Research Paper Example about Excessive Exercise

It is commonly thought that exercise is not only important to a healthy lifestyle but crucial; however, this common misconception is not always true. Exercise is known to be one of the most commonly practiced hobbies among people. Millions of people partake in strenuous exercise in an attempt to improve their bodies every day. It has numerous health benefits that help to create a healthier lifestyle both mentally and physically. Benefits like weight loss, muscle growth, mental health improvement, lower risk of heart disease, stress reduction, and much more. However, if performed incorrectly, excessive weight lifting and exercise can be detrimental to the human body, causing both short and long-term effects on your brain, heart, and body. Although exercise has been known to have multiple benefits on your body, studies have shown that it gets to a point where the benefits start to dwindle and the negatives start to arise. According to the CDC, adults should get either two hours of strenuous exercise or 5 hours of moderate exercise weekly (Romero, Polan 2021). This may not seem like a lot, but it is the most healthy option for the adult body. Professional athletes are most commonly at risk of engaging in excessive exercise. In fact, up to 10% of professional runners and bodybuilders suffer from what is called ‘exercise addiction,’ an unhealthy obsession with exercise (Allen 2007). Too much exercise is known to lead to injuries within the body. These exercise ‘addicts’ tend to think that they are improving their body’s health when, in reality, they are harming them. Spreading awareness on the topic of excessive exercise and exercise addiction is beneficial to not only those who are looking to begin exercising but also those who exercise regularly. The more knowledgeable those who exercise are on the topic, the less likely they are to engage in risky excessive exercise. Knowing how to properly take care of your body while also avoiding hindrances is crucial to a healthy and happy lifestyle. 

Despite popular belief, excessive exercise tires out your brain, changing the way you function. Your brain does not work at the same rate while it is fatigued. A study on the brain took 37 male endurance athletes. Some continued normal training while others increased their training by 40%. Those who trained for a longer duration had a slower response in the lateral prefrontal cortex. Researchers found that the athletes who exerted more energy had reduced functionality in the frontal lobe (the part of your brain responsible for decision making) (Reinberg 2019). 

"The lateral prefrontal region that was affected by sport-training overload was exactly the same that had been shown vulnerable to excessive cognitive work in our previous studies," Pessiglione said in a journal news release (Reinberg 2019).”

Decreased functionality of the brain has a large impact on your decision-making. Monitoring your fatigue level is important to not only keeping your brain sharp but also staying healthy in general. 

Excessive exercise within athletes puts extreme demands on your cardiovascular system, which has been known to lead to serious heart issues. One study shows that excessive exercise has been found to completely reconstruct your heart. This includes thickening the heart’s walls and scarring tissue within the heart (Romero, Polan 2021). Ultramarathon runners are at the most risk of heart issues. They, as well as others, can face heart damage, heart rhythm disorders, and enlarged arteries; all due to excessive exercise. A study on how a woman’s body handles excessive exercise shows that women who exercise at least once a week have a drastically lower chance of a heart attack or stroke than those who partake in strenuous exercise every day. 

“Pushing your body to the max day after day can stress your heart and raise your risk for a type of abnormal heart rhythm called atrial fibrillation, or A-fib, which ultimately can lead to heart failure or a stroke, according to the review, which analyzed 12 studies on A-fib in athletes and endurance runners (Wankek 2016).” 

A study done in Denmark shows that athletes suffer from a far greater chance to develop atrial fibrillation (roughly 5.3 times more likely than nonathletes). Within Atrial fibrillation, blood builds up in the Atrial of the heart. This has been known to lead to an incomplete pumping of blood and large amounts of stress on the cardiovascular system. Overall, the possible damage done to your heart is severe. Not only can you permanently damage your heart, but you can suffer from life-threatening injuries like a heart attack or stroke (Wanjek 2016).

Excessive exercise has also been known to cause other bodily issues, not affecting the heart or brain. 

“One unsurprising study found that light to moderate runners had a lower risk of death than people who didn't exercise. But, in a surprising turn, some people who ran at a faster pace for more than three times a week had a similar risk of dying as the non-runners. So running too much, and too intensely, seems to undo some of the health benefits gained from regular running (Romero, Polan 2021).” 

On another note, both men and women may suffer from a variety of other issues. According to (Romero, Polan 2021), women may suffer from eating disorders, loss of menstruation, and osteoporosis or bone mineral loss. This is known as the “female athlete triad.” Men are likely to have effects of decreased libido, fatigue, and lower testosterone levels. However, both men and women may suffer from tendonitis, stress, and changes within your immune system. All of these bodily changes can be caused by engaging in excessive exercise. Lastly, exercise addiction and runners high can be very problematic issues that tend to stem from over-exercising. Addiction within exercise can come to be very dangerous if not taken care of properly. According to an article on why exercise can be bad for you, 

“Consistent exercise causes the body to produce endorphins, which are hormones secreted by your pituitary gland to block pain, decrease anxiety and create feelings of euphoric happiness. But endorphins are chemically similar to the drug morphine, and so for many people, compulsive exercise can be psychologically addictive (greenfield).”

Exercise addiction can eventually lead to not only withdrawal but other health issues as well. The more addicted you become, the more at risk you are at developing these issues later in your life. Runners high is much like exercise addiction. According to an article on runners high, 

“Researchers have found a relationship between the number of opioids in the brain and the athletes' mood. The level of euphoria was significantly increased after exercise. The findings of this research support the "opioid theory" of the runner's high and suggest region-specific effects in frontolimbic brain areas that are involved in the processing of emotional states and mood (Hartney 2020).”

The brains’ desire for this “high” pushes you to keep exercising. Not only can this stem towards exercise addiction, but it also paths the path to other health issues down the road. 

Although in several circumstances excessive exercise is unhealthy for the body, there are a small number of instances where practicing excessive exercise is beneficial and needed to perform at the next level. For example; professional athletes. Professional athletes are expected by not only themselves, but also their coaches, teammates, and viewers/fans to be as physically fit and athletic as humanly possible. To become this athletic, these athletes must train extensively daily to maintain the physique that allows them to compete professionally. Without this “excessive exercise,” these athletes simply would not be able to compete with each other. So, in the interest of themselves, their coaches, and teammates, they engage in strenuous excessive exercise, despite the risk. You may ask yourself, If professional athletes successfully exercise an excessive amount, then why can’t I? While excessive exercise does keep these professional athletes physically fit, it is not a realistic argument to compare the exercise of professional, paid, athletes to those trying to stay in shape at home. Professional athletes make up an incredibly small percentage of the population and should not represent the total population. In fact, professional athletes make up way less than 1% of the population. To even further back up that statistic, 1 out of 250 college athletes go to play at the professional level, according to Bleacher Report (Lee 2014). Because more than the majority of the population does not compete at a professional level, it is still safe to assume that engaging in excessive exercise is still not only harmful but unnecessary for the vast majority of the population. 

In light of the information presented, it is safe to conclude that excessive exercise can be detrimental to the human body if performed incorrectly. As stated in previous paragraphs, excessive exercise had been proven to show long-term effects on your heart, brain, and body. Including, but not limited to, fatigue, heart damage, heart reformation, Atrial fibrillation, risk of death, eating disorders, testosterone changes, menstruation changes, exercise addiction, and runners high. These risks make up only some of the danger over-exercising can bring if you are not careful. By spreading awareness on the dangers of over-exercising, athletes can successfully monitor their health, increasing their self-awareness. Monitoring your health ensures that you do not harm your body in the process of exercising. Watching your health is not only incredibly crucial to having a healthy and happy lifestyle now, but also the lifestyle of your future.