Exercise is good for you and helps you lose weight, so you should work out as much as humanly possible, right? Not so fast.

Exercise provides a bounty of health benefits and helps you lose weight and get in shape, but you should be careful not to overdo it. If you push yourself too hard, you’re putting yourself at risk for injury. If you injure yourself, it will be a lot more difficult to exercise while you’re recovering; working out so hard that you get hurt ends up being counterproductive. There’s a difference between “feeling the burn” and injuring yourself. It’s good to push yourself to build your endurance, but too much too fast is dangerous.

Start out slowly and gradually increase the intensity of your workouts over time. Over-exercise isn’t sustainable over the long-term, because even if you don’t get hurt, you’re likely to feel burned-out. Pushing yourself too hard in the beginning makes it a lot less likely that you’ll be able to maintain a workout regimen over time.