What happens when you become too intense with your daily physical fitness program? Remember why you want to be fit. Why are you exercising? What do want from your exercise efforts? How intense should you be? The Olympics, inter-scholastic athletics at all levels, and professional sports should remind us that there are two different training goals.

Training Goals

#1 Athletes preparing for competition must train, overtrain, and then recover before overtraining again. These people want to beat their competition. You must out train your competition, if you are going to beat them. Overtraining means some pain and discomfort.

#2 If you are an average person off the street, you should consider your training to be that of “training for life”. This means you are training in order to feel good, be without disease if possible, and be well. Being well means going past just being healthy (health defined as the absence of disease). Being well means having a high energy level and having a better response to the stresses of daily living.

It’s An Every Day Deal

You want these benefits every day. There can be no days to recover if you are exercising in order to feel good right now, today. This is what you need to address when considering how intense to get with your exercise. If you are so intense that you need to take a day off to recover, you probably should consider reducing your intensity.
Be well. Be sure your exercise is fun and relaxing. Smile when you are walking today.