Exercising has many benefits, but overexercising can be harmful.
Exercise benefits your body by strengthening your heart, bones and muscles; augmenting your metabolic rate; enhancing your mood; supporting your immune system; and increasing your life expectancy. (see ref 1) Although your body possesses an astounding capacity for physical activity, overexercising can lead to serious health problems. Learning to monitor your body for signs of overexercising can help you achieve optimal physical performance without endangering your good health.
Instructions
Track Your Performance
1. Track your physical activity by keeping a log. Jot down the length of time spent exercising, what activity you did and any relevant performance measures, such as distances, times, weights and reps. Add a few words about how you felt at the end of each exercise session for each entry.
2. Review your log every few days and note whether your physical performance is improving, remaining steady or gradually deteriorating. Slowly declining performance is a subtle but important sign of an overuse injury, such as a strain, sprain or stress fracture. Development of an overuse injury indicates that your current level of exercise exceeds your physical capacity.
3. Reduce your physical activity level and see your doctor for an evaluation if you experience an unexplained dip in your performance.
Notice Pain Patterns
4. Pay attention to your pain to determine whether your exercise routine is harming your musculoskeletal system. Intense exercise commonly causes muscle soreness that builds in the hours following your workout and gradually resolves. This type of soreness is normal after a demanding workout. However, localized pain that recurs each time you exercise or persists between sessions frequently signals the presence of an overuse injury.
5. Determine whether you have lost strength, stability, range of motion or sensation in the area affected by the pain. Call your doctor right away if you experience any loss of function. Apply ice, elevate the affected area and refrain from using the involved limb until you see your doctor.
6. Take a break from your exercise routine until you see your doctor. She will advise you about when to resume physical activity and the appropriate level of intensity.
Monitor Body Weight
7. Weigh yourself once a week to detect unintentional weight loss, which may indicate excessive exercise.
8. Check your body mass index, or BMI, to determine whether you fall within the normal range of 18.5 to 24.9. Use an online BMI calculator or calculate the value using this formula: Divide your weight in pounds by your height in inches squared, and multiply that result by 703.
9. If your BMI falls below 18.5, you may be underweight. Irregular periods or loss of your normal menstrual cycle may accompany a low body weight in women. Make an appointment with your doctor to review your current nutritional status, exercise regimen and overall health if your BMI is low.
Mental and Emotional Factors
10. Note your mental and emotional state relative to your exercise routine. Warning signs of compulsive exercising include guilt and anxiety if you miss a workout session; feeling you must exercise rather than choosing to exercise; exercising with an injury; and preoccupation with your body appearance and weight. Eating and body image disorders frequently accompany compulsive exercising.
11. Examine your reasons for wanting to exercise; for those with an exercise "addiction," exercise may offer feelings of control or power, as well as euphoria. Treating excessive exercise is difficult because of the many positive benefits associated with exercise.
12. Make an appointment with a psychologist or psychiatrist if your exercise regimen affects your emotional well-being, interferes with your work or disrupts your close relationships. Therapy can help you alter your attitudes toward exercise such that you enjoy and benefit from it without endangering your physical or mental health.
General Health
13. Notice how often you come down with a cold, the flu, a stomach virus and other minor illnesses. Excessive exercise suppresses your immune system, leading to frequent viral infections.
14. Review your recent sleep habits and mental performance. Sleeping too much or too little and difficulty concentrating may be warning signs indicating excessive exercise.
15. Reduce the volume and intensity of your exercise routine. If your sleep and cognitive symptoms persist, make an appointment to see your doctor.
Tags: your doctor, your body, your exercise, your physical, exercise routine, physical activity