From a young age, we are taught that exercising frequently is the key to good health. We are taught that the more we exercise, the thinner we are, the less chance of heart disease we have and in general, we’ll just have healthier bodies.
All of the above is completely true and is something that is never going to be disputed. However, there are limits.
Today’s article is all about what happens to your health when you breach these limits. In other words, when you decide to train each and every day, and really put your body to the test. We will now take a look at some of the reasons why you have to put a stop to training too much before it’s too late.
Reason #1 – Stress fractures
The Guardian has just run a story about a woman who became “obsessed” with fitness, to an extent that she was diagnosed with two stress fractures in her foot. The worrying thing was that these “niggling pains” were confirmed as stress fractures by an x-ray. In other words, she had no idea that her body was starting to give up.
It’s for this reason that you need to understand your body’s limits and realize when and where to get an x-ray to properly diagnose a problem. Suffice to say, small fractures can become much more complicated if left untreated.
The fractures in this particular case were caused as the lady in question exercised intensely every single day. Her bones gradually started to give up, causing all of the above.
Reason #2 – Your muscles don’t have time to recover
Something else that happens when you train too regularly is that your muscles just don’t have time to recover. Muscle growth occurs when the fibers start to deteriorate, before developing slightly bigger than they were previously.
Suffice to say, when you starve your body of rest, this just can’t happen. Every day your muscles are trying to rebuild, but they can’t as they are punished again.
As well as the lack of development, this is another reason why injuries occur.
Reason #3 – The mental effect
So far, we’ve spoken a lot about the physiological problems that can occur through overtraining. This next and final problem with it all related to the mind.
As the link in the first section highlighted, some people become obsessed with exercise. This in itself can be classed as a psychological problem, but the issue tends to flip on its head later down the line.
Over time, you start to burn out. Your body starts to, as we have already discussed, while your mind does as well. You will become disinterested at spending so much time on exercise and eventually, you’ll start to move backward. If you can instead try and focus on giving your body and mind adequate rest periods, you will find that this doesn’t happen and the results will instead be of the long-term variety.
