We’ve all heard the advice that getting good exercise is one of the best things that we can do to improve our health. However, have you ever wondered whether there is such a thing as too much exercise? If your answer is yes than consider this….
Back in the 1970’s a medical doctor by the name of Kenneth Cooper started prescribing exercise to help his patients recover from ill health and disease (What a concept!!). At the time, Dr. Cooper’s views on health and fitness were cutting edge and he was actually recognized as starting the exercise craze back in the 70’s. He is also recognized as the person who coined the term “aerobic exercise.”
Although Dr. Cooper’s correlations between illness and exercise were correct, he began becoming quite alarmed when he started to see several of his super exercisers who had been coming to his aerobic center in Dallas literally dying from heart disease and cancer at an early age. He didn’t understand why his top notch athletes were developing these major health problems. When he researched the issue further, he was shocked to find that it was the exercise he was recommending that was the catalyst for these problems. He found that when a person exercised excessively, the production of free radicals (which cause cancer, heart disease and other serious conditions) went off the charts. In other words, the excessive free radical production from too much exercise was killing his patients. After learning about this, he began to recommend that if a person wants to start an exercise program, they should be taking adequate levels of antioxidants all the time. Furthermore, on the day of exercise, they should increase the amounts of antioxidants they are taking. You can read more of Dr. Cooper’s concepts in his book The Antioxidant Revolution.
At Integrative Healing Dynamics, we know that merely knowing what to do (i.e. exercise) isn’t the same as knowing how to do it. The term “aerobic exercise” is thrown around all the time in the exercise world yet, people do not realize what that aerobic exercise is not the same thing to everyone. What is considered aerobic exercise to someone else may not be considered aerobic exercise to you. We are all individuals with different levels of health and fitness. We need to learn to respect, accept and learn where our bodies fitness levels are instead of taking the “No pain, no gain attitude” towards exercise.