We all know that exercise is good for us is so many ways, but do you know the risks associated with too much cardiovascular exercise?  For many people, exercise is all about trying to lose fat and maintain a low body weight, looking good and having a few health benefits thrown in for good measure. 

Our team at Total Personal Training are certainly amongst the first to promote exercise, both cardiovascular fitness and strength training.  The pros certainly outweigh the cons when an exercise program is balanced correctly…can you guess the keys words there?  Balanced correctly.

“Aerobic (cardiovascular) fitness is the ability to take in, transport and utilise oxygen at the working muscles.”

The positives of cardiovascular exercise are these:

• Strengthens your heart and respiratory muscles
• Can lower blood pressure in the long-term
• Endorphin release – it WILL make you feel good
• Increased capilliarisation and circulation (you recruit more small blood vessels which allows you to carry more oxygen around the body leading to better circulation)
• Can normalise your insulin level in the blood

However, let’s not forget about the flip side of these very positive benefits:

• In the presence of poor nutrition and stress, the benefits of cardiovascular fitness will be much less
• Increases free-radical damage (your body starts to rust) due to pollutants in the greater amount of oxygen that we take in
• Wear and tear on joints with impact training
• Without reaching ‘overload’ you will NOT gain muscle tissue (achieved only during strength training)
• You can get addicted to the endorphin release and it becomes easy to exercise too much without allowing your body to recover

Some years ago whilst creating our Total Personal Training site, we created a page on Osteoporosis (loss of bone density) and how it presents a real threat to our health.  Statistically, around one in three women has osteoporosis…it can go undiagnosed for years. 

In order to maintain and improve bone density, we must create a ‘pull’ on our muscles where they attach to the bone.  Strength training achieves this. The benefits of cardiovascular exercise are listed above.  Notice that maintaining and increasing bone density is not shown on the list because of the absense of ‘overloading’ our muscles.

All too often we see and hear about people who only include cardiovascular work in their exercise program.  In order to optimise your efforts (for health and certainly performance for anyone competing in an event), it is really important to include BOTH cardiovascular and strength work in your exercise schedule. 

I am writing about this today as it is real life.  A client recently came to us to ask our advice.  She has trained for many years, 6 days-a-week, by running and cycling, one hour at a time.  She considers her diet to be reasonable and has maintained a VERY low body weight.  She has also shyed away from strength training.  Sadly, she has just been diagnosed with losing bone density in parts of her spine and hips and is not allowed to exercise at all for the time being.

Low body weight, lack of muscle tissue (which is very lean and burns more calories in the long-term) and not allowing her body to recover between exercise sessions could have caused this very sad situation.  Physical exercise is so important for our bodies and getting the balance right should be at the top of the priority list!