Five!

Four!

Three!

Two!

One!

Seems like yesterday when we ushered in 2023.

Today, a couple of weeks into the new year, that countdown might as well be for 12 reps of pushups and sit-ups. Like clockwork, Filipinos indulged in the holidays (and maybe even before that), chomping on as much lechon and spaghetti as they can. Then come January, they work out like crazy in a “Balik-alindog Program” that lasts anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 minutes.     

The danger, of course, is to overdo the diet and exercise to a point where instead of keeping the body in shape, the measures become detrimental to health. While many of us are probably safe from over-exercising and overtraining, (our problems being the opposite), for the sake of those with the natural tendency to overdo things, we have this instructive post.  

Here, we talk of the dangers of doing too much in too short a time.

When Is Exercise Too Much?

Regular physical activity is synonymous with good health. One cannot overestimate the importance of an active lifestyle when it comes to well-being and longevity.

According to the Philippine National Guidelines on Physical Activity, people aged 21-45 need to have, at least, a cumulative physical activity of 30 minutes to 1 hour every day. This includes regular activities like walking, climbing stairs, and doing household chores (mopping floors, cleaning rooms), as well as exercise, dance, and recreation.

For fitness purposes, 20-30 minutes of continuous physical exertion, at least 3x a week, is recommended.

There comes a point, of course, when exercise becomes too much. This is usually along two parameters:  the duration and the intensity of the exercise. Like many things, there comes a point when what is supposed to be beneficial turns harmful.

It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly where this “too much” label should be hung. Our bodies are different and so people have different limits. However, there are symptoms we can point to that help us judge that we’re starting to tread dangerous waters.    

The symptoms that one has been “overtraining” are the following:

• muscle and joint pains

• declining performance

• declining strength

• persistent fatigue

• decreased appetite

• injury

Those are physical signs. Psychologically, overtraining can lead to:

• mood changes

• irritability and anxiety

• insomnia

• decreased motivation

• decreased concentration

• decreased enjoyment of the activity

Looking at the list, especially at the physical signs, one can easily confuse them as the normal consequences of a good workout. After all, soreness and fatigue after a session in the gym or the track are normal.

One key difference, and the way to know if you are overtraining, is that the symptoms do not go away after a day or two. Usually, the soreness and joint pains that follow a good workout dissipate after a day or two of rest.

With overtraining, the symptoms persist even when you have tried to relax and reduce your activity load.

The individual also becomes frustrated because it would seem that his performance, instead of improving, is declining. He’s not getting stronger as a result of training, but weaker.

At this point, he cannot recover in just 1 or 2 days. It usually takes around 1-3 months before one fully recovers from overtraining. The worse the situation, the longer it takes to recover.

What Happens To Your Body When You Overexercise?

Why does it take that long to recover from “overtraining?” Because in addition to the physical and psychological symptoms mentioned earlier, there are systemic changes or disruptions that take place all over the body.

Another way of looking at this is that the physical and psychological effects listed are the effects of systemic dysfunction taking place.

This is why overtraining is serious and takes more than just a couple of days of rest to fully recover from.

Overtraining can be dangerous.

1) It leads to hormone imbalance.

If you feel irritable or anxious, or you’re having trouble sleeping, it’s because overtraining has unsettled the finely-tuned balance of hormones in the body. Stress hormones cortisol and epinephrine goes out of whack and manifest as depression, and loss of motivation, and for a woman, can even lead to the loss of her period.

Hormones have thousand-and-one roles that affect the body in complex ways. An imbalance, unchecked, can lead to a host of diseases and complications.

2) It decreases immune function.

If you’re experiencing more colds than usual, this might have something to do with your body not getting enough rest. Overtraining does not only wear down the muscles and joints and burns you out. It can also disrupt immune system functions.

(As a result, staving off infections, especially in the upper respiratory system, becomes more of a challenge.) 

During training, other systems take a backseat to the task at hand. Fighting off infections temporarily takes a back seat because every ounce of energy is concentrated on the task at hand (eg. lifting a really heavy weight, or getting to a desired number of repetitions).

In a proper program, your body has enough time to relax and breathe. That’s what off days are for. If your body does not get enough time to regenerate, you are more exposed to opportunistic infections down the line.   

3) It lowers your metabolism.

Excessive exercise can actually decrease muscle mass.

This eventually leads to a lower metabolic rate because a decrease in muscle mass also means a decrease in the number of calories burned by the body at rest. (It takes less heat to maintain fat than to maintain muscle.)

According to estimates, as much as 20% of burned calories come from muscle tissues, compared to only 5% that comes from fat tissue.

Also, we’ve mentioned that cortisol levels often shot up in these situations. This leads to cravings for sugary and fatty foods, which we commonly label as “stress eating.” The resulting weight gain, the storing of fat in the body, also leads to a slower metabolism. 

4) It harms your heart.

A good thing, when taken to extremes, becomes harmful. 

Extreme and persistent exercises are not kind to your heart—compelling it to work in overdrive and conditioning it to always be pumping hard.  

There’s growing evidence that such extreme exertions can lead to acute cardiac events. The extreme demands on the cardiovascular system increase the risk of heart damage, wall scarring, and arrhythmia.

Overtraining raises the baseline heart rate as well. Those people will notice that it takes longer for their hearts to return to their resting rate.    

5) It harms your kidneys.

Overtraining can lead to “rhabdomyolysis.”

This is when a muscle ruptures and leaks myoglobin into the bloodstream. When this protein reaches the kidneys, it clogs them and prevents the proper filtering of blood and waste. Brown urine that looks like iced tea is usually a sign that blood is not being filtered properly.

This results in kidney damage and even failure.   

But it’s not just overtraining by seasoned athletes that can cause this. This can also happen to an individual who’s trying to do an exercise he’s never done before. His body is nowhere near the condition it takes to perform the exercise. He could overestimate his abilities and sustain a muscular injury as a result. Myoglobin could then leak into the bloodstream.

Those are just 5 of the many systemic changes that take place with overtraining or over-exercise.

But it should be noted that these things only affect individuals who take an extreme stance on physical activities. Most individuals are probably safe from overtraining. So don’t be afraid to engage in your regular exercises. (Just because you’re catching your breath doesn’t mean you are over-exercising.)  

But for those well-meaning individuals who have a natural tendency to overdo things, here are some tips so that the work you do doesn’t backfire on you.  

How To Avoid Overtraining?

For many of us, there might never be a danger of overtraining…in this lifetime or the next. Our problem might be about how to start exercising at all. But to those who run the danger of grossly pushing themselves beyond their limits, here are a few ideas to prevent overtraining:

1. Start small and slow.

Especially when you haven’t done a drop of exercise in months, don’t think you can immediately pick up where you left off. Regardless of your fitness, your body needs time to acclimatize and adjust to the stresses and strains of exercise.

So take it slow and easy during the first few sessions. If you’re getting dizzy and barely catching your breath, step off and take a breather. 

2. Avoid significant increases in intensity and duration.

Let’s say you started today with 5 push-ups. Don’t go for 20 or 25 the day after. Or if you’re doing 10 minutes of light workout today, don’t go 30-heavy tomorrow. Up your load gradually. This will give time for your body to adjust and get with the program.

Rapidly shifting to more strenuous routines, in the hopes of getting quick results, will not only be harmful (especially for folks in advanced years), but it will also be counterproductive to your ultimate goals. You’ll remember how punishing the routines are and dampen your motivation for doing them again. You will feel “tinatamad.”

But if you very slowly get into the groove of things, you’ll see your exercises as no big deal and would look forward to doing them.

3. Look for more enjoyable activities.

If you want your sessions to last longer, engage in activities that you genuinely enjoy. Instead of mindless repetitions, have fun while at it. If you want to actually work hard, look for sports and activities you’re truly interested in.  

4. Always have days for rest and recovery.

The recovery period is when you truly harvest the benefits of exercise. Exercise is when you strain and take your muscles to their paces. There’s actually some “damage” inflicted when one goes into intense workouts.

But when you give your body a chance to recover and to rebuild, between 1-3 days, you will find yourself coming out better on the other side. Your body would have adjusted to the regimen, become stronger, have more endurance and have better performance.

5. Having a deadline is not necessarily a good thing.

A deadline often means you are taking a short view of things. Say, it’s your friend’s wedding and you need to fit into this dress in 3 weeks. So you focus all your energies on that goal. But what happens after the wedding? Right.

More vital is a change in lifestyle. It has no deadlines. Committing to an enjoyable, physically active existence, instead of committing to a “fit-by-date,” makes for more long-lasting changes.

There’s less pressure too because you know you’ll eventually “get there.”  

So take a long view of your health, instead of crashing a diet or cramming 500 years’ worth of exercise in 2 weeks.    

BloodWorks Lab wishes you an active and outdoorsy 2023! Exercise, done consistently, can work wonders for your health. With the guidelines and parameters outlined here, you can safely work on your fitness goals.

Our medical testing centers are open to help you monitor your health and that of your family. We offer the full range of standard blood tests, medical screenings, and assessments, as well as first-in-the-country offerings like the Anti Acetylcholine Receptor (lgG) Antibody Test and the Anti N-Methyl-D-Aspartate Receptor (Anti NMDA Receptor) Antibody Test.   

Book your appointment today.

Our branches are in Alabang, Katipunan, and Cebu.