2383: Can You Get Too Much Exercise by Mark Fisher of MarkFisherFitness on Overtraining and Cardiovascular Health

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[00:00:30] This is Optimal Health Daily episode 2383. Can You Get Too Much Exercise by Mark Fisher of markfisherfitness.com and I'm Dr. Neal Malik, your host. Welcome back to Optimal Health Daily or welcome for the first time if you're new here. This is the podcast where I act as your very own personal narrator and read to you from some of the most popular health and fitness blogs online. Alright and with that, let's get right to it as we optimize your life.

[00:01:01] Can You Get Too Much Exercise by Mark Fisher of markfisherfitness.com Recently, a beloved ninja brought an article to my attention that ran in the New York Times. In a nutshell, the article addresses this question as it relates to the heart. Since the heart is a muscle and muscles can get beat up with overuse, can you do cardiovascular training to the point where the heart is negatively impacted?

[00:01:28] And to the larger question at hand, can you do too much exercise? The answer is a whopping maybe. And the answer is also a big fat it depends. Regarding both the goal of the trainee and what bodily system we're discussing. Let's break this down, shall we? Effects on the cardiovascular system. This is really what the article I mentioned addresses. Although the evidence is far from conclusive,

[00:01:55] it does seem reasonable to think that there's an upper limit of cardio before it's counterproductive. For one thing, the heart is a muscle. Muscles that get overused tend to get beat. Furthermore, there is almost always a tipping point where more is not better for just about anything. That said, I highly doubt that this is a concern for most folks. Not only is the current information far from conclusive, at the moment, it seems unlikely that this will be a concern for anyone,

[00:02:25] except those who love doing ultra-endurance activity. I would recommend keeping your eyes peeled for any new information about the upper limits of cardio training. If you can't get enough of 56-mile cross-country ski marathons, I would recommend keeping your eyes peeled for any new information about the upper limits of cardio training. But if you're just a gym rat who stays active, I wouldn't spend any time at all worrying about this. Effects on the musculoskeletal system.

[00:02:54] I do think you can make an argument that it's possible to do too much exercise, but my concern is more the musculoskeletal system. Even if you're really on point with technique and recovery modalities, exercise is still a stress on the body. If you find the sweet spot, it will be a very positive stress, and you'll receive the positive benefits most folks look for when they start training. Hotter, healthier, and happier. However, if you start working out constantly,

[00:03:22] and or your recovery is less than spot-on, I do think there's a point where it's counterproductive. Most folks have some level of movement dysfunction, which means their body creates movement in a less than ideal way. And anyone who pushes their limits seeking new heights in sports or their training is going to occasionally tweak themselves and get banged up here or there. If you absolutely love training, then you just need to listen to your body

[00:03:49] and do your best to err on the side of safety and make sure you're recovering through sleep, water, proper nutrition, managing stress, using happy thoughts, taking vacations, etc. This also becomes very important with aesthetic goals. Fat loss tends to slow to a crawl when your body is overstressed. The classic fat loss mistake is to cut calories and go nuts with high-intensity exercise. Your body can interpret this as,

[00:04:19] hey, not only am I starving you, I'm going to kill you. This is not ideal to soothe your body into releasing its fat stores. And the classic truism of putting on muscle is that you grow when you're resting, not when you're in the gym. Although the muscle gaining process is still poorly understood and we see wide variations in how folks react to different protocols, it is fair to say a lot of folks do too much lifting when trying to add muscle.

[00:04:47] These individuals would be better off with a more minimalist approach, focusing on getting stronger over time instead of getting a skin-splitting pump on their 11-inch biceps. If your goal is to just be healthy and hot, you'll want to settle on doing the right amount of exercise for your goals, not as much as possible. For most folks, 3-6 total hours a week is a good goal. Effects on the nervous system It's becoming well-known in fitness circles that

[00:05:15] the true target of training is the brain. In this context, we're talking about the neurological components of strength. Once someone reaches an appreciable amount of strength, it can actually tax the nervous system to lift really heavy weights. And unlike the musculoskeletal and cardiovascular systems, it's a bit harder to get a read on what's going on with the nervous system. You'll notice if your heart is pounding. You'll feel discomfort or soreness if you've wrecked your muscles. But if your nervous system is getting fried,

[00:05:45] it's a bit harder to find objective measurements outside of getting weaker. Thankfully, we're probably not too far from more widespread tech solutions for assessing what's going on here. The advent of affordable devices that measure something called heart rate variability is super promising. And for those training for elite athleticism, this level of awareness becomes key. If you're just training for general health and hotness, detailed analyses of your heart rate variability may not be necessary.

[00:06:15] But do make sure to include periodic deload weeks in your training if you work your butt off. Not only will your joints get pissed if you're always killing it at the gym, but if you're using heavy weights, your nervous system will also be displeased. No fun. The big takeaway. I think too much exercise isn't a practical concern for most people. As long as you're not working out more than 5 or 6 hours a week,

[00:06:40] and as long as you're not training at 110% intensity every time you train, you'll be golden. You just listened to the post titled, Can You Get Too Much Exercise? by Mark Fisher of markfisherfitness.com. Dr. Neil here for my commentary. Mark is absolutely right. When we hear about the potential harms of too much exercise, it actually isn't a concern for the average person.

[00:07:10] Most often, we see these cases with, as Mark said, ultra-endurance athletes, like those that participate in Ironman or Ironwoman competitions and ultramarathoners, for example. This isn't the case for most of us. In fact, instead of worrying about getting too much exercise, most of us need to be more concerned about performing enough structured physical activity. And based on lots and lots of published studies,

[00:07:36] most health agencies agree that adults should aim to get at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic activity each week. Now, moderate intensity aerobic activity, well, an example of that would be something like brisk walking. So, for most, that would be walking at pace of about three and a half miles an hour. Now, unless you're wearing a high-tech pedometer, you may not know how fast you're walking.

[00:08:01] So, if you want to know if you're participating in moderately intense activities, think about your breathing. More specifically, use what we call the talk test. For example, imagine there's someone walking next to you. Are you able to have a conversation with them? If you find that you could have a hypothetical conversation with someone, but it would be difficult to sing at the moment, well, now you're talking moderately intense activity. If you can sing while you're walking,

[00:08:31] it means you're not walking fast enough. Now, you can cut this time in half to only 75 minutes of activity a week if you ramp up the intensity. So, let's say you're out for a light jog and you find that it would be really difficult to have a hypothetical conversation with someone. Well, now we're talking vigorous intensity. You are now participating in a higher-intensity activity. And, of course, you can mix things up by performing a combination of moderate and vigorous activity.

[00:09:00] Oh, and there's one more thing to these recommendations. These health agencies have stated, quote, greater amounts of exercise will provide even greater health benefits, end quote. So, basically, the most well-respected public health organizations acknowledge that most of us do not exercise enough. So, instead of spending time concerning ourselves with overexercising, we probably need to be spending that time actually exercising. All right.

[00:09:30] Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for listening every day. I hope you're having a wonderful week. And I'll see you back here tomorrow where your optimal life awaits. Let's go.