Can Exercise Really Hurt Your Heart?

There is such a thing as too much exercise and it’s worse than not being active at all.

Darwin was wrong about one thing. It’s not always survival of the fittest. A new study proves that it is actually survival of the moderately fit because there is such a thing as too much exercise.

And it can kill you.

A new yet-to-be-published study, presented in the European Society of Cardiology, finds that too much intense physical workout can drastically raise your risk of death from a heart attack. But before you pack away your running shoes, read on.

Moderate Exercise Remains the Best Bet

Exercise remains the key to heart health, but this study says that you don’t need crazy intense workouts to achieve those results.

European cardiologists studied a small group of 170 veteran endurance athletes against a control group of the same number of sedentary people. They found that people who ran more than 8 kilometres a day had a much higher incidence of narrow arteries and plaque deposition than the couch potatoes.

More than 10% of endurance athletes actually developed worse blood pressure and levels of insulin, HDL cholesterol or triglycerides.

For the heart to effectively pump blood, the arteries must be open, the electrical impulses should be coordinated and the heart muscle should be able to relax. But in extreme athletes, high-intensity workouts over a long period of time cause changes in the structure of the heart. This leads to the secretion of certain hormones and builds up plaque in the arteries.

So How Much is Enough?

Let me reiterate: Moderate exercise is still the best prescription for good physical and mental health. Experts recommend at least half an hour of a cardio workout every day.

The simplest way to monitor the intensity of your workout is by making sure that when you feel your heart rate getting a little faster, you breathe a little heavier but are still able to talk to the person next to you.

So whether you jog, swim or gym, keep a tab on the intensity of your workout, especially if you’re a beginner. Also, the recommendation for the heart rate during exercise depends both on age and prior health conditions. But typically a person’s heart rate during exercise can go up to 85% of the maximum heart rate found on the stress test.

Finally, if the risk of heart disease runs in your family, talk to a doctor before starting an intense exercise regimen. We can outrun a lot of things, but we can’t outrun our genes.