Exercise Is Medicine: Are You Underdosing or Overdosing?
Lack of Exercise
Exercise is medicine, and there is no question that moderate to vigorous physical activity is beneficial to overall health. However, like medicine, it’s possible to underdose or overdose on exercise, leading to a wide spectrum of health outcomes.
Our modern dichotomy of fitness extremes is either an all or nothing approach. But what if there's a middle ground that reaps the benefits of physical activity without the pitfalls of extreme lifestyles? In this article I’ll explore the nuances of both and propose a solution that might just strike the perfect balance.
The most obvious fitness extreme of course is doing nothing; a behavior that encompasses a sedentary lifestyle, unhealthy eating habits, and a general disregard for physical well-being. But given all the evidence today, not exercising is considered foolish and leads to bodily deterioration, as highlighted by the The National Institutes of Health and other organizations. Look at these amazing facts of regular physical activity:
Improves muscular and cardiorespiratory fitness
Enhances bone and functional health
Reduces risk of hypertension, coronary heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and different types of cancer
Helps maintain a healthy body weight
Reduces the risk of falls
Improves mental health
Prevents and manages noncommunicable diseases
Etc, etc, etc….
Can it get much better than this? Yest still, a significant portion of our populations don’t meet the recommended levels of physical activity, putting them at a higher risk of chronic diseases and premature death . Obesity is a prime concern, with more than 90% of childhood cases attributed to poor eating habits and lack of exercise.
So it’s pretty obvious that the importance of daily physical activity can’t be overstated. It’s not just a matter of wanting to exercise - we have to exercise. The mantra use it or lose it applies throughout our life. Every day you do nothing you set yourself up for further deterioration, weakness, continual muscle loss. You do NOT improve your physical lot in life by being sedentary, it only gets worse.
You can see this principle in action with those who are active. When they take an exercise break for extended vacation, strength is lost at a rate of about one to three percent a day, with noticeable losses occurring after about two and a half to three weeks. If completely immobilized (think bed rest), muscle strength can decrease by 50 percent in just three weeks.
The conditioning aspect drops more quickly. With regular training, every beat of your heart can handle more blood. But with time off, you decondition, and the heart gradually loses its ability to handle extra blood flow -- up to five percent in 24 hours -- while your resting heart rate increases by four to 15 beats within three to four weeks before it plateaus. One study on the effects of deconditioning shows that VO2 max (the body's maximum oxygen intake) gains made in the last two months before a break are completely lost after one month of inactivity.
This all proves that the body does not become better, stronger or more resilient without the consistent application of exercise.
Extreme Fitness - The Opposite Spectrum
Some like to push the body to its limits through intense workouts in order to produce the best, or quickest results possible. While these regimens can yield impressive short-term results, they often come at a high cost. The body may adapt to the stress, slowing down metabolism and increasing the risk of injury. The psychological toll can be significant as well, potentially leading to burnout and a disconnection from the enjoyment and benefits of exercise.
These facts don’t seem to discourage fitness fanatics as they pay to imitate Navy SEALs, sprinting along with backpacks full of rocks, participate in sledgehammer drills and rope climbs, with instructors who bark like drill sergeants.
Life with excessive strenuous exercise becomes an approach similar to substance abuse, resulting in a pronounced euphoria that psychologists say make endorphins feel similar in effect to opiates such as heroin. And like drugs over time, the body's tolerance to these endorphins increases, necessitating an increase in exercise, akin to chasing the high.
Some disagree, saying this approach prepares them for every life scenario. That’s fine, but do we really need to train like the Spartans are invading, or for end of the world scenarios? Does our routine need to resemble a kind of physical atonement, leading to duress, emotional distress and consistent injuries to joints? Where’s the war?
CrossFit’s founder, Greg Glassman, is a big advocate of conditioning the body for future calamity. “Nature, combat and emergency can demand high volumes of work performed quickly for success or for survival,” Glassman wrote. His ideal world is populated by pumped-up gladiators, prepared to battle anything. Why lift a 30 lb dumbbell when you can run with it, right? Never mind that the path to this world is necessarily lined with E.R. visits and so unnecessary, when most of society does nothing more dangerous than visit the mall twice weekly.
You have to ask yourself, is being sedentary or being extreme with fitness really the way to a better life? How will it work out in the long-term? The challenge lies in finding a path that allows us to enjoy the benefits of physical activity without the drawbacks of going bananas. After all, we have lives, jobs, families and obligations. So we need to find a nuanced approach that considers our fitness level, health status, personal goals, enjoyment and time constraints.
So find a balance that promotes health, rather than destroying it. Ironically, that approach is usually a bit more vigorous than we’re used to. After all, many people are combustible balls of stress, over-tired and over-wired in a busy world, so we have to make the body effect a change. Find a middle ground where you can enjoy the benefits of physical activity, but without the risks associated with extreme lifestyles. Ultimately you have to enjoy what you do to make it last in the long term. Make fitness work for you; have it become a part of your life, but not your entire life.