Is Too Much Exercise Bad for the Body?

April 2021 | Reading time: 3 minutes

Exercise is perhaps the best way to get fit and lose weight in a healthy and natural way. However, too much exercise can be detrimental to your health, and even dangerous.

Professionals and researchers recommend that people should engage in two and a half hours of mid-intensity exercise per week. This amount is easily achievable, especially if you walk to work or have to take your dog for a walk. Although the researchers did not determine an upper limit for physical activity, the study shows that you do not need to do excessive exercise to be healthy.

In more general terms, over-exercising can make you feel tired and do more harm than good to your body. If you do not give your body enough time to recover or let the muscles repair, then you put your body at risk of serious injury. Furthermore, when you exercise too much, your body releases a greater amount of cortisol. Cortisol is a chemical that can aid swelling but simultaneously suppresses your immune system. As a result of this, you are more vulnerable to illness if you constantly have high levels of cortisol.

A more recent study published in the Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics Journal states that regular periods of more than two hours of exercise could be harmful. Excessive strain on the body weakens the gut and perhaps causes it to leak toxins into the bloodstream. This links to the development of multiple sclerosis and other illnesses.

Too much exercise can also dangerously affect your heart rate. It is a well-known fact that a healthy heart rate is between 60 and 80 beats per minute. However, athletes who train vigorously often have a heart rate of about 30 beats per minute. This can lead to abnormal heart rhythms, which may cause a heart attack, especially during intense activities. It is important to note the risk is low, but it is something people must be careful of. A study conducted in 2017 concluded that people who did three times the recommended exercise per week were more likely to develop heart disease.

Exercise does not just impact your body physically – it can negatively affect your mental health. More and more people have an addiction to exercise and building up muscle. This is referred to as bigorexia or muscle dysmorphia, where people are obsessed with getting big and powerful bodies. If you over-exercise, you put yourself at risk of all of the problems mentioned above. One of the reasons that this is dangerous is because people are taking steroids to achieve their perfect muscle mass. Steroids can have serious side effects, including hair loss, and increased risk of liver and kidney disease. In men, they can reduce sperm count, and even shrink the testicles.

No matter how much you want to, do not push your body beyond its limits. We must respect our bodies and give them time to rest and recover before jumping into a high-intensity workout session. It is far better to get the body you want safely, rather than put yourself in danger.