What is 'Excessive Exercise,' Anyway?

What is ‘Excessive Exercise,’ Anyway?

By Scott Douglas You've probably seen recent news reports about "excessive exercise" being worse for your health than more moderate workout habits. Last week, our Amby Burfoot put those reports in context on his Peak Performance blog, and if you didn't read Amby's post then, you owe it to yourself to do so now. Amby has followed up on that post by interviewing the two lead researchers behind the recent studies . A key question Amby asks: What is meant by "excessive exercise"? One of the researchers, Chip Lavie, M.D., (a 3:04 marathoner, by the way), puts it this way: It’s hard to put an exact number on it. There’s a tremendous amount of variability when you look at age, ability, activity levels, intensity, prior history and even genetics. We can’t pick one point for everyone, be it 10 miles a week, or 15 or 20 or 25. For some people, running a half marathon is harder than ...

Full article: http://news.runnersworld.com/2012/06/14/what-is-excessive...