In this fast pace life, all of us want to be fit and healthy! Being healthy requires us to keep our nutrition in check by consuming good foods and exercise regularly. Exercising doesn’t have to be hitting the gym, it can also be going for a walk or do some swimming. Moving our body, our joints is good for us and will help us in the long run.
But in this whole run of getting and being healthy, we sometimes tend to over do our exercising and sometimes even the whole “we-need-to-eat-healthy” thing! (well there is a medical term for that – orthorexia nervosa – although this is when eating healthy becomes more of an obsession and starts affecting an individual mentally).
So now the question arises how much exercise is too much ? Am I over exercising ? …. Well to answer that in a simple way, your body will show you symptoms if you over do anything, be it exercise or eating! These 5 Astonishing Side Effects of Over Exercising will help you get perspective of whether you are doing the mistake of over exercising and can better your exercise routine accordingly!
Technically speaking, If you are over-exercising you will feel often tired, your next exercise will be slower than usual and over all you will not feel good. Over-exercise can be termed as excessive, obsessed dependence towards exercise. There are a lot of individuals who donot give any rest to the body. Rest is an important aspect when it comes to weightloss or general maintenance of health. When your body is resting it helps in recovery and boosts your body for the next day workout.
5 Astonishing Side Effects of Over Exercising – 5 Side Effects
Table of Contents
These are the 5 Astonishing Side Effects of Over Exercising which can be harmful if ignored and continued with the exercise. (When your body shows you signs and symptoms please donot ignore it!)
- Fatigue and Tiredness
- Bone damage, Muscular injures and Delayed recovery
- Breathlessness and coughing
- Vomitting
- Cardiovascular Diseases
5 Astonishing Side Effects of Over Exercising – Types of exercises
If you use any app or any smart watch, you must have observed that there is a tiny coloumn which says what type of exercise you are practising – Endurance or strength training
Lets know a little about these and some other types of exercise, so that when you go about with your workout you will know what type of exercise you are doing! The most common types of exercises which we all would have heard and read in fitness apps are the Endurance and Strength exercises.
- Endurance – Edurance exercises can also be called as Aerobic exercises, these exercises help you increase your breathing and heart rate thereby good for making your day-to-day activities easier. Example – Brisk walking, Dancing, swimming, jogging, climbing stairs or hiking etc.
- Strength training – These type of exercises are good for buillding or strengthening your muscles which will inturn help you with your daily activities.(Mainly carrying your grocery bags!) Example – weight lifting, using a resistance band.
- Balance – Balance focused exercises help in preventing falls which is common as and when you become older. Now when you have to reach something from the top self and stand on your tip-toes and balance yourself, and you indulge in balance based exercises, you can easily pick the jar from the top shelf! Example – Tai Chi, Yoga
- Flexibility – Flexibility exercises help you stretch better and also helps you in your other execises. Example – Yoga
Now when you read about the 5 Astonishing Side Effects of Over Exercising you will be able to know better as to how they can affect your health if you over do it!
Note – Just wanted to add in the difference between physical activity and exercise.. Although the difference is minute and people use these terms interchangeably, both the terms means moving your body but physical activity is normal movement such as gardening, walking to the grocery store etc and exercise is planned and structured movements of your body.
5 Astonishing Side Effects of Over Exercising – Explained
The 5 Astonishing Side Effects of Over Exercising are:-
- Fatigue and Tiredness
Fatigue and Tiredness is a common symptom of over exercising in many individuals. Once we are done with any workout of the day, we should feel energised and ready for the day and not feel extremely tired or fatigued. If you feel that way there are high chances that you are over exercising or the exercise routine is not suiting you. The possibility of feeling fatigued and tired can be some underyling health condition too.
When you exercise, there are hormones which come into play, like your cortisols or even mechanisms like the gluconeogenesis (nothing but a mechanism of providing new glucose to your body thereby providing energy while your workouts) which take place while you workout. Now when the body is over exerted or when the person doesnt give proper time for recovery, fatigue and tiredness are the first symptoms which show up and when this is ignored and the hormones and mechanisms are tired, obviously the body gives up and your workout sessions make you feel like you picked up a truck and not a dumbell!.
2. Bone damage, Muscular injures and Delayed recovery
When we exercise, sometimes we get fractures or muscle injuries which are painful and takes a lot of time to recover. These are two reasons why this can happen, a) Maybe the exercise posture is wrong or b) Bone density and bone strength is very low.
When we talk about bone density or bone strength, hormones like the testosterone and estrogen help in maintaning a good bone density and strength. When a person over stresses the body with exercise, production of these hormones can be lowered thereby diminishing the protective property of the bones and causing bone damage. Low Bone strength and density if worsened will lead to osteoporosis!
Muscle injury can be caused by higher concentrations of cortisol in the body. When you over exercise, your testosterone levels decrease causing an increase in cortisol levels thereby increasing the potential for more muscle injuries. Cortisol when in higher concentration than needed tends to encourage breakdown of tissues rather than tissue growth.
3. Breathlessness and coughing
Out of the 5 Astonishing Side Effects of Over Exercising, this is a very commonly seen side effect. Breathing and coughing can happen due to various reasons like again if the posture during the exercise is wrong, breathing work (inhale and exhale while workouts) is not taken care of and also breathing issues due to no proper rest after workouts.
When you don’t take adequate rest after your workouts, there are high possibilites that because of stress and no recovery, your breaths are short and a condition called the work out initated bronchoconstriction may occur (this is when during or after workouts, the aviation routes in your lungs tighten and makes breathing a problem). Now this cause breathlessess and coughing. Coughing can also occur when a person is too tired or fatigued because of over exercising , their concentration wavers and your saliva can go to the wind pipe rather than your food pipe!
4. Vomitting
A practical way of thinking about vomitting is, this occurs because of not consuming enough food before or after your workouts and also because of not drinking enough water causing your body to dehydrate. Vomitting can also occur when glucose production is lowered because of over exercising and your body starts utilizing fat as an energy source causing more ketone production. Now you may wonder, isnt’t that the whole point of exercising… loosing fat ? Yes it is but when you are given a workout and diet routine, your exercises are balanced with good proportion of carbohydrates, protein and fats.
When your body is devoid of carbohydrates, utilization of energy from protein or fats causes ketone accumulation thereby leading to acidosis and thus causing vomitting. Glucose as you all know is a carbohydrate which is required for your daily activities and when you over exercise, your body tends to use up a lot of glucose!
5. Cardiovascular Diseases
This is a very controversial topic out of the 5 Astonishing Side Effects of Over Exercising, as we all know exercise is a vital part when it comes to preventing and maintenance of cardiovascular problems. A healthy lifestyle is crucial for preventing and protecting your heart from diseases. However, excessive exercise can put unnecessary pressure on your heart, weakening it and making it more prone to complications.
Exercising is important for every person whether they have heart issues or not but exercise how much your body needs and practice taking rests after and during your workouts (short breaks during your workouts)
5 Astonishing Side Effects of Over Exercising – Conclusion
So after reading about the 5 Astonishing Side Effects of Over Exercising, it is safe to say that anything in excess is detrimental and will cause side effects. Exercise is a very healthy and important practice that every one of us should be doing 5-6 times a week or even 1-3 times a week depending on your capacity. Movement is very important for us to enjoy every phase of our lives and enjoy our lives with our kids, grandkids and even our pets!
But over doing it and not giving your body adequate rest and time for your muscles to recover will affect you in the long run.. When a person is not used to exercising, it is best if he/she starts with brisk walking 3 times a week or even 5 times if they feel comfortable, after which they can incorporate more exercises slowly.
Many of the fitness freaks do tend to exercise for 7 times a week without any break and later end up with health issues which might stop them from exercising altogether. Give your body the love it deserves – exercise, rest, eat, hydrate and see the magic unfold of your body !
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