More the merrier is an often used expression; but it doesn’t apply in many different cases, needless to say. For instance this is certainly not applicable in terms of calories, because too many calories are bad for your waistline, your health and any number of other reasons.
Does it apply in the case of exercise, though? Is exercise a case of the more the merrier? It is necessary that the more you exercise the more benefits you reap, or is there an optimum range of exercising?
According to one school of thought; there is no such thing as too much exercise. For instance according to Dr Paul Williams, researcher and marathon runner, the more you exercise the more you benefit.
According to his own experience and his research conducted on runners, Dr Williams is of the view that raising one’s level of exercising can result in significant benefit.
According to him, the recommendation of half an hour of exercise a day (or three and a half hours a week) by the American Heart Association as well as the federal government is inadequate, and far better benefits can accrue if one trains harder.
However there are several drawbacks to overtraining or exercising too much as well:
- Injury is a major drawback to watch out for that can result from over training and can be actually be counterproductive in that it may both prevent and discourage the person from exercising.
- Over training is something that can cause other problems as well. You can tell that you are overtraining if you experience symptoms such as aches and pains in muscles and joints, insomnia, fatigue, headaches, sudden inability to complete a workout or an elevated morning pulse. If there is a lack of motivation and energy, loss of appetite and a decreased performance then these could also be warning signs that you are doing too much.
- One may become more susceptible to illnesses and infections such as colds, sore throats etc., because over training may cause the immune system to be negatively impacted.
- Your muscles may not get a chance to recover and rejuvenate sufficiently between workout sessions.
- Also overtraining could cause boredom to set in, which will end up derailing your fitness process.
There should be an optimum level of exercising for each individual, beyond which exercising and training could go to the next level of obsession and a person may develop an exercise disorder.
If a person finds that their training and exercising is actually interfering in a person’s life then there is reason indeed to take a look at the amount one is exercising.
