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MyFitnessPal Community

too much exercise = bad for my body?? help Plz!!

yp77

Hiya peeps,
I just wondered if you can help me.
I am a fairly fit person, I do a lot of exercise, and enjoy what I do, I do this because its making me healthy, it makes me feel great and because I am trying to loose weight
after a brief conversation with someone today, he said he had noticed that some days I do back to back classes, like yesterday I did 1 hour of zumba, 1 half hours of yoga, and tmrw I will be doing 1 hour of boxing circuits and 1 hour of body balance, thursday I do half hour spin half hour abs, every other week I can go to the gym or run at the weekends but mostly this is what I do on a week to week basis... mostly when I do classes back to back they are for different things anyway.
I dont think this is too much, he told me that I am doing more harm than good, that my muscles will be in complete confusion as Im working all different ones each time they wont know what to do, and that I wont loose weight or slim myself down by doing what I do...
please help me with this one any advice you fitness guru's can throw my way will be greatfully recieved :flowerforyou:

Replies

IveLanded

LOL!!!

Well, actually most trainers these days will tell you that mixing up your routines is the key to losing weight and toning your muscles. That's the whole premise behind circuit/interval training!!!!

If you can do that, and feel good, and not injure yourself..........DO IT! You are probably going to see great results.

BAMFMeredith

Obviously this person doesn't realize that muscle confusion is a GOOD thing. That's the entire basis P90x is founded on! They even advertise muscle confusion as being the reason their program works, and take a look at people even here on MFP who've done the whole program: it definitely works.

As long as you aren't tired and your body has time to rest, I think you're fine. Make sure you're listening to your body and eating enough calories to support how active you are, drink plenty of water, get plenty of sleep. Plus all that cardiovascular activity is GREAT for your heart health! Yoga after Zumba would be so awesome, I wish my gym had the classes scheduled like that!

I had a trainer tell me once I was working out "too hard." Homeboy needed to go back to school, because I'm pretty sure professional athletes work out harder than I do, and nobody's sitting around telling them they're working too hard!

yp77

Thank YOU ... you beauties!!!!!!!!
that was my train of thought too..
he was saying less is more... blaaaaaaaaah blaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!

I'll carry on regardless then
thanks girlies

angied80

He is nuts. He needs to apparently check his sources. Muscle confusion is what you want. This way your body does not adapt to your workout. Muscle confusion is a positive thing. Just make sure you are eating the proper amount of calories to fuel your body. Always listen to your body as well. If you feel like you are doing way to much then you prob are but if you feel good and feel like you can do it. Then do it.

yp77

Thank you, I know he was crazy but just wanted to check
I do tend to have a rest day the next day if I do two hour long classes back to back and atm, I feel fine, so I'm ok with it....
thanks for all your words girls, VERY much appreciated

tigersword

LOL. "Muscle confusion" is a useless marketing gimmick. The only thing it's good for is making people spend more money to buy the next Beachbody product to continue "confusing" their muscles. Muscles grow and get stronger by adapting to the stresses you apply to them. Keep changing the stress, and they never adapt. So you never see real progress, hence you go out and buy the next "flavor of the month" workout.

As for too much working out doing more harm than good, yes, overtraining can be very detrimental to your progress. Muscles need time to heal, recover, and repair, and that only happens when resting, not when training. So it's a balancing act, train hard, eat enough for fuel, and get plenty of rest. To me, the most important part is eating enough, your body can't repair itself without the proper nutrients, and under eating is the biggest mistake I see people make when doing heavy exercise routines.

Tp77

There is a programme on BBC2 tonight - the truth about exercise.. . Might be worth a watch.

JNick77

LOL. "Muscle confusion" is a useless marketing gimmick. The only thing it's good for is making people spend more money to buy the next Beachbody product to continue "confusing" their muscles. Muscles grow and get stronger by adapting to the stresses you apply to them. Keep changing the stress, and they never adapt. So you never see real progress, hence you go out and buy the next "flavor of the month" workout.

^ agree for the most part. Sometimes it's good to change things up a little to help get through a plateau but confusion is way way over emphasized. Yeah sure, if you come into the gym everyday for months on end and do dumbell shoulder presses, for example, for 4 sets of 10 reps @ 20lbs each side then yeah you'll never get anywhere until you increase the reps or weight after a while.

In response to the OP, train as much as you want and can without hurting your body's ability to recover. If you notice yourself feeling lethargic, irritable, tired but unable to sleep, there's a good chance you're overtraining. Otherwise, have at it for all you can handle.