Antidepressants Blog

Work out the Facts — Iron out the Kinks I

Lower-back injury from weight-lifting… tendon strains from Taekwondo… a damaged sternum from piling on too many weight plates at the gym.

Too much exercise — or wrongly-executed moves — can lead to injury, exhaustion or even, over the long haul, a suppressed immune system… which can lead to the worst result of all: having to stop exercising cold turkey.

In women, experts caution, over-exercising carries particular problems — menstrual irregularity, infertility, loss of bone density!

Stay on the healthy side of the injury chasm. It’s not easy, because exercise makes you feel so good and most of us are shameless endorphin junkies. When you hit that aerobic plateau, when those natural opiates wash through your system, you just want to keep going. Like a drug addict, you don’t want the high to end.

Figuring out just how far or how long is too far or too long is the problem. Here are suggestions that can help.

Check it out. Before you begin, see a doctor, especially if you’re over 60, have a disease or disability, are taking medications, are recovering from an illness or surgery.

Also consult a doctor if you’re worried that exercise may affect any other aspect of your health.

If you’re running a cold or temperature or suffering from a sore throat, avoid exercise until you’re feeling better.

And keep a regular check on your blood pressure, especially if you’re over 35.

Build up gradually. It takes time to get fit. Begin slowly, perhaps just introducing more overall activity into your life. Gradually increase your exercise periods to 5 to 10 minutes twice a week, then to 15 to 30 minutes three or four times a week. You’ll lower your risk of sprains, strains and other injuries.

Avoid abrupt starts and stops. Ease in and out of exercise. Abruptly starting or stopping can cause soreness or injury (especially in older people). Stopping suddenly can also sharply reduce blood pressure, causing fainting or even a heart attack. So it’s important to take the time to warm up and cool down sufficiently. Begin and end each workout with 5 to 15 minutes of stretching exercises, slow walking or gentle calisthenics.

Don’t push your heart to the brink. Avoid exercising so strenuously that you exceed 90 per cent of your maximum heart rate. To find out your own maximum, use this rough formula: Subtract your age from 220. For most people, exceeding their upper limit may mean nothing more than approaching utter exhaustion. But those with underlying coronary disease risk a possible heart attack. (To be safe, they should keep their heart rate well below the level where abnormalities appear on an exercise stress test).

Don’t be a weekend warrior. Though regular, sustained exercise reduces the risk of heart disease, occasional bouts of overexertion will achieve just the opposite — weekend warriors are at war with their hearts! If you save all your exercise or all your heavy chores for the weekend, you are one of those weekend warriors and you could be setting the stage for a heart attack if you’re unfit. Recent studies have shown a powerful link between heavy physical exertion and an increased risk of heart attack in people who are out of condition. According to one study reported in Circulation, a sudden bout of exertion activates blood platelets in sedentary people, but not in those who are physically active. Activated platelets clump together and can form clots, which may cut off blood flow to the heart.

Preferably, avoid high-impact aerobics. This is the kind of aerobic exercise marked by high jumps and percussive bounces which are hard on your body. (In contrast, in low-impact aerobics one foot is always on the ground).

Be kind to your body. If you’re doing aerobic dance, or even if you’re skipping rope, the surface you’re working out on should be sufficiently padded. Especially avoid bare cement floors — you might pay with severe shin splints and other injuries.

Also, never do aerobic dance bare-footed. It’s important that you cushion the jolt of your foot hitting the floor, with proper shoes.

The right shoes are also important if your exercise of choice is walking or jogging — they should be well-padded, with good arches and ankle supports.

Don’t neglect strength-training. All sports emphasize a limited number of muscle groups. This can cause injury to the overworked muscles. Strength-training, by compensating for these muscle imbalances, may prevent the damage (such as tendinitis, if you’re a tennis player) that could otherwise result. Work out with light weights to help strengthen the rotator cuff (muscles and tendons in your shoulder).

Use correct technique. If you do sit-ups with straight legs instead of knees bent, for instance, you can hurt your back. If you walk with your toes pointed outward, you can expect knee pain, arthritis, bunions and lower-back pain. In general, perform your exercises slowly avoid jerky, fast movements.

Listen to your body. If you’re exercising with faulty technique, or if you’re exercising in excess of what you should, your mind will often send messages to your body to stop. Pain is one of the most direct messages you’ll get. If you ignore the command, soreness and muscle injury can result. Stay alert to symptoms such as chest pain, shortness of breath, aching joints or muscle cramps. Get to medical attention if any of them occurs, especially if you’re elderly or suffer from a chronic ailment.

Protect your lungs. Polluted air — a cocktail of noxious gases and particulate matter — is a particular hazard for exercisers. Because exercise makes you breathe faster and more deeply, it can dramatically increase the adverse effects of pollutants on your lungs and heart. Add to this the fact that joggers, runners and cyclists often breathe through the mouth (thus bypassing the nasal passages which help filter out some pollutants).

Several studies have found that those who exercise strenuously outdoors run much higher risks of pollution-related symptoms: coughing, throat irritation, headaches, shortness of breath and tightness in the chest. For people with coronary disease, exercise in highly polluted air can lead to irregular heart rhythm or angina.

You can’t avoid air pollution completely, especially in the urban jungle, but you can minimize your risks while exercising:

Schedule your outdoor workouts for times when there’s less car exhaust and the sun is not to strong. (Ozone, one of the more dangerous components of urban smog, forms when sunlight acts on car and industrial emissions).

Protect your lungs. Something as simple as not smoking, and taking deep breaths several times a day, can minimize lung damage so that by age 70 you’ll still have the lungs of a 45-year-old.

If you exercise during rush hour, choose areas with little traffic. Open, windy areas are preferable since air currents can disperse pollutants.

While exercising outdoors, breathe through your nose, not your mouth. This should reduce the amount of pollutants reaching your lungs.

The so-called anti-oxidant nutrients (such as Vitamin C and E and beta-carotene) help fight the damaging "free radicals" created by pollution and thus may ward off or repair long-term lung and cellular damage. Boost your intake of these nutrients.

Stay away from second-hand cigarette smoke — a known source of hazardous pollutants — especially before and after strenuous exercise.

And if you have asthma or any other lung condition, consult your doctor about your exercise options.