How much exercise is too much?
This is the question which is on everyone’s lips……… How much exercise should I be doing?
3-5 hours a week of moderate intensity or 1-2 hours high intensity (or a mixture) is typically recommended.
Signs of Over Training / Exercising
• Muscle soreness for longer than 5 days
• You get sick more often due to a lowered immune system
• You’re pretty much always irritable and you have low energy
• Sleep isn’t great
• You put exercise before all else to an excessive degree
• Nagging injury
• You’ve hit a plateau (weight and performance isn’t improving, maybe because your body doesn’t have enough time or fuel to recover properly)
There isn’t an exact moment that overtraining occurs. However, training hard every day is not ideal for your body.
Fitness culture is huge and you see so many sculpted physiques plastered wherever you look but you need to recognise that they:
• are a completely different person
• have different genetics
• are not your age
• have a different lifestyle
• may dedicate most of their day to fitness
• may not be natural
If you’re someone who thinks you might be over exercising then ask yourself a question: If you were on a completely self-sufficient island with just yourself for company, would you take it easier on yourself?
Need to move your body?
Give these a go:
• Yoga
• Light swim
• Kayaking
• A pleasant bike ride
• Stretching
• A nice stroll
If you don’t currently exercise frequently then I suggest that you do as much that comfortably fits your lifestyle. If that’s 10-20 squats while the kettle boils then so be it. Maybe it’s lunging while you brush your teeth. It could even be choosing the stairs over the lift every day at work – it’s all exercise and it all adds up each day!
Doing something is better than doing nothing.
This might sound a little strange but… choose the shortest time possible for your workout.
If it’s a 20 minute walk or maybe it’s a 15 minute weight session a week, then great. Get that done and include it in your weekly schedule.
Or maybe it’s 10 push ups a day.
Why?
Because when you make your goals and objectives super accomplishable then you are not only improving your body but also your mental health.
This is because you are doing what you set out to do, rather than going out guns blazing “I’m going to go to the gym every day for 1 hour” and then “failing” because we went 5 times instead of 7.
Whereas if you said “I’m going to go to the gym once this week for 20 mins” you’ll likely stay there for maybe 45 minutes and after all those endorphins you’ll no doubt be back in a few days. Thus absolutely thrashing your initial objective of a once a week 20 min gym sesh.
Getting the balance right for us can be difficult to start with but once you have established the routine it’s soon becomes a habit rather than a chore!
The most important thing to remember is keep active and keep healthy!
