Health messaging all over the Internet and in the offices of healthcare professionals is often, in unison, recommending that we should be exercising more – more often and with greater intensity. We are told we should be exercising more to lose weight, prevent diabetes and heart disease, and on and on. This leads many of us to think that the more exercise we do, the better. However, is exercise always healthy? And, when it comes to exercise, can there be too much of a good thing?

I think there are two main angles to look at to discern whether or not the exercise you are engaging in is healthy.  On the one hand, there is a point at which the exercise you are engaging in is physically unhealthy. On the other hand, there is a point at which the exercise you are engaging in can be mentally and emotionally unhealthy. I will illustrate this with a few examples.

Exercise that is likely physically unhealthy but not mentally and emotionally unhealthy: When I ran a marathon a few years ago, I don’t think it was the best thing for my body physically. Any kind of exercise is a stressor on the body – stressors can be good or bad, depending on the intensity, situation, and the individual’s stress tolerance. Each person is going to have a different exercise stress tolerance given their physical fitness, nutrition status, genetics, and more. While I had a lot of fun running the marathon, I don’t think it was the best for my body physically, as evidenced by the extreme soreness for days afterwards and knee injury that lasted 5 months. However, I say that I think it was from a place of mental and emotional health because my motives and heart posture while running and preparing for the marathon were from a place of fun, freedom, and joy – not out of a desire to manipulate my body or center my identity on being able to run a marathon. What kind of exercise may be physically unhealthy but not mentally or emotionally unhealthy is going to vary for each unique person and given point in time.

Exercise that may be physically healthy but mentally and emotionally unhealthy: An example of this is times when I occasionally anxiously feel like I need to go on a walk or run in the morning. While I may be at a place physically where running or walking a moderate amount most days of the week is generally a healthy thing for my body, if I am feeling like I have to go for a run or walk and it is done out of a place of fear and anxiety then I would no longer consider this healthy exercise.

Exercise that is both physically unhealthy and mentally and emotionally unhealthy: Unfortunately, I have plenty of examples of this to recall on in my life. When I had an eating disorder, I was literally addicted to exercise. I felt like I had to exercise, and this had to be done in a very specific way for a very specific amount of time. If you got in the way of me exercising…watch out! I was extremely malnourished and not in a place where it was physically healthy for me to be doing any exercise. My body was needing healing, lots of nourishment, and rest. It also was very mentally and emotionally unhealthy because the exercise was being done from a heart posture of anxiety, fear, and addictive behavior.

All of us have different “stress bucket capacities” which play a role in whether or not our exercise is harming or serving us from an overall health standpoint. We can experience stress from many different facets of life – our jobs, sleep quality, relationship qualities, level of physical activity, nutrition status, mental and emotional health, exposures to toxins in the environment, and more. If your stress bucket is relatively low at the moment – let’s say your generally sleeping well, getting enough to eat, and feeling well mentally most days – then your body is likely at a place physically where adding in some moderate exercise is probably going to serve your overall health, when done from a mindset of freedom and joy.

In contrast, let’s say you are stressed to the max with school, not sleeping very well, and not eating enough – then your body is likely at a place where it needs more rest or light, gentle movement, as adding in more intense exercise would be adding an extra degree of stress when your “stress bucket” is already full, or even overflowing! Even one area of life alone, such as sleeping terribly most nights, can contribute to our stress buckets being almost full.

Different seasons of life and even each individual day can call for different rhythms of what healthy exercise may look like for us, depending on what is going to serve our bodies and minds by bringing rejuvenation and refreshment, not additional exhaustion.

Regularly asking yourself these questions can help to determine whether or not your exercise is being done from a healthy or unhealthy standpoint:

Does your exercise each day feel like something you joyfully get to do or something you anxiously have to do?

How would you respond mentally and emotionally if you weren’t able to exercise today liked you planned? This can help determine if you are anxiously exercising out of fear or not.

How full is your “stress bucket” at the moment? This can be considered on a daily basis (for example, not eating enough one day would increase your day’s stress bucket) and on a larger, more general timescale.

Healthy exercise is done from a place of joy and freedom, not anxiety, guilt, and fear. Healthy exercise rhythms involve choosing ways of moving our bodies that we enjoy doing, not that we feel like we have to do or are expected to do.