We often come across people who boast about working out two hours a day. These are individuals who believe that effectiveness of a workout is directly proportional to the duration of the workout. It’s a wrong notion and also detrimental to one’s health.

Cortisol

When exercising for more than an hour, adrenal gland, which is placed above the kidneys, starts over-secreting a stress hormone called cortisol. It has a significant effect on different parts of the brain, affecting one’s emotions and physiological well-being.

Along with the adrenal gland, the pituitary gland and hypothalamus — situated in the brain — work together to regulate and balance the optimum level of cortisol in the blood. The cortisol, with the help of cortisol receptors that are present in our cells, is primarily involved in synthesis of macronutrients, such as carbohydrates, protein, fat; control inflammation; regulate the circadian rhythm (sleep-wake cycle); and, release energy by increasing glucose during stress.

When exercising long hours, the body essentially gets stressed post an hour. As a result, excess cortisol is secreted. An over-secretion of cortisol increase glucose in the blood stream, often disrupting many other inter-related hormones, such as insulin to name one, causing to shut down essential systems like the digestive system. It can hinder one’s immune system, and weaken the body. Excess cortisol due to long hours of work can lead to an imbalance in the glucose and insulin levels. This ripple effect has an adverse impact on our well-being, often giving way to anxiety, depression, weight gain, insomnia and impaired cognitive functions.

Glucagon and insulin

These two hormones are primarily responsible for controlling sugar level in our blood stream. They complement each other and are mutually inclusive, that is, the two hormones ideally work together, simultaneously and are dependent on each other. Both the hormones are secreted by the pancreas. Glucagon essentially prevents hypoglycaemia by ensuring sufficient sugar level circulating in the blood. Simultaneously, insulin regulates by mitigating an excess of sugar level in the blood stream. A balance between the two is essential. Long hours of workout can deplete the body’s glucose level. A low level of glucose is a sign for the pancreas to release glucose. And a sudden surge in glucose level signals the pancreas to secrete insulin, causing a rise in insulin level. The balance is disrupted.

The goal is to train efficiently

A workout over long hours — done in succession — has proved harmful. It impairs physiological functions by disrupting the digestive system and causing an imbalance in the various interlinked hormones. Growth-and-strength trajectory takes a downward slope on the progress graph. Symptoms such as fatigue and weakness are prevalent, along with an alteration in the natural circadian rhythm. Reflexes, motor skills and cognitive function decline over time, leading to impaired judgement and decision making coupled with severe lethargy.

It is advised to restrict a workout session to 45 minutes (up to an hour), five days a week. Two days of vigorous exercise regime in the week can be beneficial. However, it is crucial to ensure a gap of three days in between sessions of vigorous workouts. For example, one may have a vigorous workout on a Tuesday and Friday. The remaining days may involve moderately strenuous workouts. In such cases, it is recommended to use the weekend to recover and rest. It is best not to exceed an hour’s workout as that can be counterproductive.

Workout programmes designed by professionals are based on scientific reasoning. Therefore, they are designed in a manner that is efficient and helps achieve the goal of strength, mobility, and overall well-being. The workout will fatigue the body along the central nervous system in an hour’s time. Not feeling exhausted after an hour’s workout is an indicator of one not working out optimally. In simpler words, one is not pushing hard enough due to which they seem to have a lot of energy.

The goal is to train efficiently. Efficient training includes time management and strategy. Time is of essence for any workout. Running a distance in two hours is not as efficient as running the same distance in one hour. A workout ideally should be designed in a manner that fatigues the client in 45 minutes to an hour. When time is managed optimally, the workout is intense, proving effective.

Athletes and performers are known to physically exert themselves for longer hours. However, it is important to bear in mind that they are supervised by professionals. Their blood reports, such as sugar and lipid profile, are regularly observed by experts. They are constantly monitored by devices that read blood pressure, heart rate, sleep pattern, and so on.

These are done to ensure their body is capable of withstanding strenuous physical exertion. Often, workouts are broken up in various forms. For example, two-three weeks prior to their recital, dancers may have a 30-minute session of strength training and in the evening practice their dance. Similarly, a few weeks before a match, or a game, an athlete may do yoga, body weight functional exercises, strength training, or a combination of these in the morning and practice their game later in the day. Many individuals engage themselves in a variety of exercises, such as going for a walk for 45 minutes in the morning and visiting the gym for functional training sometime later in the day. Either way, it is crucial to know that each session of workout, especially when being physically active twice a day, does not exceed 45 minutes.

Efficient strategy lies in designing a programme that is best suited for an individual. For example, a combination of strengthening exercises, such as dead lift, push press, rows, maybe alternated with functional exercises, such as squats, lunges, push-ups, pull-ups that are performed in a circuit, on a timer. Strategy can also mean being wise with the training. For example, it is prudent to carry more weight in doing squats, than it is to perform high repetition of body weight squats.

Training is about strengthening one’s self. Long hours of training impedes the very intent of a workout. Being efficient in training is a simple concept of physics, whereby we must exert maximum force by using minimal amount of effort in the least measured time.

When training my athletes I prefer breaking the workout into two halves. The first part of their workouts typically include 45 minutes of strength, conditioning and functional training, consisting of major lifts like the dead lift, push press, squats, combined with lunges, push-up variations, pull-up, core strengthening drills, and so on. Then they are rewarded with a break for an hour, post which they do an endurance session of 45-60 minutes which usually includes animal movements, such as various crawls and walks, mobility exercises with resistance loop bands, cardiovascular regimes, such as the evergreen jumping jacks, burpees and shuffles.

Anwar Wahhab is a metabolic analytic practitioner and strength and conditioning coach. Email him at anwarwahhab@awefitness.com