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Is Too Much Exercise Just Showing Off?

How much is too much when it comes to exercise? Is an hour of aerobics too much? Is a two weight lifting workout too much? How about a fifty mile bike ride for a worthy cause? Or, how about two hours on the stationary bike?

Is all of this too much? Or might it not be enough? Who are the judges and what are the reasons for what they have to say? What is the context?

To many of us, it seems there was never any kind of push toward athletic development. As a result, when we decided to go out for a sport high school, our parents strongly cautioned against overdoing it. For those who were like this, all of the above sounds excessive, regardless of the context.

Today, most of us would like to think we are beyond parental guidance. Rather, we prefer saying that we rely on our MDs to advise us. This is true when we visit them in their offices and when we absorb their messages off the television. Everywhere, it seems, there is the demand to ask our MDs permission for everything. But, when it comes to exercise, do we ever really ask? More than likely, we do not. Instead we follow the advice from the evening news.

We expect the American Medical Association--the people in back of this segment of the news- to be all-wise, intelligent and always in our best interests. That is why we take their pronouncements very seriously. The latest went something like this : "A half hour of aerobics three days a week is minimally good but and hour a day six days a week is about as much as anyone can take. Anything more is just showing off." What is wrong with this?

On the surface, it sounds pretty good. It should make the doctor-critics happy. That is because the media is trying to say that  MDs are pro-exercise. This is in spite of the fact that individual doctors typically pale at the thought of ever suggesting that anyone ever do anything too strenuous. Ask any one of them and observe the response. It is as if all of us will always be overdoing-it, never using our heads. This is counter to the MD "rest and relaxation" advice for long life--the alleged sure-fire way of getting us to the mid-eighties.

But MDs will suggest exercise if there is a potential overweight problem in sight.The difficulty is that the exercise, which the MDs recommend, is not enough to do anything significant. It really is no different than the TV advice of one half hour per day three times a week. Granted, this may be better than nothing, but it is not good enough for people who want not only to be healthy and look good in the mirror. Three days of thirty minute training may help the former, but it will not help the latter.

What about an hour a day for six days a week? First of all, there probably is not an MD over the age of thirty who would recommend this But if there were, it would be a step in the right direction. The only trouble is that this says nothing about intensity. So, are we to assume that the heart rate is kept about 120 for the entire time and that there is no missing of any workouts without them being made up on the off days? Probably not; but if so, this might have a chance of turning us into the fit individuals we aspire to be.

Coming from the medical community (either our own MDs or the AMA on television), anything pro-workout should be viewed as highly suspect. The greater number of these professionals make it a point to be too busy to workout. Their forte is diet--never over-eating and making certain that we all do the same. Indeed, they never participated in sports past high school and probably never were out for them while in high school. That was the time for getting good grades to make entrance into college possible. Sports back then would have gotten in the way. Now, these same people are  recommending exercise for everyone?

That all may be good news during an obesity epidemic. But, what about taking it seriously if we are interested in fitness-- being healthy and looking good for as long as we can, preferably until the day we die?

The tip-off to medical people's real attitude is in the statement that anything more than the hour a day for six days a week is just showing off. This means that the dedicated training of the late Jack Lalanne (two hour per day workouts everyday, even on his ninety-sixth birthday) was for nothing other than his own ego gratification--something which MDs probably think he ought to be ashamed of.

Putting aside all of our notions about dignity and decorum, what is so bad about looking good in the mirror and investing a lot of time into doing just that? What is so bad about following Lalanne's lead?  After all, might we not get superlatively healthy in the process? In other words, what is so bad about six days a week at an elevated heart rate for an hour or better, actually refusing to stop this for at least the next decade? If we told our doctors we were going to do that, they would raise their eyebrows.

Ought we to care, if they did? We need to start asking where these anti-fitness attitudes are coming from, especially when our MDs claim to be on the side of exercise. We may think they actually are--that they are  only preaching common sense and right; but are they? Or, if they are,  is what they say the best for us? Is it ultimately in line with what we want?

So, is more than an hour a day six days a week "just showing off?" Yes, it is, if we are trying to be grown-up and thereby agree that what doctor says is right. We can even go so far as to say that sixty minutes a day at an elevated heart rate for six days a week is asking for trouble. Clearly most MDs would think and say that. But we can prefer to say No, its not, because we are interested in following the footsteps of Jack Lalanne--something which just may be better for our overall healthiness.

Responsible Showing off (going for the extra repetition or the additional five minutes now and then)  can make it much more likely that we really stick with an hour of aerobics per day at an elevated heart rate for six days per week. That is better than the minimum thirty minute three day a week plan-- the advice from those who do not do even that.

For further thought on the right amount of exercise for you order my e-book "Think and Grow Fit."

About the Author

Obese 45 years ago; state champion power lifter 1978; in better shape today at 61 than when on swim team in high school

http://blog.foreverfitness.info

Author of "Think and Grow Fit" the no hype guide to getting fit and staying that way forever

http://www.foreverfitness.info

Author (mark19). Submitted on Sat, 16 Jul 2011 Time: 12:18 AM

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