When is it too much?

im4gryffindor

Is there such a thing as too much workout a day? What exactly can the body take? For example....a (healthy but just overweight) 45 year old woman who is 50 lbs overweight.....

NorthCascades

There's a different point for everybody. The buddy is remarkable and it can take a lot, but you have to work up to it.

AnnPT77

I started being active at about your age (mid0-40s), at about 50 pounds overweight, with a history of being mostly very inactive, sedentary job/hobbies, fairly soon after I finished a full course of treatment for stage III breast cancer.

Like NorthCascades says, start slowly, and build up.

The government-recommended minimums for health are 30 minutes of moderate cardiovascular activity 5 days week (or half that of more intense activity), and two days a week of strength training. But you work up to that, then decide if you want more.

What can you do now? Try to figure out some thing that's reasonably enjoyable for you, a tiny bit challenging, but not exhausting. (For some people who I've seen on MFP, that was just walk to the end of their own driveway, or halfway around the block. Maybe for you it would be dancing to your favorite music for 10-15 minutes or walking around the block, or maybe you can easily do more than that - we don't know.) Do it a couple of days a week. As it gets easier, do it a little further, faster, longer or more often, to keep that tiny bit of challenge.

For strength training, do some simple bodyweight exercises or something like that, at first, or look up beginner videos on YouTube. Start with a few minutes once or twice a week, and gradually increase the challlenge of that, too, keeping the overall time and effort manageable, enjoyable, but a tiny bit challenging.

Rinse and repeat. The exercise modes can be anything, really. It depends on what you enjoy most. Some people think exercise needs to be miserable and exhausting to be good for us, but that's not true. An exercise we enjoy, even if it's not theoretically ideal, is a better exercise than a theoretically perfect exercise we hate, because we'll do the enjoyable one, but avoid the hated one.

Long multi-year personal experience: When I started being more active, I took some classes in my local adult education program. The first was a gentle yoga class a couple of times a week. Then I started doing some of the yoga exercises on other days, at home. A little later, the adult ed program had a "weight training for women" program. I did that for a couple of years. I got a new bicycle, and started riding it a little. I joined a once-a-week rowing team for breast cancer survivors, and got addicted to on-water rowing. In Winter, the team practiced on rowing machines once a week. I started doing aerobic dance videos at home to get in better shape by being more active more days of the week. I got my own rowing machine so I could use that more often. I competed in some indoor rowing races. I joined the local rowing club and rowed multiple times a week there in on-water season. I competed in some on-water races. I took swimming lessons to improve my skills (rowers need to know how to swim). Somewehere in there, the aerobics videos got too easy, so I started taking spin classes at the Y where I was swimming. I sampled other classes there, too. This was a multi-year process of trying new things!

Nowadays, at age 64, my normal routine is to row on-water 4 days a week in Summer, and a bit less than that in Winter at home on the machine. I take two spin classes a week year round. I do some intentional outdoor walking, just 2-4 miles usually, but not super often. I ride my bike from my house a bit in good weather (short rides, maybe 10 miles, maybe 20 at most). I mix in some moderate weight training, stretching, etc. Most of the year, I'm doing something fun and active most days of the week.

Just try some things, see what you find manageable, enjoyable, a little bit challenging, and go on from there.

amusedmonkey

What's too much is different for different people. When I was super morbidly obese I couldn't brisk walk for more than 2-5 minutes at a time. After a couple of months, I found myself able to walk faster and for longer so I overdid it - jumped from 15 minutes to 60. I managed to develop an overuse injury from walking that became chronic (keeps flaring up when I overdo it to this day 8 years later), while others are able to run ultra marathons with fewer issues because they're smart about how much and how gradually they increase their training time and intensity.

I'm currently maintaining my goal weight and can only do up to 1 hour of running and up to 2 hours of walking, and these longer sessions I can't do more than 1-2 times a week. No matter how much I want to go on long hikes, and no matter how physically ready I am for them (other than the injury bottleneck) I will probably never be able to do that because at one point in the past I didn't respect my limitations.

Start where you are right now (don't over-estimate your ability), then increase very gradually to the duration and intensity level you think will be sustainable. There is more to "too much training" than what the body can take. For some people, working out for one hour is not sustainable and they end up burning out and quitting, while others can do an activity for several hours at a time sustainably.

yirara

A few years ago I made full use if the office gym, taking part in intense spinning (coach was a tour de france cyclist) and boxing classes on 4-5 days a week. At a certain time I could not cycle those pesky 5km home after work, my muscles always hurt and I slept for 10hrs and was still tired. I was hypothyroid and not yet treated though. I had to stop all sport when muscles suddenly started to get injured from light weights. After a few weeks I started feelung better again. But that clearly was too much for me back then.

Start slow, listen to your body, don’t work out if your body tells you it’s enough.

DancingMoosie

It's too much when you aren't recovering well. Too sore, stiff, tired...