Too Much Exercise Can Stress Your Body’s Defenses
Oxidative stress biomarkers responses to physical overtraining: implications for diagnosis.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Performance improved at moderate training (8 tons/week) but declined sharply at 14 tons/week, despite continued effort.
Many believe 'more is better' in training, but this shows a clear tipping point where gains reverse — even without injury.
Practical Takeaways
Monitor training volume and watch for signs of performance drop, which may signal hidden oxidative stress.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Performance improved at moderate training (8 tons/week) but declined sharply at 14 tons/week, despite continued effort.
Many believe 'more is better' in training, but this shows a clear tipping point where gains reverse — even without injury.
Practical Takeaways
Monitor training volume and watch for signs of performance drop, which may signal hidden oxidative stress.
Publication
Journal
Free radical biology & medicine
Year
2007
Authors
Konstantinos Margonis, I. Fatouros, A. Jamurtas, M. Nikolaidis, Ioannis I. Douroudos, A. Chatzinikolaou, A. Mitrakou, G. Mastorakos, I. Papassotiriou, K. Taxildaris, D. Kouretas
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Claims (3)
When guys who lift weights train too much, their body's natural antioxidants take a hit — they lose a lot of the good kind and build up more of the used-up kind, which might be why they start performing worse.
If guys who lift weights train too much — like a whole lot in a week — their bodies might get stressed in a way that could hurt their performance, and scientists can see this stress through certain markers in their body.
In guys who lift weights a lot, certain chemicals in their urine that show stress on the body are closely linked to both worse performance and more training — meaning they might help tell when someone’s overdoing it.