Question

When and how may short-term goals (e.g. weight lifting record, marathon time, college sport career, etc.) have the potential to negatively impact health across a lifespan? Isn't any activity better than inactivity (and more is better than some)?

Answer 1

Many short-term goals for e.g. weightlifting has the potential to negatively impact health across a lifespan as if done in an unsupervised way; poor breathing such as holding of the breath while lifting leads to an increase in the blood pressure dramatically and making the heart pump against a greater resistance leading to the enlargement of the heart causing complications later in life. However, any activity better than inactivity as physical activity when done in a supervised fashion leads to; increased strength, increased muscle mass and all this leads to better coordination.