When 'Fit'igue sets in

Ever seen people who just live at the gym? They literally spend their day working out. This seems like a concerning trend with youngsters today with extreme fitness on their minds. And the results are even more damaging. ‘Excessive exercise damages cells in the intestine, causing short and long-term digestion problems,’ says a study by the Alimentary Pharmacology and  Therapeutics. We explore the repercussions of extreme in fitness from trainers and experts in the city.

Umar Farooq, a city-based fitness trainer says, “Regular workouts are supposed to help you get into the groove, become fitter and healthier. However, some people amp up their workouts, especially when they begin to realise that they’re able to handle two to three workouts a day comfortably. Eventually, this approach could lead to many setbacks in their fitness journey. Overdoing workouts; more than five to six training sessions a week, doesn’t give enough time for the body to recover. The drawbacks of overtraining are a reduction in performance levels, injuries, mood swings and excessive muscle soreness, delayed recovery, feeling of fatigue, reduced immunity and sometimes even fat gain. Remember, muscle growth and fat loss happens after your workout not necessarily during. Choose smart workouts over hard work. Train well, but plan better, eat healthy food and give yourself seven to eight hours of sleep every day.”

Shivaye Kohli, a student, works out two hours a day, and is known as a gym buff. He says, “There are various forms of workouts these days. For example, a person can be doing 30 minutes of cardio followed by strength training and ending with a class of boxing. The apt way of working out is an hour a day, for six days a week, and rest for a day or do yoga. Rest and diet are two cornerstones of a good workout regime.”

Arunava Bhattarcharya, a nutrition and fitness expert elaborates, “We call that overtraining. If you take a pie-chart of fitness, about 70 per cent comprises nutrition, 20 per cent is rest and recovery and 10 per cent is training. So considering your nutrition and recovery is on point, you can train as much as you like. But this is only true for professional athletes who have the best coaches, doctors and dieticians. For most people, 45 to 60 minutes of training (a combination of cardiovascular and strength training) for four to five days a week is more than sufficient to keep them healthy.”

Ryan Fernando, a celeb nutritionist and fitness expert advises that when a person decides to exercise, they need to know their capacity. “Some people have higher endurance and some low,” he says. One should always start slow and steady. An ideal workout session should be between 30 minutes to 45 minutes. We have different clients — one category are Vain customers who are vanity-based customers, who want a perfect body for a perfect selfie, these tend to overdo it. The other category are Pain customers, who come with cholesterol problems. When they see instant weight loss with more workout, they automatically start adapting to that. I believe any physical activity done excessively cannot be good for your body.”