Is too much of exercise bad for you?

Is too much of exercise bad for you? It is well known that regular exercise is good for the heart. Almost all guidelines recommend 150 minutes a week of moderate intensity physical activity. But like the old saying that too much of good things can be harmful, is too much exercise bad for you? The Copenhagen City Heart Study assessed the dose of jogging and long term mortality [1]. In the introduction of their article, they mentioned the historical anecdote of sudden death of Pheidippides, a professional running courier in 490 BC. It is believed that he ran from Marathon to Athens, Greece, approximately 25 miles to give the news of victory of Athens overs Persia. He exclaimed “Nike'” (victory), collapsed and died. But they also quote another version of this story which says that Pheidippides continued to run from Athens to Sparta for military help. He is supposed to have run the distance from Athens to Sparta of 137 miles in 48 hours! 1098 healthy joggers and 3950 healthy non joggers have been prospectively followed as part of the Copenhagen City Heart Study since 2001 [1]. The study showed that 1 to 2.4 hours of jogging per week was associated with lowest mortality. They noted that the optimal frequency of jogging was 2 to 3 times per week and optimal pace was slow or average. When they divided joggers into light, moderate and strenuous, the lowest hazard ratio for mortality was found in light joggers followed by moderate joggers and strenuous joggers. These findi...
Source: Cardiophile MD - Category: Cardiology Authors: Tags: General Cardiology Source Type: blogs