Impacts Of Over-Exercising And Can Bring More Harm Than Good

It is extremely hard to make the case that physical activity can be bad for your health. Besides keeping your body in shape and your heart healthy, exercise gives people more energy and a high feeling of empowerment. Sometimes we feel the need to work out harder and longer to maintain that high, craving more and more. But people often don’t realize that over-exercising can bring more harm than good and has detrimental effects on your health and your body.

Physical and emotional

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The negative effects of over-exercising can be both physical and emotional. A person may see deterioration of personal relationships as a result of their compulsions and frustrations. Social isolation is common among those exercising compulsively as all available time is scheduled with physical activity, and usually done alone.

The physical risks can also be very severe. A person can become unaware of dehydration or more seriously be affected by natural elements such as heat or cold and suffer heat stroke or frostbite.

Potential Disease

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Over-exercising can lead to insomnia, depression, fatigue, and anxiety and result in muscular atrophy and skeletal injuries such as shin splints, bone fractures, arthritis, or damage to cartilage and ligaments. Too much exercise can also lead to the release of excessive free radicals, which have been linked to cellular mutations and cancer. Females may potentially cease menstruation, a condition called amenorrhea.

A physical activity that has spiked in popularity in recent years is long-distance running. But what happens when people start pushing themselves beyond their running limits, and start running the ultra-marathons, going beyond a full marathon of 26.2 miles?

Over-running can exhaust your body, and can lead to severe running injuries to your knees or ankles

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Over-running can exhaust your body, and can lead to severe running injuries to your knees or ankles, where the pressure is highest. Most runners are more familiar with the likelihood of incurring running injuries such as meniscus tears, patellofemoral pain syndrome, and ACL tears, than they are with some of the other side-effects of running the long distance races.

While ultra-marathon runners appear healthier, they also have a higher prevalence of asthma and allergies than the general population, which according to research, occurs on a concerning level and should be recognized and treated by medical professionals. Ultra-marathon runners, compared with shorter distance runners, also have a similar annual incidence of exercise-related injuries or running injuries but have a higher proportion of stress fractures involving the foot.

According to Dr. Armin Tehrany

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According to Dr. Armin Tehrany, orthopedic surgeon at Manhattan Orthopedic Care, you should continue with everything that your body finds comfortable doing. “Everything done in moderation is good. So is the running. You should always consult your doctor and listen to your body for everything that you start feeling.” says Dr. Tehrany.

But the number of these injuries among ultra-marathoners is concerning to doctors, especially if we take into consideration that some of the injuries involve a long recovery process. “In order to decrease the risk of running injuries to the knees or ankles, runners should set goals that are easier to reach and slowly take progress into taking those goals to higher levels. Also, runners should never stress their body by pushing themselves outside their comfort level. Just follow your inner energy, stay focused on what your body can do and eventually you will be first on the finishing line” concludes Dr. Tehrany.