Can Exercise Be Too Much of a Good Thing?
My son Mark, visited over the Christmas holiday one year, and I thought it would be fun if Mark and I had a game of squash.Now I have to tell you that it had been over six years since I had played squash, and my last game was actually with him.That being said, I have been playing squash off and on since I was a teenager and I figured that I still have those potentially active "squash genes" in me.Also you should know that my son is an excellent squash player, playing in the top leagues at some of the clubs in Toronto and Ottawa.You should also know that he is 26 years younger than I am!We had a good game from my perspective, -- he gave me an 8-0 lead and he still won the game to 9, but it was fun.
What I didn't bargain for were the after effects on my body.In spite of the fact that I have been exercising reasonably regularly doing aerobics and weights 2-3 times weekly for a couple of months (and off and on for most of my 64+ years), I ended up with considerable pain, fatigue, headache, and generalized misery over the next three to four days.In retrospect it doesn't surprise me, because squash, in a way, is an extreme sport.Short bursts of intense activity are required in rallies, so that the cardiovascular system is stressed in a concentrated kind of way.It simply isn't like going on a treadmill for 30 minutes and gradually increasing your exercise intensity as you proceed.I knew that my heart rate was "over-the-top" when I was playing, and yet my competitive spirit kept me going.This was in spite of the fact that my son would comment, "why aren't you trying to run after the ball?" The plain and simple answer - I was exhausted half way through the game!
Few people realize that exercise can induce damage - after all, exercise is supposed to be good for you.The fact is that too much of a good thing, can be just as damaging as too much of a bad thing. Interestingly, even in an elite athlete, the ability to use oxygen during maximal exercise by muscles far exceeds the capacity of the body to deliver it.So even these well-trained people are in an oxygen debt, and it's good to know they suffer too!
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