Is There Such a Thing as Exercising Too Much?
Recently I read a personal blog from a woman I admire. She wrote with transparency and honesty about her struggles especially over the last year. She shared that although she enjoyed her running schedule and training for marathons her body was telling her that she was exercising too much.
Thirty minutes a day of moderate physical activity is enough to help prevent things like diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure. But too much exercise can lead to injuries, exhaustion, depression, and suicide. It can also cause lasting physical harm. Your adrenal gland, pumping out hormones as you pound the pavement, can only produce so much cortisol at a time.
It can compromise your immune system and increase your risk of injury.
The Journal of the American College of Cardiology researchers from Denmark say that people who push their bodies too hard may essentially undo the benefit of exercise. Those who ran at a fast pace more than four hours a week for more than three days a week had about the same risk of dying during the study’s 12-year follow up as those who were sedentary and hardly exercised at all.
It’s a good idea to take one full day a week to recover with little activity. The body needs a day of rest, especially if you are just starting out. And remember if you want to do something good for yourself, you don’t have to be extreme.
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