• Question: If you put too much stress on yourself could your body fail?

    Asked by curlywurly to Adam on 23 May 2012.
    • Photo: Adam Bibbey

      Adam Bibbey answered on 23 May 2012:

      Hi curlywurly,

      Are you referring to physical stress or mental stress?

      If we put too much physical stress on our body then this is likely to cause injury e.g. torn muscles or ligament/tendons (the structures that connect bone and muscles). You can also get a build-up of lactic acid in our muscles if we exercise too hard, this will cause the muscle to fail but the lactic acid can be removed by resting and breathing deeply.

      As for mental stress, this can again cause us to fail. For example, if we work too hard mentally over weeks then you can suffer ‘burn out’- this is when you feel exhausted all the time and may even lose your appetite. Also during certain situations is you feel too nervous this can cause our brains and muscles to not work correctly.

      Overall then it is good to exercise and use your brain, but you have to be careful that you don’t create too much stress.

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