Are There Any Risks in Exercising?

Muscles and joints

The most common risk in exercising is injury to the muscles and joints. This usually happens from exercising too hard or for too long - particularly if a person has been inactive for some time. However, most of these injuries can be prevented or easily treated.

Heat exhaustion and heat stroke

If precautions are not taken during hot, humid days, heat exhaustion or heat stroke can occur -- although they are fairly rare. Heat stroke is the more serious of the two. Their symptoms are similar:

The last two symptoms of heat stroke are important to know. If the body temperature becomes dangerously high, it can be a serious problem.

Both heat exhaustion and heat stroke can be avoided if you drink enough liquids to replace those lost during exercise. Be sure to take the other important precautions such as:

Listen to your body for early warning pains.

• Exercising too much can cause injuries to joints, feet, ankles and legs. So don't make the mistake of exercising beyond early warning pains in these areas or more serious injuries may result.

Be aware of possible signs of heart problems like:

• Pain or pressure in the left or mid-chest area, left neck, shoulder or arm during or just after exercising. (Vigorous exercise may cause a side stitch while exercising -- a pain below your bottom ribs -- which is not the result of a heart problem.)

• Sudden lightheartedness, cold sweat, pallor or fainting. Ignoring these signals and continuing to exercise may lead to serious heart problems. Should any of these signs occur, stop exercising and call your doctor.

On hot, humid days:

• Exercise during the cooler and/or less humid parts of the day such as early morning or early evening after the sun has gone down.

• Exercise less than normal for a week until you become adapted to the heat.

• Drink lots of fluids, particularly water -- before, during and after exercising. Usually, you do not need extra salt because you get enough salt in your diet. (And a well-conditioned body is better able to conserve salt so that most of the sweat is water.) However, if you exercise very vigorously for an extended time in the heat (for example, running a marathon), it's a good idea to increase your salt intake a little.

• Watch out for signs of heat stroke -- feeling dizzy, weak, light-headed, and/or excessively tired; sweating stops; or body temperature becomes dangerously high.

• Wear a minimum of light, loose-fitting clothing.

• Avoid rubberized or plastic suits, sweatshirts, and sweat pants. Such clothing will not actually help you lose weight any faster by making you sweat more. The weight you lose in fluids by sweating will be quickly replaced as soon as you begin drinking fluids again. This type of clothing can also cause dangerously high temperatures, possibly resulting in heat stroke.

Heart problems

In some cases, people have died while exercising. Most of these deaths are caused by overexertion in people who already had heart conditions. In people under age 30, these heart conditions are usually congenital heart defects (heart defects present at birth). In people over age 40, the heart condition is usually coronary artery disease (the buildup of deposits of fats in the heart's blood vessels). Many of these deaths have been preceded by warning signs such as chest pain, lightheartedness, fainting and extreme breathlessness. These are symptoms that should not be ignored and should be brought to the attention of a doctor immediately.

Some of the deaths that occur during exercise are not caused by the physical effort itself. Death can occur at any time and during any kind of activity -- eating, sleeping, sifting. This does not necessarily mean that a particular activity caused the death -- only that the two events happened at the same time.

No research studies have shown that physically active people are more likely to have sudden, fatal heart attacks than inactive people. In fact, a number of studies have shown a reduced risk of sudden death for people who are physically active.

Exercising too hard is not beneficial for anyone, however, and is especially strenuous for out-of-shape, middle-aged and older persons. It is very important for these people to follow a gradual and sound exercise program.

If you consider the time your body may have been out of shape, it is only natural that it will take time to get it back into good condition. A gradual approach will help you maximize your benefits and minimize your risks.

Each year, Medical College of Wisconsin physicians care for more than 180,000 patients, representing nearly 500,000 patient visits. Medical College physicians practice at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital, the Milwaukee VA Medical Center, and many other hospitals and clinics in Milwaukee and southeastern Wisconsin.