Is There Such a Thing as Too Much ExerciseAs you lace up your running shoes for another heart-pounding workout, consider this: while moderate physical activity lowers your risk of death by at least 30 percent, the Copenhagen City Heart Study published two years ago found that exercising too much raises your mortality risk to the level of people who live a sedentary lifestyle. Could you be unintentionally harming your health by pushing your heart too hard?

The Copenhagen City Heart Study

In 2001, the study launched with 1,098 healthy joggers and 3,950 healthy nonjoggers. The group included Caucasian men and women from Copenhagen ranging in age from 20 to 93. Researchers followed the study participants for 12 years with the goal of investigating the association between jogging and long-term heart health.

By the end of the 12-year study, 28 joggers (1 percent of the study group) and 128 nonjoggers (3 percent of the study group) had passed away. This suggests that jogging improves heart health and increases the chance of living longer.

However, when you divide the joggers into two groups – strenuous joggers and light to moderate joggers – another result reveals itself. The researchers discovered that the 127 study participants who identified as strenuous joggers (defined as people who run faster than 7 miles per hour more than four hours per week; or faster than 7 mph for a duration of 2.5 hours three or more times per week) were primarily among the joggers who died during the 12-year study.

There is Such a Thing as Too Much Exercise

As with most things in life, it turns out your workouts need to strike a healthy middle ground, landing somewhere between lazy couch potato and insane fitness junkie.

Lead study author, Dr. Peter Schnohr of Copenhagen’s Frederiksberg Hospital, and his colleagues had this to say about the study’s findings:

“Long-term excessive exercise may be associated with coronary artery calcification, diastolic dysfunction, and large artery wall stiffening. Although joggers as a group appear to live longer than sedentary nonjoggers, [only] light joggers and moderate joggers have lower mortality rates than sedentary nonjoggers. [The mortality rate of strenuous joggers] is not statistically different from that of the sedentary group.”

Findings are Good News for Easygoing Joggers

If you’ve ever felt guilty or self-conscious for jogging at a slower pace than your workout buddies, don’t! The Copenhagen City Heart Study makes it clear that you can push your heart and your body too far, leading to the very health problems you’re hoping to prevent by exercising.

The study found that the most favorable dose of exercise for reducing your mortality rate is to jog 1 to 1.4 hours each week, with no more than three running days in this time period. The recommended distance to run is 5 to 7 miles per week – or about 2 miles per running session three days a week – at a slow-to-average pace of about 5 mph.

More Studies are Needed

Dr. Schnohr and his team admit the need for more information on the topic of what constitutes too much exercise:

“To our knowledge, there has been no study of the longevity of marathon, half-marathon, or triathlon participants, but such studies would clearly be informative.”

It’s important to note that the Copenhagen City Heart Study failed to take other forms of exercise into account besides running. Also, critics declare that self-reported running habits introduce error and bias into the study’s results.

Receive Exercise Advice at Spine Correction Center

The bottom line is that while the ideal dose of exercise remains uncertain, it’s wise to speak with a medical expert about your physical fitness plans to ensure you stay healthy and safe. For advice about your current exercise regimen and how it could affect chronic back pain or other health conditions, contact Spine Correction Center at (970) 658-5115.