• Question: Is it bad to do too much sport?

    Asked by mennie13 to Helen, Jenni, Mark, Martin, Stu on 13 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by hazellwh, brayf, limey5298.
    • Photo: Martin Lindley

      Martin Lindley answered on 13 Jun 2011:

      Yes….thats a simplistic answer but in essence it is possible to train too much and do too much sport.

      Your body needs to be looked after with the correct diet and the correct exercise, too much of either is not good for you.

    • Photo: Mark Burnley

      Mark Burnley answered on 13 Jun 2011:

      Martin is right, it is possible to do too much sport. We even have names for it. It is somethimes called “overtraining” (in athletes) and “exercise addiction” (in people who overuse the gym). That said, you actually have to do an awful lot of sport or exercise before it becomes bad for you. The other thing to say is that “too much” depends on how much you do right now. If you’ve been running 30 miles every week, then suddenly increasing to 100 miles a week is probably going to be bad. If you don’t do anything at all, then suddenly running even 20 miles in a week could cause injury. This is why athletes spend many years building up to events like the Olympics – there will be athletes in 2012 who have spent 8-10 years training for it.

    • Photo: Jenni Tilley

      Jenni Tilley answered on 13 Jun 2011:

      I agree – everything in moderation. Overuse injuries are common in athletes who don’t give their body enough time to recover, and it’s fairly hard to treat.

    • Photo: Stuart Mourton

      Stuart Mourton answered on 13 Jun 2011:

      As the others have said, too much of anything is bad for you, and that includes sport and exercising. I think it’s important that we monitor people’s sporting habits and make sure they’re not making themselves unwell, or injured. But at the same time we still need to push people to get out and play sport, have fun and get/stay healthy!

    • Photo: Helen O'Connor

      Helen O'Connor answered on 13 Jun 2011:

      It’s pretty rare, but for a small number of people, there is such a thing as “too much”. Like Mark says, athletes can get over-training syndrome (OTS) and people can exercise too much in a way that becomes addictive (they find it impossible to stop).
      Healthy levels of exercise have an anabolic (tissue-building) effect on the body, but too much exercise can sometimes have a catabolic (tissue-destroying) effect on the system.
      It is important, whatever sport or exercise you do, to have a balance between feeling challenged and giving yourself enough recovery time. Without enough recovery time you might get muscle or joint damage, feel tired all the time (even with lots of sleep) and lower your immune system so you get more infections.

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