Is too much exercise bad for your health?

We all think exercise is good for our health. But can we overdo it?

Believe it or not the answer is yes and no.

Training the same muscle group every time you exercise can be detrimental. When we exercise, tiny tears occur in the muscle fibres, and with all injury (albeit in this case microscopic) you need to rest the affected area. In other words, muscles need a chance to recover between sessions.

The good news is, you can train different muscle groups on alternate days, say legs and lower body one day and arms and upper body the next. This is great if you can get to the gym every day. But what happens if you can't?

Well consider going to do gym / strength training one day and then going for a walk / jog / run the next. As we need both strength training and cardio vascular exercise to ensure our heart and lungs (the cardiovascular system) are operating at a peak level, this would seem to be the best combination for exercise and health.

And what happens if you do too much exercise?

Well, the obvious answers are exhaustion and injury. Depending on how fit / unfit you are, and what kind of damage you have done, your recovery rate may be long and sometimes painful. So if you are considering using exercise as a way to improve your health you may like to speak to a professional trainer, and one who can advise you on the best kind of training / exercise for you.

Comments

[Steve Kerr]

Too much of anything can be bad for the health. The same goes for exercise. Exercise does have its benefits, but too much of it can be 'detrimental'. Maybe a little bit of exercise along with a little bit of rest should be alright.

Steve Kerr
www.ohealthlounge.co.nz