Exercising Too Hard Is Bad For You

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Nov 19, 8:07AM EST

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Exercise is supposed to be good for you. Aerobic exercise should be better. It is assumed that people who exercise often–say an hour a day–are even healthier than those who exercise lightly. However, a new study shows you can exercise too much. It says vigorous exercise can cause respiratory infections. In other cases, the consequences can be more severe.

According to the CDC’s “Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans,” people should get 150 minutes of exercise daily or 30 minutes five times a week. However, this exercise is what the CDC calls “physical activity,” which is not the same as a strenuous workout. The agency says that people who exercise hard can exercise less. For example, people who run or jog only need 75 minutes of exercise over a seven-day period. Exercise is a way for middle-aged people to take off weight.

Some people decide to top the CDC recommendations completely. People who prepare for athletic events such as marathons and triathletes may burn nearly 700 calories an hour over several hours. Their heart rates can double their resting rate. The use of major muscle groups also surges.

UCLA recently released a study titled “No pain, no gain? Training too hard can have serious health consequences.” The authors of the study wrote, “overtraining can take a negative toll, and in some cases lead to potentially life-threatening outcomes.”

The problem described is a condition labeled rhabdomyolysis. This happens when “muscle tissue breaks down and releases proteins such as creatine kinase (CK) and myoglobin that can damage the kidneys.”

Signs of rhabdomyolysis include muscle pain, weakness, dark urine, and sometimes a urine output that falls to zero. People prone to this condition include athletes, firefighters, policemen, and some military members.

How do people avoid rhabdomyolysis? Getting adequate sleep is one method, So there are longer periods between heavy training and sufficient hydration.

The good news is that most people do not exercise enough to get rhabdomyolysis.

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.