Heart Patients Can Overdo It When It Comes To High-Intensity Workouts

High-intensity exercise can be deadly when people with heart disease overdo it, a German study warns. And a Swedish study shows that more than five hours a week of endurance exercise by young men increases the risk of an irregular heart beat later in life. In other words, more is not always better when it comes to intense workouts. The German study tracked frequency and intensity of exercise of 1,000 people, mostly in their 60s, with stable heart disease for ten years. Inactive people were twice as likely to have a heart attack or stroke. But so were those who exercised the most strenuously every day. The Swedish study found that men who had exercised intensively for more than five hours a week were 19 percent more likely to develop an irregular heart rhythm by age 60.