If you are one of those people who loves working out all the time, feel guilty when having to skip a day or may love it too much, you should definitely read on.
Over-exercise can be defined as, but is not limited to:
- Exercising above and beyond what would be considered normal. This may vary per individual. Research shows that 30 minutes a day 5 days a week can make a difference in your health and medical and governmental guidelines tend to suggest it as a minimum.
- This doesn’t mean that taking five 1-hour yoga classes is over-exercising. It all depends on your activity levels and your needs.
- A HIIT or Tabata workout tends to be 20-30 minutes long, not two hours.
- Normal marathon training plans suggest gradually building up your long runs, including one long run a week and doing only 2-3 20-milers per training cycle, not 3-4 long runs a week with 20 milers each week.
- Practicing yoga or pilates daily or every other day for 60-90 minutes seems healthy, but doing it for 3-5 hours may not be.
You get the memo. For athletes, training requirements are usually rigorous with multiple workouts a day. For them, over-exercise may be defined as prolonged training above and beyond what’s required for a sport. If in doubt, talk to your coach, trainer or exercise instructor for healthy guidelines.
- Refusing to take rest and recovery days. Exercising despite of injury or illness. Overdoing it while coming back from an injury.
- Having a rigid and inflexible attitude toward your exercise schedule. The need to workout no matter what.
- Excessive concern with body aesthetics and/or obsessive concern for sports nutrition and/or depriving yourself of food.
- Prioritizing exercise over family, friends, other relationships, school and work, even to the point of neglecting responsibilities.
- Using exercise as the only way to cope with stress.
- Experiencing overtraining syndrome, when athletic performance plateaus or declines and injuries may occur.
- Pushing oneself obsessively to do more and more with unrealistic expectations and nothing being or feeling good enough.
- An inability to enjoy everyday exercise, such as light walks or slow bike rides with friends. A need to always be ‘hardcore.’
- Losing the love for exercise, but despite the lack of fun, unable to stop or lower the intensity.
Over-exercise can lead to:
- Over-training syndrome when athletic performance and the benefits from exercise plateau or decline
- Injuries occur frequently; overuse injuries occur
- Fatigue, including chronic fatigue and adrenal fatigue
- Insomnia
- Hormonal disturbances
- Loss of period or irregular cycles in women
- Anemia
- Mineral and vitamin deficits
- Compromised immune system
- Chronic inflammation and chronic pain
- Compromised mental health, including depression, anxiety and changes in personality
- Trouble concentrating
- Exercise addiction
- Eating disorder
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