of all.
© 2025 Collaborate NZ
