Even if in past years everyone has associated strenuous regular exercise with a healthy life and, implicitly, better looks, it seems that too much high-intensity physical activity can become harmful for an individual and even shorten his/her lifespan. Could the myth of 'the more you exercise, the healthier and fit you become' be destroyed?

With so many adepts of the myth, who have made a second religion out of going to the gym and training strenuously almost every day?it would be difficult to make the population worldwide become aware of the fact that too much physical activity can become harmful for one's health. Staying active is a must for a healthy life, we all agree on that, but no one should exaggerate with any type of activity, including exercising.

Whether too much exercise is harmful or not for an individual's general health and wellbeing is a very controversial subject nowadays. There are scientists who strongly claim that the effects of physical activity can only be beneficial for humans and, on the other hand, there are experts who firmly back up the idea that exaggerated levels of physical activity may lead to health disorders in convinced adepts.

However, people worldwide should not get the wrong idea that sport and moderate exercise is bad for the health. Physical activity within normal limits is great for our health, keeping us fit and in shape. Previous studies also showed that physical exercise is also beneficial for the brain, not only for the body.

But we should not become sports fanatics, because this can only bring about negative outcomes. Balance and equilibrium in one's life is everything, experts say. We should also keep to this rule when it comes to physical effort: try exercising moderately, but do not overestimate the benefits of physical activity.

For instance, Professor Greg Whyte, known for having trained David Walliams for his Channel swim, has recently warned that too much physical effort and exercising can do more bad than good for one's health. He spoke about the advantages and disadvantages of strenuous exercising at the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences' (Bases) annual conference held at the Wolverhampton University last month. Besides personal trainer for the famous swimmer, Prof. Whyte is Director of Science and Research at the English Institute of Sport in Manchester.

Prof. Whyte's report was entitled "Exercise: Is it really good for you?" and he presented mainly the negative aspects of being an exercise fanatic. He warned that physical effort taken to extremes can be extremely dangerous for an individual's health and can eventually lead to severe injuries, conditions and even death.

"I know that I am being extremely contentious by concentrating on the negative consequences of exercise but the research that has been done provides some startling findings. From club level to elite athletes, there are a lot of incidents to suggest that sport is very dangerous. You only have to go down to your local A&E to see the place packed out with 'weekend warriors' who are suffering breaks, joint injuries and trauma injuries to their head and face. If exercise is taken to extremes by people then exercise can do more harm than good," concluded Professor Greg Whyte.

On the other hand, a recent study conducted by researchers at the University of California and presented at the American Physiological Society conference held in Virginia Beach last week showed that the famous 'rate-of-living' theory is completely wrong. According to the 'rate-of-living' theory, strenuous and repeated physical activity is not beneficial for and individual because too much exercise may lead to a shorter lifespan of the particular person. This may happen because every living creature has a certain amount of energy to spend throughout his/her life - and if he spends his energy in daily high-intense trainings at the gym, he will not have enough energy to hit the century.

The study which contradicts the 'rate-of-living' theory was only carried out on rats so far, but results are relevant and 'strong' enough to provide evidence for the fact that a living creature has an infinite amount of energy within its/his/her own body. Theodore Garland Jr., Biology Professor at the University of California, Riverside who co-authored the report stated: "We've found further proof, which adds to a growing body of evidence, that the rate-of-living theory is not valid."

Even if there are different opinions on physical effort and how much people should regularly exercise in order to prevent unwanted effects of being 'too active', all medical experts agree on one aspect: moderate physical activity does not harm anyone. On the contrary, every single individual should go to the gym and train on a regular basis, but moderately.

"The bottom line is that moderate physical activity is good for you but exercise of the kind done by elite sportsmen and women can be detrimental to your health. There is no doubt that moderate physical exercise can be beneficial and not doing any is detrimental to health", Prof. Whyte explained.

In his statement, he also gives some examples of how bad extreme exercising - like the one adopted by elite sportsmen and women - can be for one's health: "There are cases of elite female athletes who restrict the calories they take, then lose their menstrual function and get low bone density which can have a profound effect on their health. There are numerous examples of spinal injuries amongst rugby players, as well as data on osteoarthritis and footballers suffering problems from long periods of playing, which can later reduce their quality of life.

Then there are the incidents of sudden deaths associated with cardio-vascular problems and asthma. The bottom line is that moderate physical activity is good for you but exercise of the kind done by elite sportsmen and women can be detrimental to your health."

Also, Theodore Garland Jr., co-lead researcher of the second study on the amount of physical activity one can/should do stated: "Aside from any possible benefits for lifespan, exercise in moderation has been shown to have many positive effects, including on health span, immune function, heart disease and mental health."