Ever feel as though you’re chasing gains so hard you forget where your body’s red line is? Jade Skillen, an Elite 15 Hyrox athlete and coach, once found herself in exactly that pickle. Over the course of her Hyrox career, she lost her period on three separate occasions because she’d pushed her training too far without giving herself time to recover
Her story is a stark reminder that, however strong you are, your biology still calls the shots.
Spotting the red flags before it’s too late
Over-training isn’t a fitness myth; it’s your body’s desperate plea for balance. Constant fatigue, plateauing performance, perpetual irritability, catching every bug going and disrupted periods are all warning signs. In Jade’s case, she initially chalked the early symptoms up to the price of elite training. When her period stopped altogether, her body had issued the ultimate ultimatum.
Sports scientists label the condition relative energy deficiency in sport, or RED-S for short. It crops up when the body consistently burns more energy than it receives via food and recovery. Once that imbalance beds in, so-called non-essential functions such as hormone regulation get pushed to the back of the queue.
For women, a missing cycle is one of the clearest signs that something’s awry. The impact doesn’t stop there; menstrual disruption can lead to weaker bones, a lower immune response and poorer long-term health.
Jade’s wake-up call forced her to rethink her approach. She slashed her high-intensity sessions so they made up only a fifth of her weekly training. She also rejigged her double days, splitting them into shorter blasts with enough breathing room in between to recover. Those tweaks allowed her body to stabilise, her cycle to return and her performance to stay competitive without tipping her into burnout.
The lesson’s simple: rest isn’t falling behind; it’s exactly what allows your body to adapt and bounce back stronger. Skipping it is like trying to build a house without letting the cement set. You might manage a couple of wobbly walls, but they’ll collapse sooner rather than later.
Putting rest and recovery back on the podium
Not every fitness professional puts recovery on the same pedestal as training itself. Bridie Wilkins, fitness director at Women’s Health UK and a seasoned yoga teacher, has seen time and again how the “go harder” mentality backfires. Her view is refreshingly blunt: stop punishing your body and start listening to what it’s telling you.
Recovery should never be seen as dead time. Practices such as yoga, stretching, light mobility work or even a gentle stroll round the park aren’t lazy options; they’re vital for keeping both mind and body in balance. The real trick is weaving these lighter days into your timetable alongside the tougher ones, rather than heaping on heavy workouts and banking on sheer will-power to keep you afloat.
Proper recovery reaches beyond merely tweaking the training diary. What you eat, how much water you neck and, crucially, the quality of your kip carry equal weight. Sleep is when muscles repair, the immune system resets and the nervous system eases down. Without it, even the most meticulously planned programme will keel over.
Everyday stress also warrants attention. Life’s demanding, and piling relentless training on top of work, family and other responsibilities is like running a phone with every app open and the brightness cranked right up: the battery will drain long before you’re ready.
Lessons beyond the gym
The reason Jade’s tale resonates is that over-training isn’t just a problem for the pros. Anyone can tumble into the trap of doing too much without enough balance. Think of the person who strings together back-to-back spin classes, nips out for a run before work, hits the weights afterwards and still scrapes by on next to no sleep. It feels productive, but the body is quietly keeping score.
Cast your mind back to the last time you felt sluggish despite upping your training or found yourself unusually sore long after a session. Maybe you were short-tempered or kept picking up niggling colds. Those are whispers from your body that you’re pushing too far. Ignore them and you’re inviting injury, burnout or, for women, the same menstrual issues Jade faced.
The answer isn’t ditching your goals; it’s training smarter. That means alternating between hard and easy days, treating recovery as part of the process and fuelling your body with enough calories to cover the graft you’re asking of it. Any coach will tell you consistency trumps intensity for results that stick.
Jade’s tweaks show how small changes can deliver big wins. By trimming her high-intensity workload and breaking long double sessions into bite-sized chunks, she gave her body the breathing space it needed while still ramping up her fitness. Her experience is a reminder that training smart beats training hard every time, because the body always has the final say.
So, next time you’re tempted to skip rest, ask yourself whether short-term bragging rights are worth the long-term setbacks. Nine times out of ten, recharging will give tomorrow’s version of you a far better shot at success.
If Jade’s Hyrox journey proves anything, it’s that the strongest athletes aren’t just the ones who push the hardest – they’re also the ones who know when to ease off.
