Exercising plays an important role in managing your weight and keeping your heart as healthy as possible. However, you can overdo it, even with exercise. At Integrative Cardiology Center of Long Island, we want our patients to realize that excessive cardio and overexertion can have a detrimental effect on your heart. If you find yourself dealing with this issue, you can trust our team will be able to help.

How Much Cardio Should I Be Doing?

While pushing yourself too hard during exercise is where issues start to arise, you can perform cardio each week without facing any ill-effects. Aiming to do so can leave you in a healthier state than you were previously. By following the below recommendations from the American Heart Association, you’ll help to keep your heart protected and healthy:

  • Perform at least 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity per week.
  • Add strength training into a workout regimen twice per week.
  • Be active for at least 500 minutes per week. 
  • When increasing the amounts and intensity of workouts, do so at a gradual pace.

Can Too Much Cardio Be Harmful?

When following the previously mentioned recommendations for exercising, you’ll find yourself increasing your health levels and preventing various ailments from developing. However, overdoing your cardio training can lead to some negative health effects. Strenuous joggers, marathon runners, and those who push themselves too hard when it comes to aerobic exercises have an increased likelihood of suffering from the following:

  • Increased levels of arterial plaque.
  • Atrial fibrillation.
  • Harmful levels of inflammation throughout the body.

Why Does This Happen?  

Although it may be surprising to hear that too much cardio can be bad for your heart, there is medical reasoning behind this finding. When you train your body during exercise, oxidative stress is what propels your cells to recover and grow back healthier. However, when the strain of doing exercise has become substantial, the oxidative stress cannot keep up with your body’s demand for recovery, thus leading to heart issues. By limiting your exposure to overtraining, the chances of sustaining damage during exercise are greatly diminished.   

Schedule An Appointment

The health of your heart is not something that should ever be dismissed. This muscular organ is responsible for pumping oxygen-rich blood throughout the body, and when it cannot, the results can lead to potentially serious complications. Cardiovascular exercises are typically perfect for helping to prevent issues of this type.  However, overexerting yourself during workouts can also be detrimental. It’s imperative that you’re able to find the happy medium that works for you. Our cardiologists at Integrated Cardiology Center of Long Island are well versed in issues such as this and would love to pass along more information to our patients. If you’ve recently begun to suffer from a heart issue and are looking for the top holistic treatment available, schedule an appointment with us today!