Health

How Much Is Too Much?

by Jenna Anderson

Exercise:  You know it’s important and you know you should do it. But how much should you do, how often and what type? Is it low reps/high weights or high reps/low weights? Do you need cardio or strength training or both? Is there such a thing as too much? And do you really have to give up everything that tastes good in order to see results?

How much exercise is enough varies according to certain criteria, says Claude Thompson, certified personal trainer and operations and facility manager of Health Central. In order to make the determination, one has to consider several factors, which vary with each individual. These include healthy body composition range (body fat percentage as opposed to overall weight), activity level (sports, recreation, chores, yard work/gardening), health issues/risk factors that may act as limiting factors (heart disease, high blood pressure, arthritis), health issues/risk factors that are aided by exercise (high blood pressure, diabetes, depression) and response to exercise as determined by genetic endowment, age, gender and health status. For matters regarding health issues, Thompson cautions that you see your physician before beginning any program.

Let’s say you’re a healthy adult with no medical restrictions to keep you from exercising. Now it’s time to select your goals. Are you doing this to stay healthy, lose weight or build strength and muscle?

If your goal is to stay healthy, the American College of Sports Medicine and American Heart Association recommend a minimum of 30 minutes of moderately intense cardio five days a week. By moderately intense, Thompson explains, “You’re working hard enough to raise your heart rate and break a sweat, yet still be able to carry on a conversation.” Those half-hours, he adds, can be accumulated in 10-minute bouts. The other recommended option is 20 minutes, three days per week, of vigorously intense cardio, the latter providing even greater benefits.

If you’re looking to shed pounds, he says, you’ll want to up that to 60 to 90 minutes of physical activity, five days per week, “along with progressive, permanent calorie reduction.”
Want to be strong and buff? “For healthy adults under 65, strength training is now included in recommended exercise minimums for health, with eight to 10 different exercises with eight to 12 repetitions twice a week,” says Thompson. “For adults over 65, 10 to 15 repetitions two or three times per week are recommended.” Again, consult your physician before undertaking any program.

Body transformations don’t happen overnight, regardless of what the diet pill ads promise. Nor should you expect to undergo the type of body transformation you see on The Biggest Loser. “The problem with those shows,” says Dr. Steven Greer, M.D., C.A.Q., director of primary care sports medicine at the MCGHealth Sports Medicine Center and assistant professor in the departments of family medicine and orthopedics, “is that they take people out of their environment, give them trainers who yell and scream at them to work out and eat properly, then they send everyone home. It’s like going to rehab and then going back to your crowd of friends who drink and use drugs. The goal is lifestyle change. You have to commit to exercising regularly and eating properly for the rest of your life.”

Exercise is divided into two categories: aerobic and weight bearing. Aerobic exercises, Thompson explains, are those most commonly thought of as cardio, that is, cycling, walking, running, swimming, elliptical machine, group fitness step class, kickboxing, etc. “Cardio,” he says, “has beneficial health effects on the heart, lungs, blood vessels and metabolic issues, such as diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure.” Weight-bearing exercises use free weights, machine weights, resistance bands and tubing, and body weight/additionally weighted activity against gravity. These, he says, “increase muscular/functional strength, lean body mass with accompanying increased metabolism, bone strength and ability to better avoid related injury such as strains, sprains and tears. Both types of exercise are important in calorie expenditure toward healthy weight maintenance or weight loss. Both are essential to overall health and should be practiced in addition to your normal daily activity. Both also help relieve stress and fight depression.”

As for rep and weight range, “High rep/low weight is good for the novice, and safer,” says personal trainer Demetrius Jones. “It will help tone and gradually increase strength. Low rep/high weight is good for someone who is intermediate to advanced. Not only will this tone, it may help build muscle, depending on your diet. Also it will increase strength at a faster pace than high rep/low weight.”

Jones dispels the popular misconception that women who weight train will end up looking like the Incredible Hulk. “Women assume just because they get involved in a weight-bearing routine they will gain big, bulky muscles,” he says. “This is such a myth because you have to eat to build this type of look and, if you stick with a calorie-restricted diet, this is anatomically not possible.”

Dr. Greer recommends flexibility training as part of one’s routine. “It can be done as your 10-minute cool down after 20 minutes of high-intensity   training,” he notes. “But don’t do it before because you will increase your chance of injury.”

Flexibility training such as yoga and Pilates can be incorporated into one’s weekly exercise schedule. Both of these are appropriate for all ages, says Cindy Stephens, director of Health Central, certified group fitness instructor and certified personal trainer. Among the benefits she cites are improvements in joint flexibility, range of movement, abdominal and back strength, balance and coordination, muscle tone and strength, as well as reduced rates of injury and stress levels.

While exercise needs to be a regular part of one’s daily routine, going full-speed every day at high intensity can lead to overtraining or its counterpart, overtraining syndrome. Dr. Greer explains, “Overtraining simply means doing too much. When you overtrain, you are more likely to have overuse injuries—anything from stress fractures to shin splints, tennis elbow or other ailments. Overtraining syndrome is a little bit different. It’s more an issue of somebody training and training and, instead of getting better, it becomes less effective. Their performance declines, so they exercise harder and continue to decline. They lose weight, have difficulty sleeping, develop mood problems and issues. If you don’t give your body enough time to recover before you exercise again, it becomes detrimental. It’s not a specific injury; it’s a conglomeration of syndromes.”

It’s important to keep yourself on track with a regular schedule, planning a block, or blocks, of time to complete your workouts and making sure you vary your routines, not only to avoid monotony but also to keep your muscles challenged. How often to change things up “depends on one’s goals and if they get bored easily,” says Jones. “You should change on an average every six to eight weeks, depending on mood and goals attained.”

“Following a training plan consistently is the best way to reap the benefits of exercise since results accumulate slowly over time,” says Thompson. “This is most important for beginners—those in their first nine months to two years—to allow for development of their cardiovascular and muscular systems in a foundation-like process with safe, injury-free methodology. Initial progressive change is dictated by the exercise becoming too easy. At this point, a small, safe increase in challenge (speed, incline, number of repetitions, amount of resistance) will ensure progress. The same exercises may be mixed and matched, and new exercises introduced one at a time, to not only ensure progress, but more importantly to prevent lack of motivation that can result in total cessation.”

So…you’ve decided to exercise. You know how often you should do it, why you should do it and you have some guidelines as to how to do it. But remember the last component to success: nutrition. Otherwise, all your hard work, and possibly all the money you spend on a gym membership, will be for nothing.

Jones recommends keeping a food journal. “Nutrition is a key element to any workout,” he says. “Your food intake will be based on your goal and performance. It’s very simple: If you’re trying to lose, eat less, but food with some nutritional value in order to  sustain energy throughout your workouts. And the same goes for muscular gains because this diet will consist of foods with high protein intakes and low fats.”

Terry Bouldin, dietetic intern with University Health Care Services, says that there are several nutritional ways to improve your workout and most are very basic. “First, make sure you are adequately hydrated; muscles don’t work properly if they are dehydrated,” he says. “The sensation of thirst follows water loss, so by the time you become thirsty, you’re already becoming dehydrated. Drink water through your workout to prevent that from happening—a couple of gulps of water each 15 minutes or so is usually adequate for a strenuous workout. The normal gulp is about two ounces, so you’ll be drinking about four ounces every 15 minutes. And unless you’re really sweating, skip the sports drinks. The sugar content is meant to replenish the expended glucose in the muscles, which is why the sodium is added—it aids in getting the glucose into the muscles. But for an average workout, it’s not necessary and simply provides excess calories that you’ve tried so hard to work off.”

Remember, too, that you need enough fuel from food to power your workout, but caloric excess will only lead to an increase in body fat. Therefore, says Bouldin, eat well, but eat healthily. Make sure you get the recommended five to seven servings of vegetables daily. Opt for low-calorie, calcium-rich foods for strong bones. Keep your protein sources lean—fish, chicken, legumes or low-fat meats—and do not fry or bread them. Don’t overdo the protein, he warns. “A good rule of thumb is to make 15 to 20 percent of your calories from protein. Be careful about the source, as most protein sources tend to be associated with fat also.” Don’t scrimp on complex carbs—you need the energy and fiber. And replenish yourself after a high-intensity workout with a carb/protein combination. Finally, if you’re one of those lucky people who were blessed with the metabolism of a hummingbird and an ability to wolf down seven-course meals without gaining an ounce, don’t think you’re exempt from exercising. “You can put those people on a treadmill test and see that their weight is not an indicator of their overall health,” says Dr. Greer. “So they should work out as much as the rest of the world.”