5 More Ways Overexercising Is Killing You!

This Is A Four Articles Series:

Also Read The First Article In The Series: How Much Exercise Do You Need?

Also Read The Second Article In The Series: How Much Exercise Is Too Much Exercise?

Also Read The Third Article In The Series: Exercising Too Much? 5 Ways It’s Killing You!

If you find yourself exceeding 300 minutes of exercise a week, you could be pushing yourself to physical “burnout,” and may be jeopardizing your health in a number of ways.

Let’s take a closer look how:

5 More Ways Overexercising Is Killing You!

Overexercise Destroys Diets!

Whether you are trying to eat a lower calorie diet to lose weight or teach your body to eat less, or trying to switch to a low carbohydrate diet, it is very hard to accomplish these nutritional changes while you are engaged in heavy exercise patterns. This is often what causes people to stop healthy lifestyle changes: they get excited about changing their daily routine, eating better, and exercising more, but heavy exercise volume causes food cravings that make it impossible to adjust to a healthy diet, the individual becomes discouraged, and simply quits altogether.

The Fix:

Reducing calories and detoxifying the body, but a key component of that phase is reducing exercise significantly while the body learns to burn more fats, use less sugar as a fuel, and become accustomed to the dietary changes. One very good substitute for exercise during this time is yoga, which doesn’t burn a significant number of calories, and can be done without derailing the diet.

Overexercise Causes Inflammation!

Endurance exercise can increase oxygen utilization to over 10 to 20 times the resting state, and all this extra oxygen consumption then increases the production of free radicals. This enhanced free radical generation causes oxidative damage to muscles and other tissues, and although regular physical exercise can build the antioxidant free-radical defence system, intense and high volume exercise can overwhelm these defences and cause significant free radical damage. Oxidative stress from free radicals damages cellular proteins, membranes and genes and leads to a state of chronic, systemic inflammation. Chronic inflammation is implicated in diseases such as cancer, heart disease, strokes, Alzheimer¹s, Parkinson¹s, premature ageing and almost any debilitating, degenerative condition you can name.

The Fix:

Eventually, you must give your body a break from free radical damage and simply stop exercising so much. Since endurance, aerobic exercise is the biggest culprit for free radical damage, try to limit this type of training. On the other hand interval exercise can cause lower blood sugar, increased hormonal response to exercise, lower insulin levels and increased fat burning with much, much less time spent exercising.

Overexercise Causes Stress To The Hormonal System!

The adrenal glands are two thumb-sized glands sitting atop your kidneys. They produce hormones like norepinephrine, cortisol and DHEA, which allow your body to respond and make adjustments to physical or emotional stress. If the intensity and frequency of the stress become too great, then the adrenal glands can begin to become exhausted, and the hormones that they produce can become depleted, resulting in serious imbalances that can cause an issue like estrogen dominance in women or testosterone deficiencies in men. The end result is a tired, chronically fatigued individual who has disrupted sleep, low libido, worn-out looking eyes, a set and stressed jawline, and a “skinny fat” body look no matter how much exercise they do. Sound familiar? I just described 90% of the marathoners and Ironman triathletes out there.

The Fix:

In addition to incorporating the other fixes we have described such as lowering exercise and enhancing focus on recovery, you can pull yourself out of adrenal exhaustion with complete rest and recovery, avoiding caffeine and central nervous system stimulants, and also by incorporating stress-fighting and certain supplements.

Overexercising Damages The Joint!

Since exercise is addictive, you’ll often see endurance athletes trying to push through and continue their chronic repetitive motion training no matter what, often to the continued detriment and breakdown of the body’s worn and tired joints. Most endurance athletes that seek medical attention are trying to figure out how they could still do their marathon or triathlon even though they had plantar fasciitis, IT band friction syndrome, or shoulder tendonitis, ending up taking years off their joints. If you don’t like the idea of knee replacements, hip replacements, and not being able to play in the backyard with your grandkids without teeth-gritting pain then, just stop.

The Fix:

Run-on a wide variety of running surfaces and terrains, and avoid only exercising in one plane of motion (running, cycling and swimming are typically only “front-to-back” activities). Instead, choose side-to-side motions like tennis, basketball or soccer, and attempt to address a wide range of musculature with your exercise patterns. Know when to identify whether you’re just pushing through the pain because you simply must exercise, and find something else to do, like read a book.

10.

Overexercise Causes Premature Ageing!

5 More Ways Overexercising Is Killing You! premature aging

Excessively wrinkled skin, which is vastly accelerated by the free radical damage mentioned earlier in this article, is not the only reason that people who exercise too much look worn and aged. The heart has a finite number of beats, the back has a finite number of bends, and the cartilage has a finite number of shock absorptions, and once you’ve reached your quota, your body begins to fail. Combined with a fibrotic heart, worn adrenal glands, and chronic, systemic inflammation, you have the perfect storm for a prematurely aged and broken down body.

The Fix:

An exercise program of sprint interval training and brief, heavy bouts of weight training is probably better for the ageing individual. When this type of protocol is combined with very limited amounts of steady endurance exercise, goals like Ironman triathlon or marathoning can still be completed without excessive body ageing.

5 More Ways Overexercising Is Killing You!

FITrebels who have the most success aren’t usually the ones who do the biggest, most challenging workouts.

Instead, they’re the ones who find small ways of getting movement whenever and wherever they can.

So those are the top reasons why exercise is bad for you. Please don’t misinterpret this article, because at FITrebel.in we believe that a lifetime of healthy physical activity is one of the best things you can do for your body and your brain. But a lifetime of indiscriminate, chronic repetitive motion exercise like a rat on a wheel is entirely another matter, and you ought to seriously reconsider your priorities if you are stuck in that rut.