Take it easy – too much exercise is (apparently) bad for you

As if we needed another reason to ditch our morning workout.

We all know that exercising is extremely important. It maintains your weight, is beneficial to your heart health, mental health, and even strengthens your bones (among a whole host of other things). However, scientists at the University of Illinois at Chicago are warning that if you exercise too much, it could be just as bad for you as not doing any at all. In a long-standing study, which took place over the course of 25 years, it found that people who exercise more than average can get atherosclerosis, a form of build up on the heart. This could be from putting the heart under too much pressure with excessive workouts. Exercise guidelines recommend at least 2 hours and 30 minutes of moderate exercise a week. However, of the 3,175 women and men that were studied, a large amount of males who exercised more than the recommended acquired atherosclerosis by the time they hit middle age. However, more research needs to be done in terms of how it really affects females. Saying that, we're going to take that as a warning to slow down. Cardiologist Dr. Joel Kahn said: "There is a stress reaction to long distance and long duration exercise—your cortisol is up for a long time. "It may be wise to build in daily stress reduction techniques, such as meditation, yoga—seven, eight hours of sleep." We're not going to miss that extra workout too much...