Possible disadvantages of exercising too much

(1)Excessive exercise can increase vulnerability to disease and health problems. Athletes of varying ages who engage in long ad strenuous training programmes are more at risk from health problems than those who do moderate exercise. This has been found by looking at the number of school boys who contacted pneumonia after a period of intense sports training compared to others who only participated moderately and also the incidence of Upper respiratory tract infections in athletes who participated in a marathon compared to a group who had the same training but did not partake in the marathon.

However it is not determined if this is a causal relationship of if another variable plays a role, an explanation for this could be the close encounters athletes have with each other at sporting events which could lead to the spread of bacteria much more easily and also the stress of physical activity could be causing illness.

Immune system part

Moderate Exercise

Intense Exercise

Phagocytic White blood cells

Increased White blood cell count providing immunity boost against microbes

Suppression of the immune system under stress and possible inflammatory response in muscle tissue reducing other non-specific responses

B-cells and T-cells

Normal Functioning

Reduced helper T-cells activity leading to reduced antibody count

Activated T-cells

Normal Functioning

Cytotoxic cell activity reduces

Damage to Skeletal System

Excessive exercise can cause damage to the body since parts are overused or put under great pressure, there are two types of injury, traumatic and over-use, traumatic injuries involve a single impact such as rugby and overuse injuries are similar to repetitive strain injuries. There are 4 main injuries that over exercise can cause on the skeletal system.

* (2)Fractures: A fracture occurs when too much stress is put on a bone and occurs when too much weight is applied on the bone or there is a repetitive impact.

* Bone Spurs: If you receive a bone injury and don’t get it properly treated it can result in a bone spurs. This is caused when the bone tries to repair and calcifies the area around it. This is common in areas where big impacts are common such as the feet or Tibia

* Back Pain: Most back pain is related to overused muscles but it can also be caused by slippage of back bones while lifting weights

* Arthritis: When too much stress is put on joints in routine exercise and the weight they carry is more than they can handle arthritis can occur.

Apart from fractures these problems are long term and often don’t have any cheap cure requiring painkillers.

(3)Lesser Problems

Other problems can include an increased rate of eating disorder including Bulimia due to over obsession of body image. This can lead to excessive aerobic exercising which leads to the loss of both fat and muscle weight. The appearance of not loosing weight as your muscle density increases can cause more excessive exercising.