How much is too much exercise?

 That is a hard question. The New York Times, today at March 22, 2011, posted some findings that show older super athletes of the type that run long marathons can show heart damage.

Researchers in Britain tested the heart health of older and younger fit athletes and some non athletes. In the test were men who had been part of a British national or Olympic team in distance running or rowing, as well as members of the extremely selective 100 Marathon club, that is men who have done at least 100 marathons in their life. All men had been working at all their lives even at the present time. They used magnetic resonance imaging of their hearts that identifies very early signs of fibrosis, or scarring, within the heart muscle.

Here were the findings, None of the younger athletes or the older non-athletes had fibrosis in their hearts. But half of the older lifelong athletes showed some heart muscle scarring. The affected men were, in each case, those who’d trained the longest and hardest. Spending more years exercising strenuously or completing more marathon or ultramarathon races was, in this study, associated with a greater likelihood of heart damage.

Dr. Paul Thompson, the chief of cardiology at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut and an expert on sports cardiology, a peer reviewer for the British athlete study, said, “How many people are going to join the 100 Marathon club” or undertake a comparable amount of training? he asked. “Not many. Too much exercise has not been a big problem in America. Most people just run to stay in shape, and for them, the evidence is quite strong that endurance exercise is good” for the heart.

They go on to say there is a threshold for distance and intensity but that threshold is impossible to find.

The New York Times article goes on to say, the best response to the emerging science of excessive exercise is to just keep exercising, but with a low-level buzz of caution. If your heart occasionally races, which could indicate arrhythmia, or otherwise draws attention to itself, Dr. Nattel said, consult a doctor.

But if you exercise regularly and currently have no symptoms, “I think it’s safe to say that you should keep it up,” Dr. Thompson said.

Doctor Mercola always recommends short distance high intensity workouts known as Peak 8.  All of my life I've read that over training in weight lifting actually causes you to lose muscle, and yet at the same time you constantly hear about the necessary intensity of training that is required to see results. So where is the happy medium. I'm not a doctor, or a professional athlete, but having worked out all my life, and having researched extensively, I believe it's a matter of time plus knowing where you are physically before you start exercising. You want to start out slow and build intensity, and from the research, I think it's important not to do difficult training for long periods at once. I wouldn't do hard core exercise any more than a hour at a time myself, and a lot of research I've read says 30 minutes a day is sufficient.

It would appear that the level of stress has got a big part to play on whether or not we overtrain. The goal in weight lifting for instance is to tear down muscle and then let it heal. If you overload too much and too long the body never has a chance to heal. This could be what happens to the marathon runners. Too long of intense exercise periods just break down the body past the point of no return. At the same time you read of how many health problems occur from even a extra hour or two of TV watching a night. Why is that? Has to be tied to the fact we are meant to move and work all day, not just sit on our butt all day. So once you get your short intense workout done, you may want to go for a nice relaxing walk later on in the evening. I think mixing it up from intense to relaxing is a good way to stay fit, thin, healthy, and not overly stressed. Just remember sitting around for hour after hour watching TV has definitely been proven to bad for your health.  So even if all you do is walk around the park every day, you will be better off for it. Ask your doctor before beginning any new workout routine.

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