Can you exercise too much?

by Elliott
(Portland Oregon )

Question:
Can you exercise too much? Is there such a thing as working out too often?

If I weight train every other day, I do cardiovascular exercises every other day, and walk for about 1 hour every day, would that be considered too much?

Day 1 - Weight train 1 hour
Then walk for about 40 minutes to an hour that night.

Day 2 - Do cardio for about 20 to 40 minutes
Then walk about 40 minutes that night...

So I repeat this over and over for about 6 or 7 days, then take a full day off. My goal is to burn a little fat and maintain or build muscle.

Answer:
If you were experiencing mental fatigue or constant soreness, then you could safely say this was too much for your body... That's an easy way to know if you are over training.

Can you exercise too much?
This depends on the level of activity, and the goal that the person has. So there are many contradictory answers to that question, because you can't take every person and put them into 1 category.

Are YOU working out too much?
No, it doesn't look like it. Your program looks good. High level activity burns fat. To keep this level of activity up, just make sure that you are eating well to sustain yourself and to help build muscle while burning the fat off.

On the flip side, if you were to do weight training every day, you may run into a few problems... But as for walking and or doing cardio every day, that's actually okay. It's good for you.

A few take home lessons:

If you were over training, your body would tell you.
You would feel sore and fatigue constantly. That would be your body's way of telling you to lay off.

Cardio is great to do, and so is taking walks, or getting your bike out and going for a bike ride! 'Moving' is not the enemy.

If you are trying to build muscle, training with weights every day will not speed that up at all. Training with weights every day, would be too much.

Don't be afraid to go outside and participate if your favorite activities even when you want to build muscle mass, it won't hurt you. Just be sure to feed your body so that the muscles can grow, it's that simple.

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