Exercising Too Much? That’s Not Good For Your Mental Health

Exercising is good for you, both physically and mentally, but there’s a limit – if you’re doing too much, your actually harming your mental health.

By nowproducerdave on August 9, 2018
(Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Exercise. It’s designed to be a healthy recreational activity. It keeps us in shape, it keeps blood flowing, and it makes it easier for us to breathe. It’s also been said it makes us feel better, mentally. But, too much? That’s bad for mental health.

Yes it’s true, people who exercise do report feeling better, mentally. They say that they have about “1.5 fewer days of poor mental health a month,” when compared to those who don’t exercise. The most effective types of exercise were team sports, going to the gym, cycling, etc. A lot of social-types of activity. So how much exercise is the perfect balance for good mental health? “Researchers concluded that 45 minutes of exercise three to five times a week was the optimum amount of time for the greatest benefits to mental health.” Well, I guess that’s easy enough, right? It was also discovered that you don’t even have to “exercise” – just doing simple household chores like dishes or laundry is enough to help give your mental health a good bump.

However, exercising too much has a total opposite effect on mental wellness, they’ve found. If you’re doing an hour a day every week, you’re probably fine. The researchers do warn that if you’re doing over 3 hours a day though, your mental health is suffering. Moreso, the researchers did make the link that if you’re working out that much, you probably have an obsessive characteristic. Those sorts of personalities are linked to mental health problems anyway, so that makes sense there. Check out more information on the study here, as well as what sorts of exercising is best, and when to do it.

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