We’ve all seen a weight-room addict who is on burpee set No. 50 when we’re walking into spin class, and 15 minutes into a TRX plank when we stumble out. If you miss a day at the gym, you can rest assured they didn’t because you’ll get notified by their fitstagram when they post a leg day video, post-workout selfie, and a suspiciously clean looking cheat meal.
The exercise-obsessed are often celebrated on social media and commended for their commitment and bod to be envied. Some professional fitness gurus such as @massy.arias and @kaisafit support a balanced lifestyle that includes exercising in ways you truly enjoy, resting when your body tells you to and not letting the need to get a workout in stop you from enjoying other parts of your life.
But more and more, we see people who take exercise to an extreme. They’ll ignore signs that their body is exhausted, refuse their muscles the time to heal tears and ditch friends and family for a solo-sweat. Exercise addiction and body dysmorphia (whether it’s an obsession with never being big enough or never being small enough) are real issues.
Exercising regularly is one of the best things we can do to keep our bodies healthy and relieve stress. But there is such a thing as too much. In fact, research suggests that too much exercise can actually be more harmful to the body than going without it. Here are five ways overexercising hurts your body.
1. Higher Stress Levels
Exercise releases endorphins (Elle Woods can vouch for that). But exercise also puts a lot of stress on your body. A little stress is good; it’s motivating and builds resilience. But overdo it on the exercise, and your body will also release excess cortisol.
That cortisol comes with a whole host of problems: weight gain, a weakened immune system, digestion issues — the list goes on. If you’re working out until the point of exhaustion practically every day, you might find yourself cranky and sleep deprived.
2. Rampant Free Radicals (And Wrinkles)
During exercise when your body needs to take in more oxygen, oxidized cells will produce more free radicals. Free radicals are responsible for damaging the immune system, visibly aging the body and causing degenerative diseases like cancer.
Normally, this isn’t a problem because antioxidant enzyme production is also revved up during a good sweat session. Antioxidants are the ultimate free radical fighters and an important part of a healthy diet. You’ll usually find them showing off in deliciously colorful foods such as berries and leafy greens.
The problem is, your body has limited stores of the enzymes that can give free radicals a beatdown. If you do cardio until you K.O. you may be depleting your antioxidant stores, leaving free radicals free to wreak havoc on your cells.
3. Heart Damage
One of the biggest benefits to cardiovascular exercise is a strong ticker. But according to the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, while moderate exercise such as one or two and a half hours of running per week lowers risk of death, overexercising such as running closer to four hours per week actually raises the risk of death compared to those who don’t exercise at all.
Studies have shown that extreme endurance activities can lead to higher levels of plaque build up in the arteries, increasing stroke and dementia risk. Taking care of your heart doesn’t mean pushing it to its limits. If you’re especially worried about your heart health, HIIT workouts are often more effective than long cardio sessions.
4. Muscle Exhaustion
Walking after leg day is a challenge. A few flights of stairs? Forget about it. That’s because strength training creates microscopic tears in your muscles. When you eat right and rest them up, they heal up even stronger and larger, and this is known as muscle hypertrophy. Voilà! Gains.
But if you don’t give those muscles time to recover, they won’t heal. You’ll just be tearing up more muscle. This puts you at risk for injuries and will make your future workouts less effective.
So if you want to be getting stronger and seeing results, you’re going to have to give your muscles a rest. While it varies from person to person, the average recovery time for muscles are 48 hours, so try working out different muscle groups each day, or taking full day breaks between full body workouts.
5. Missing Out On Life
A great sweat to start your day can energize you like no cold brew coffee ever could. But if you find yourself skipping out on Sunday brunch with your friends to squat, or saying sayonara to the beach until you feel bomb in a swimsuit, you may be missing out on life.
Exercising, especially when it’s to change your body, can train you to think that you’ll finally be happy when you look differently. Never let yourself believe that your life will start when you have a six pack or lose a few pounds.
Exercise because you love yourself, but also recognize that taking time for adventures with friends or unwinding with a book does just as much good for your body.
Make hitting the gym a part of a happy healthy lifestyle, but never sacrifice your life for the gym.
Getting a good sweat at the gym can inflict the worst of pains, and relieve the worst of pains. Being active and challenging yourself is a huge step towards a long, fulfilling, healthy and happy life. But as with everything, balance is key.