is there such a thing as too much exercise?

[ski diva]

According to an article I read today at the CNN website, the answer is yes.

Here's an excerpt:

William Haskell, professor at the Stanford School of Medicine, says that in general the risk of harm begins to outweigh the benefits for adults after more than an hour a day. Above an hour, it's questionable whether you're going to get much more from it, he said.

An obvious concern is increasing the chance of injuries related to wear and tear, such as a muscle strain, sprained ankle or a torn cartilage. Oz notes that those sorts of injuries can be a double dose of bad news: Not only do they immediately sideline exercisers, but they can cause nagging problems decades later.

There are concerns beyond breaks and bruises, of course. Middle-aged men who suddenly ratchet up activity after years of inaction can risk a heart attack. And even hard-charging athletes will sometimes show signs of lethargy, decreased immunity or headaches. The cause of so-called overtraining syndrome among athletes is unknown, but Foster said failure to rest could play a part.

Oz's rule of thumb is that bodies don't bounce back as well after more than 12 hours of exercise a week. He said overexercise can create more oxidative stress, in which oxygen molecules called free radicals are formed that damage DNA and cells in ways that, over time, can accumulate to spur cancer.

Over time, oxidative stress has been linked to health problems, including cancer.

For the entire article, go here.

 

[Lisamarie]

Another issue is auto immunity. When I was working in the health club industry, I was amazed at how many female fitness instructors had some sort of auto-immune disease. These included colitis, crohn's, low thyroid, etc. We're talking about people who worked out at least two hours a day, were fanatic about what they ate and took a massive variety of supplements such as echinacia and high doses of vitamin C.

 

[ski diva]

So where does skiing fall into this? What if you ski every day?

 

[Lisamarie]

Well, let's put it this way. In my 30 plus years as a fitness instructor, I never injured myself from working out every day. In fact. I had no injuries. The first year I moved to Colorado, I started skiing every day. In one year, I had an ACL and MCL injury.