Can I exercise too much?

16 Apr Can I exercise too much?

Sometimes we struggle to find the motivation to get started – but what if we have started and now we can’t STOP??? Can you exercise too much???

Let me reassure you that actually no, you can’t exercise too much! But you can do the same type of exercise too much. What does that mean? Let me explain:

RESULTS

For your body to be able to change/adjust and improve, you need to give it sufficient time to recover in between the same type of training. For example, doing Push ups every single day won’t be any more beneficial than doing Push ups every other day, allowing your body to adapt for 48 hours in between. So if you think exercising more will give better results, that is not necessarily the case!

INJURIES

When we do too much of the same thing, our muscles stiffen and get tired and we risk injuring ourselves. Listen to your body and Stretch Stretch Stretch! If you feel a little pain or discomfort in your muscles, warm up more than usual, stretch gently and see how you feel after. If it still feels slightly sore – allow more time to recover! I would never hit an already sore muscle with the same type of exercise again until it has recovered for 2 reasons

1. I will hinder the recovery process
2. My muscle won’t be able to do what it did during my last workout as it is still adapting and healing so it’s pretty pointless!

Changing Things UP

Just because you won’t get much benefit from overdoing the same thing, doesn’t mean we can’t exercise every day!

Switch things up between cardio (Bike – Walk – Run – Row – Cross Trainer – or many other sports) and strength (Push exercises, Pull exercises, Leg exercises, Core exercises, Isolated exercises) and change the intensity (long, comfortable workout or fast uncomfortable workout) and remember there are a lot of other ways to ‘exercise’ – try Yoga for example!

Recovery Times

If you exercise vigorously, you can’t expect your body to perform day in day out year round. When we work on continuous improvement (strength/speed) and peaking/reaching big goals, then we work in a 4 week cycle, every 4th week being recovery week. You will generally feel super alert and full of energy and power during Week 1 and 2, during Week 3 you feel much more tired and exhausted and by the end of Week 3 you are ready to take a step back, sleep and relax. This is when a lot of your body’s hard work is being done – while doing NOTHING or very little! I know it’s great! We can repeat this cycle over and over with different stages and phases and focus on different things  like Speed – Power – Conditioning and more! Recovery sounds like the easy way out, lazy thing to do, but trust me it is as important as the exercise itself!

So if you are a mad exerciser, put a plan behind your training and get some focus, you will achieve SO much more for it!  Change things up, change intensity, change what you want to achieve, and remember NO you can’t exercise too much, but you can do too much of the same thing!

Happy Training

Simone xxx

We specialise in getting mums into the BEST shape of their lives, at any age! YOU have goals, WE help you get there the fastest, most time effective and fun, supportive way!