Exercise Addiction – Roar of Health or Sore to Health?
Dec 02
Addictions are not limited to drugs, alcohol and smoking. Looking at the current scenario of the lifestyle of human beings all over the world, anything and everything can be a source of addiction. Recent times have reported food, sleep, gambling, video gaming, social networking, watching movies and even exercise as foundations of corresponding addictions. Individuals who suffer from exercise addiction have a specific behavior to show – the compulsive needs to work out, excessive involvements in exercise, an activity disorder, etc. Exercise addiction makes an addict to workout for a duration, frequency and intensity more than the required amounts according to sports.
The basic exercise addiction symptoms is when the person expresses feelings of strong guilt when a particular exercise schedule is violated. This guilt is different and more aggressive than the one that comes during breaching of discipline. Maintenance of a rigid schedule and compulsory daily exercise is a sole notification for the upcoming addiction to exercise. Lapsing into a non- exercise mode feels offensive to them. Even if they lapse for a period, the amount of exercise they get indulged into increases afterward. Victims of exercise addiction are driven towards, workout in spite of injury or exhaustion. Young exercise addicts are seen to bunk schools and colleges for the reasons that they have more important work of exercise to do. They can forgo social gatherings for doing workouts and will do them even if in the condition of illness or tiresome.
Too much of exercise may also result in permanent physical damages. This is because the workout schedules of those people are so packed that there is no time for self retreat and recuperation between workouts. They show behaviors that indicate existence of eating disorders with them. They eat more of proteins and also gain artificial supplements with a mindset that they will attain more of energy to sustain tough workouts for more duration. Also, exercise addiction causes people to become too much health conscious about themselves and their close ones. They may even force people to perform like them and be serious regarding exercise like them. Anxiety, impatience, stressful behavior, discomfort, etc. also seem to be greater symptomatic effects of exercise addiction. These were all the psychological ill effects of exercise addiction; there are some of the physical ones too.
An exercise addiction leads to an addict getting involved into too much of physical exertion. This always gets accompanied by fatigue. As well as this, soreness and stiffness of the body muscles may creep in. There do take place hormonal alterations with the increase in amount of exercise done and with the regulation of this elevated physical activity. The regulation of sex and reproductive hormones are most affected by this, esp. in males. Hence, there is a fall in the levels of testosterone in males, which may lead to infertility in future. Also, cortisol hormone, which is produced as a response to bone breaking stress, is seen to be secreted in high amounts. This gives a clear indication of increased risks of bone fractures that may occur in future.
An exercise addict uses exercise as a method of busting stress and excluding frustration off his mind. This is not use, but abuse of workouts, which benefits the body in no way. Exercises done with clear intention of losing weight and staying fit is effective. Rest all is in vain.
