Over-exercising detrimental to health

While a moderate amount of exercise is essential for good health, over-exercising is detrimental both to body and mind.

Thirty to 45 minutes of exercise three to five days a week is essential to good health, according to American College of Sports Medicine guidelines. This should include a five- to 10-minute warm-up and gradual cooldown that incorporates stretching.

Addition of a strength/weight-training program, which helps to slow bone loss, is an additional 30 minutes three to four days a week. A full 48 hours of rest and recovery between resistance training is necessary for the body to repair the tiny tears made from lifting.

"I like going to the gym because it makes me stronger," junior Andi Simons said.

While most students generally adhere to guidelines, there always is the risk for doing harm to the body by doing too much activity for long durations. This leads to harmful patterns that ultimately can result in an exercise disorder.

Exercise disorders affect both men and women, and sometimes are accompanied by an eating disorder such as anorexia or bulimia.

"Both are obsessive-compulsive disorders, giving the person a way to control their body and activity level," said Annette Biggs, coordinator of fitness and nutrition at UREC.

Similar to eating disorders, those who acquire exercise disorders begin to display strange or obsessive patterns of exercising and overtraining. These are accompanied by symptoms of constant fatigue, decrease in concentration and decrease in appetite.

Depending on the person affected, they may feel lethargic, experience a decrease in performance, decrease in their immune system and ultimately are more suspectible to injury such as stress fractures.

"People exercise too much when it begins to interfere with their normal, everyday tasks," junior Christine Farah said.

Biggs is a member of the SEED (Stop Eating and Exercising Disorders) Team, a multidisciplinary team of on-campus professionals whose goal is to support students as they work to recover from various eating and exercise disorders.

SEED takes steps in nutrition, counseling, physical and medical concerns and fitness assessment to confidentially help those affected with disorders to fully recover.

Located in various departments such as the University Health Center, Counseling and Student Development, and UREC, SEED works toward acquiring a healthy lifestyle.

"It’s up to the students to take the initiative," Biggs said. "We inform and make time available, but it’s up to them to do it."