Exercise is essential for good health, but so is knowing when to stop. And exercising too much can be bad for you, physically as well as mentally.
The human body likes to exercise. When you exercise, your body produces chemicals called endorphins. These chemicals have the effect of making you feel good. Like cocaine, endorphins are also addictive. The more you exercise, the more endorphins your body produces, and the more you want it.
But while your body likes endorphins, other chemicals in your body don’t like them. The chemical that hates exercise is cortisol. When you exercise, cortisol jumps up.
Cortisol is bad news. It causes a lot of stress. When cortisol is high, your body is tense and tired. This can be helpful for exercise—if you’re guarding against a dangerous animal, you need adrenaline—but it isn’t helpful for much else.
Cortisol makes you irritable, and your body’s immune system is weakened. Your immune system is what protects your body from disease. When you are weak, you are more likely to get a disease.
“Exercise is looked at as a good thing, and generally it is. But there is a dose dependency with it, as there is with almost everything in life. For example, drinking water is healthy, but not 10 liters of it a day,” explains neurologist Daniel Gallucci.
But most athletes, even the best, don’t realize that pushing themselves too far can seriously interfere with their mental and physical health. That’s why it’s so important for beginners not to overdo it.
The first sign of trouble is often an injury. But the same warning signs apply to over-training, which can have just as devastating consequences. So if you’re pushing yourself too hard, you might try to ignore it. But if you ignore a problem long enough, it might get worse.
