Exercise: when do we not arrive and when do we go too far?

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Now perhaps you are reading this comfortably seated on the sofa or in your office chair. Think about the number of hours you spend each day in these places and if you compensate for it by doing some type of physical activity. Or perhaps not, perhaps the sofa burns you and every weekend you run a mountain trail and push your body to the limit.

Don't take it as a criticism, it's just a wake-up call if you are concerned about your health, because the data tells us that physical inactivity is a serious global health problem, but overtraining can also be problematic (only in the first world, of course) and now that Iron Mans and ultramarathons have become fashionable and it seems that for some running a marathon is not enough (it is not and never will be!), it is worth thinking about it a little. If health is your concern, not doing enough physical activity is a problem, but overdoing it is too.

WHEN WE DON'T DO ENOUGH

I mentioned it the other day here: humans are designed to move and when they don't, health problems arise. According to the WHO, physical inactivity is the fourth - fourth! - risk factor in terms of global mortality. And not only that: also according to the WHO, it is the main cause of between 21 and 25% of breast and colon cancers, 27% of diabetes cases and 30% of the burden of ischemic heart disease. Perhaps now the sofa doesn't seem like such a good idea... but going to the gym, it's so hard! Let's be honest, if religiously paying gym fees without stepping foot in it had any health benefits, we would all be as strong as oaks.

But, in principle, we don't need to go to the gym, as physical activity is any type of bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that requires energy expenditure: walking, running, climbing stairs, gardening, carrying boxes, dancing... things that are within everyone's reach at no cost. This thing about exercise and sport are relatively modern inventions: I would bet my life that 150,000 years ago no one was doing sets of push-ups in the middle of the African savanna. Physical activity was inherent to human beings because our survival was at stake. The simple act of getting food was an important physical activity in itself: the Hadza, one of the few hunter-gatherer tribes still relatively untouched in the world, walk an average of 15 km each day to get food and water; we walk 50 meters to the supermarket... and come back with many more calories in the cart than we spent to go!

Given this, it is clear that going to the gym helps because there we do a planned and structured physical activity to obtain concrete results. An adequate level of regular physical activity in adults reduces the risk of hypertension, heart disease, strokes, diabetes, breast and colon cancer, depression, improves bone and functional health, and helps control weight. What does an adequate level mean? Simplifying, experts recommend a minimum of 30 minutes a day of moderate physical activity five times a week. And you don't have to do it all at once: you can do 10 minutes in the morning, 10 at noon, and 10 in the afternoon. This means walking fast, cycling, doing household chores, gardening... or going to the gym. And now we also know that strength exercise is as important or more important than aerobic exercises, since when we exercise our muscles, they release hormones called myokines which, among other things, improve osteogenesis - bone tissue formation -, reduce inflammation, or protect us against some tumors.

WHEN WE OVERDO IT

The more minutes we dedicate, the more benefits, but there comes a time when an excess of exercise becomes detrimental. When? The benefits of physical activity are based on the principle of overcompensation: we train, we stress the cardiorespiratory and muscular system, and the body, during rest, repairs everything and improves it a little, until over time the improvement is significant. If rest periods are not respected, we train again when we have not yet recovered, and the body cannot cope and breaks down.

Each person is unique, but there are ways to detect if we are overtrained, apart from doing blood tests to measure objective values (such as resting levels of catecholamines, cortisol, or testosterone). An overtrained person has diminished defenses and is prone to recurrent infections (especially respiratory ones), but above all experiences an inexplicable drop in performance that does not improve by reducing training or resting and can last weeks, months, and sometimes years. They may also lose weight, sleep poorly, have trouble concentrating, lack appetite, suffer recurrent injuries, or experience depression. If you have any of these symptoms, perhaps you should review your relationship with exercise and put yourself in the hands of a professional. If not, go for it!