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Regular workouts are supposed to increase your muscle mass and decrease your body fat, right? Well, yes, with a caveat. Some folks ramp it up too much especially when they start a new training regimen to prepare themselves for, say, a grueling marathon or triathlon. (On a side note, I’m rooting for Chilean miner Edison Peña in this Sunday’s New York City marathon. The 34-year-old trained for his first marathon by running up and down the pitch-black tunnels of the mine wearing his boots and headlamp.) Overdoing your workouts can actually lead to diminished strength and increased body fat—your body’s way of begging for a break. While your body can handle a particularly tough workout, as Peña and the other 43,000 marathoners will see on Sunday, it also needs time to recover from the stress overload, says Corey Stenstrup, performance development trainer at IMG Academies. Peña may want to put his feet up for a week or two afterward.