CAN EXERCISE KILL YOU?

It is quite natural to want to stay fit and to do exercises to keep our bodies fit. Many of us have heard of the expression "no pain no gain". Exercise is good for you to stay fit, staying healthy, and prevent many diseases. The number of people engaging in physical activity over the past decades has significantly increased. According to a report by the World Health Organization, an estimated 1.4 billion people worldwide were physically active in 2016, up from just over 1 billion in 2014.

The benefits of physical activity are numerous and include reduced risks of chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, obesity, and type 2 diabetes. However, there is also a dark side to physical activity. Excessive and excessive physical activity can have damaging effects on your health. But the click is that a lot of exercises can be bad for your health. It impairs your immunity, causes heart problems, and can also be dangerous for your joints.

Squats, lunges, push-ups, crunches, planks, etc. And we now also have HIIT which is High-Intensity Interval Training. The perception among us is that the more exercise we do, the better our body gets. 100 crunches, 50 push-ups, 5-minute planks done give us a great accomplished. But as mentioned, when it’s overboard, exercises can be fatal — yes, it can be life-threatening. 

In women, overdoing can cause the disorder termed as “Female Athlete Triad”. This disorder comes with symptoms such as: 

• Loss of menstrual cycle
• Osteoporosis - which is the loss of bone minerals
• Low Energy 
• Eating Disorders

Photo source

And in men, the causes can be:

• Decreased Libido 
• Risk of fractures 
• Damage to your immune system
• Risk to heart, tendons, and ligaments

It sounds funny when intense exercises can affect your immune system when we do exercises and signed up for online fitness programs to stay healthy and immune behind closed doors during the lockdown. “The more exercise we did, the more we could fight the diseases,” we thought. But what science has to tell? There's up to a 72-hour "open window" of disabled immunity after extreme exercise. This essentially implies infections and microscopic organisms to easily attack and contaminate the body. This means that we are more bound to be infected with any virus for up to 72 hours after an intense workout. 

How to term any exercise you do as intense exercise? 

It depends on your age. To calculate your maximum heart rate capacity, subtract your age from 220 and the difference you get is your maximum heart rate capacity. 

For eg, if my age is 25;

220 - 25 = 195 BPM. 

Thus 195 BPM is my Maximum Heart Rate Capacity. 

As an average, our normal heartbeat rate is 60-100 BPM. And a normal workout is considered when you’re working out at a level that has your heartbeat rate at 60%-80% of its maximum capacity; and 50% for smokers or heart patients. 

Now a strenuous workout is said to happen when your heartbeat rate reaches 70%-85% of your age’s maximum heart rate capacity and an intense workout is 80%-95% of your age’s maximum heart rate capacity. And this gets lethal as you do it every day. 

We all have been shocked about one of the recent happening on the collapse of Danish Footballer Christian Eriksen (Denmark vs Finland, EURO 2021). Continuously having the heartbeat rate over the maximum capacity and playing the sport had increased the risk of cardiac events. At a point, including me, we all were confused about how come a healthy person like Eriksen who maintains his health for playing the sport gets a cardiac arrest, and that too between the match. If we think that eating right and working out to stay fit is the right way, we are wrong. Because Eriksen too did the same. Here’s a video showing Erkisen’s collapse in the Denmark-Finland football match. 

Extreme workouts, such as ultra-long distance events like marathons, might cause heart damage, heart mood difficulties, and widened arteries in some people. Extreme endurance, according to experts, places enormous demands on the cardiovascular system. Rehashed outrageous actions can "rebuild" the heart, thickening the muscle's dividers and scarring the tissues, according to one study. This has more risk of being affected with cardiovascular diseases. 

Let’s see some facts

In a study conducted in Germany with participants aged above 60:

• 40% were active physically 2-4 times a week
• 30% were active physically more than 4 times a week
• 10% were idle doing no exercises 

The inactive people were as twice as likely to develop heart disease or a stroke and it’s the same result for those who have worked out more than 4 times a week. 

Another study conducted in Sweden from 44,000 participants aged between 45-79 found out that men who did intense workouts more than 5 hours a week were 19% more likely to develop irregular heartbeat after the age of 60 than those who exercised less than one hour a week. And men who did a less intense exercise like cycling one hour every day were 13% less likely to develop an irregular heartbeat compared to those who didn’t exercise. 

How much workout is good? 

CDC (Centre for Disease Control and Prevention) says:

• 5 hours of moderate exercise per week 
• Working all major muscles (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulder) for two or more days
• Swimming or walking every day

With this blog, I don’t mean to be anti-workout. Working out at specified levels, or without exceeding the limits is always good for the body. There are several benefits of working out which are: 

• Prevents High Blood Pressure
• Prevents Strokes
• Prevents Type 2 Diabetes
• Battles Depression 
• Battles Anxiety 
• Improves Mood
• Prevents Cancer
• Prevents Arthritis 
• Gives better sleep
• Boosts Energy

I hope you relished this blog on how exercising too much can hurt you. You will find that by staying active in your day-to-day life, you will be able to keep your heart healthy and your immune system strong. Remember, “Training helps, Straining backfires”; these aren’t my words. It’s good to exercise, but there’s a fine line between being healthy and being unhealthy. So be sure to find a balance between exercise and rest, and be sure to drink enough water to stay hydrated.