Why is too much exercise bad for me?

With its attractive spaces, high end equipment and luxurious amenities, we could understand why you’d want to spend every day working out at FitnGlam – it’s simply the best women’s-only gym in Dubai. Also, if you’re seeing great gains in the gym, it’s tempting to skip a rest day to keep on hitting your goals. Still, while you’d think that exercising every day might result in peak fitness, it can actually have the opposite effect. Here’s why too much exercise is actually bad for you, particularly if you’re a women.

It can lead to a hormonal imbalance

The great thing about regular exercise is that it can has a positive effect on your hormones, decreasing excess oestrogen in a way that can improve PMS symptoms and increased oestrogen-related conditions such as PCOS. However, if you’re over exercising and pair that with inadequate nutrition, you’re creating the perfect storm for a hormonal imbalance. It can also increase your stress horomones – adrenaline and cortisol – increasing your risk of burnout, injury and a decrease in all that muscle you’ve been working so hard to create.

It’s bad for your bones

All weight-bearing exercises – essentially anything where you carry your own body weight – is proven to help you build strong, healthy bones. Weight-lifting is even better because, when you work those muscles, they stimulate your bones to become stronger and more dense. But again, you can encourage the opposite effect by overdoing it in the gym. Intense workout without enough recovery time in between sessions are proven to decrease bone density, increasing the risk of osteoporosis in women.

It can weaken your immune system

Brittle bones are bad enough but did you know that exercise too much can also weaken your immune system? Again, this comes back to balance. The right amount of exercise will boost your immune system, protecting you from easily catching a cold every time you fly (a sure-fire way to ruin any holiday), while too much will put your body under prolonged stress that leaves you susceptible to infections. In short, if you don’t take recovery days seriously, your body might put you on unwanted bedrest all by itself.

How to find your balance

Clearly, you can get too much of a good thing. So what amount of exercise is enough? How much can do you do to ensure you’re only reaping the benefits as opposed to harming your health? Most fitness experts will tell you to listen to your body. If you’re new to regular exercise, three rest days per week is just fine. If you’re someone who can easily workout every day, it doesn’t mean you should. Taking at least one rest day per week will give your body the downtime to enter a “repair phase” where you actually grow more muscle and reduce your risk of injury due to overtraining.

A recovery day doesn’t mean doing nothing, by all means, take that walk or hit the town to dance. Just remember, even the world’s top athletes take a rest day seriously, so enjoy that well-earned day off. FitnGlam is open seven days a week so when you’re ready to hit the gym once more, we’ll be ready to help you work up a sweat.