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For about three months I rushed around like mad: after work, I went to the gym and stayed there until the night. Get up at seven in the morning to get to the pool. I completely gave up flour in favor of vegetables and fruits (see). The regimen was wearing out, but the kilograms were slipping away, so the instructors’ advice to slow down fell on deaf ears.
It all ended right on New Year’s Day, when, while dancing a rumba, I suddenly collapsed on the floor: the anterior cruciate ligament was torn, the meniscus was cracked. I couldn't walk for two months. The doctors were perplexed: how could I get a professional sports injury while dancing (about other fitness dangers - in the material)?
It turned out to be very simple. The meniscus was worn away from the stress, and the rumba simply became the last straw. Having learned about my troubles, the fitness instructor sighed sadly: “I’m addicted to drugs...”
What is fitness addiction?
“Addiction is when a person subordinates his life to something or someone,” explains psychologist Ilya Kotlov. “Mania comes first, crowding out all other needs.”
Fitness addiction is easy to recognize: a person hangs out in the gym more often than with friends and family, workouts become more intense and longer. But the “sick” stubbornly does not notice the problem, continuing to explain his behavior to himself and his loved ones by the desire for health.
“During physical activity, the brain is produced,” says Ilya Kotlov, “so fitness acts like a drug, or gambling. A person goes to the gym for more and more endorphins. In addition, people often use fitness to try to heal personal problems - loneliness, family instability or divorce.”
How to recognize fitness mania?
As with any other addiction, the rule for fitness mania is: in the early stages it is difficult to recognize, in the later stages it is difficult to treat. And like any other addiction, fitness mania has several signs.
The first is systematicity. Narcologists say that addiction is when a system appears: every day, or once a week, or even less often, a person drinks (or takes a drug). The problem with fitness is that it inevitably involves being systematic. Therefore, to a certain extent, anyone who conscientiously goes to the gym three times a week for several years is a fitness addict. But it's not scary.
It’s much worse when the second sign appears—antisociality. If fitness becomes an obstacle to a full-fledged personal, family or social life, this is already a clear alarm bell. Let’s say if you preferred training to sitting in a pub after work, this is a sign of a healthy sports spirit. If you chose training over a family holiday, there is reason to think about it. And it’s really bad when you start hiding from your family and friends that you prefer fitness to any other recreation.
At this stage, the clinical picture of drug addiction unfolds in all its glory. As specialists from the Laboratory of Physical Culture and Practical Psychology of the Federal State Institution VNIIFK told me, fitness maniacs experience withdrawal syndrome, that is, withdrawal, after a missed workout: their head hurts, their body aches. Fitness maniacs suffer from chronic overload, lack of... These are often nervous and reserved people.
How to cure a fitness addict?
Here, as with any other addiction, the main thing is awareness. The sooner it happens, the better.
The second step is to get off the fitness needle and learn to control your passion for exercise. Unfortunately, my story is very typical: a maniac’s passion for sports can only be cooled by a serious injury. But there are other examples.
“My patient realized that she had a fitness mania when she began to dream about training,” says Tatyana Titova, a sports doctor at the Planet Fitness club chain. “I went to a psychologist because I got so involved that I couldn’t stop.”
I would also rather go to a psychologist than injure my leg. Now for me, not only exercise equipment and dancing are over, but even...
Another option is when loved ones save you. One of my friends was literally cheated on by her boyfriend with the gym. Naturally, he canceled dates, was late and generally acted as if he had another girlfriend. The apotheosis was the moment when he declared that he should limit himself in sex, because from this “a man spends a lot of protein.” Honestly, that's what I said. After a long and difficult conversation, it turned out that he has no other, he really spends all his time in the gym. The friend acted like a real psychotherapist: she didn’t make a scene and put the guy before a choice, but gradually, day after day, she let him know that she didn’t particularly like jocks and she loved him not for his relief, but for his various spiritual qualities. And it worked.
In general, fitness mania is not a disease, but a symptom of a deeper problem. It is advisable to understand this before you erase your meniscus or break something.
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There are more and more fitness freaks. Among them are not only politicians, actresses and models, but also “mere mortals” who devote too much time to improving their own bodies - so much so that it turns into an obsession. Everyone knows that physical activity, be it a long walk, half an hour of jogging or a fitness class, brings significant benefits to the body: from weight loss and improved figure to maintaining the cardiovascular system, preventing osteoporosis and other pathologies caused by excess weight, and general well-being . Not to mention the beneficial effect on our mood: thanks to the release of endorphins into the blood during exercise, sport is one of the natural antidepressants.
However, in some situations, visiting the gym is not limited to the desire to improve well-being and turns into an obsessive desire to achieve physical perfection. As a rule, women try to lose more weight and model their bodies in the image and likeness of stereotypical and unattainable ideals. Men, on the other hand, are chasing an increase in muscle mass and muscle definition. Ineradicable dissatisfaction with one’s own body and the willingness to make any sacrifice to improve it is called bigorexia or the Adonis complex.
How to recognize sports addiction?
Increasing dependence on sports can manifest itself in compulsive behavior or the need to perform strictly specific actions in order to feel well. For sports addicts, going to the gym becomes an integral moral duty, the violation of which causes a feeling of guilt and a feeling of failure.
Why is this happening?
This behavior is based on rejection of one’s body, that is, an altered perception of it, which can lead to body dysmorphia: the inability to objectively assess the state of one’s own body. Therefore, in the pursuit of physical perfection, there is a need beyond all measure to increase the number of hours devoted to body modeling and muscle building. Suffering from bigorexia means reacting painfully to everything related to aesthetic perfection, including worrying about the lack of noticeable results from training and working non-stop to change your proportions. As a rule, people addicted to sports have low self-esteem, and fitness achievements become almost the only reward for their efforts. In this sense, bigorexia may be a manifestation of a defense mechanism: low self-esteem is compensated by the appearance of a body that is worthy of admiration from others. And if anorexia usually hides and hides in every possible way, then bigorexia, on the contrary, is flaunted in every possible way.
What to do?
If it seems to you that you have a similar problem, if you notice that going to the gym has become your daily duty and every absence makes you feel dissatisfied and guilty, try asking yourself: what role does fitness play in your life and what is hidden behind it? dissatisfaction? It is possible that it is better to understand its true causes and solve problems with the help of a psychologist rather than a coach.
For more information, see the website of the publication Psicologi-italia.
Every self-respecting man in one way or another tries to keep his body in shape - he plays sports at home or, if he has time, goes to the gym. We have already said more than once that the main thing in this matter is not to overdo it, although we welcome great zeal and desire for success. But today the habit of going to workouts has begun to take on a dangerous trend. Already in 2012, 0.5% of the world's population became addicted to going to the gym. We think that this figure has now increased several times. We all need to know the signs of incipient addiction in order to prevent it in time and not let it destroy us.
How to know if you are addicted
The symptoms of addiction, according to professor of sports and psychology Clive Jones, are quite obvious - they are not difficult to recognize. The first and main sign is the obvious anxiety that you experience when you cannot get to the gym for a long time. Also prevalent is irritability, an inability to consider the importance of restoring the body after a series of grueling workouts. Sports activities come to the fore, completely controlling the emotions, behavior and thinking of the addicted athlete. This can also lead to big conflicts with loved ones, since an obsession with physical activity puts it in priority over family, personal life or work.
As in the relationship between a drug addict and a prohibited substance, an athlete develops tolerance for the gym. That is, each time, in order to achieve complete satisfaction from the workout, the load has to be increased. This is normal practice in sports in general, but you shouldn’t go too far. And reducing the load can cause withdrawal syndrome, which will lead to great discomfort, trembling in the whole body or some parts of it (can be compared to withdrawal symptoms), and changes. Therefore, when starting to exercise in the gym, remember these symptoms in order to stop them at the first stage.
Psychological and chemical effects
If in women the desire for an ideal body can cause a disorder such as anorexia, then in men dysmorphia often develops. This is a mental illness that is caused by excessive concern about not meeting the standards of a beautiful male body in society. A prime example of what this does to people is bodybuilding. According to Dr. Jones, as a rule, addiction to sports can be associated with low self-esteem, one's body, and also lack of self-confidence.
Another reason a person develops addiction is chemical substances. As you know, when playing sports, the body produces endorphins, which helps a person feel much happier. Plus, it helps to cope with stress, but when there is too much training, the trainee becomes dependent not only on them, but also on his happiness hormone, which he needs more and more, like a drug addict.
What addiction does to your body
Australian professor Aaron Coates says it is difficult to determine how much time a person needs to spend in the gym before they can be considered addicted. This number will be individual for everyone, and a greater tendency towards it is manifested in those who do endurance exercises. It is especially dangerous, even from a health point of view, to exercise every day without giving yourself proper rest. Also at risk of addiction are men who undertake heavy physical activity but do not combine it with diet and proper recovery.
The consequences of sports addiction may be as follows. Firstly, due to inadequate rest, which is almost non-existent, joints, bones and ligaments suffer, which at one point may not withstand. Secondly, in such extreme conditions the metabolism in the body may change, which is also not very good for you. There is also a high risk of hormonal imbalance, due to which hormones will no longer enter the body in the usual way and in the required quantity, which will lead to a decrease in testosterone levels and an increase in cortisol and estrogen. The latter, by the way, can cause your transformation into a female one. In addition, your immune system suffers - you will get sick more often and have a harder time enduring even the most common cold. And the loss of muscle mass that you are so eager to gain will not make you happy.
How to fix it
Of course, we are not talking about any magic pills, but if you follow some simple rules, it will help you. First, your carbohydrate intake must become adequate. This is the most accessible source of physical energy. Despite the fact that today one of the main trends in fitness is low-carb, you should not forget about them, leaving their usual portion in your diet.
The second thing you must do is change your thinking and behavior. This is where the fight against possible or already obvious addiction begins. To prove to yourself that this is not so, you must completely forget the way to the gym for a couple of weeks. And if you are going on vacation and are looking for a hotel where the hall will be located, stop doing this. It is this behavior that betrays your addiction.
It is also important to remember that, besides sports, there are many other things that can lift your mood and overcome your stress. Plus, it’s important to make sure that your good mood does not depend only on how well you pumped up your abs today or how many chest presses you did this time.
And one more thing you need to remember is the purpose for which you go to the gym. Naturally, many of us go there to keep our bodies in shape or get into shape. But we must set realistic goals that do not go beyond the limits, because of which we do not have to spend every day in the gym, striving for an unattainable ideal. You just need to remember that a beautiful body does not always mean a pumped one. It's time for us to reconsider these stereotypes.
Can't imagine life without a fitness club? Would you rather miss a friend's birthday or a romantic date than give up training? Then it's time for you to see a psychologist! Perhaps your diagnosis is exercise addiction.
Everything is good in moderation! More recently, Swedish scientists have discovered a new psychological disorder associated with a mania for a healthy lifestyle, when a person carefully controls everything he eats, goes to bed at a certain hour, regularly weighs himself and measures his body parameters. Exercise addiction is from the same series. What's dangerous about this? Daily exercise improves your body's condition and prevents the risk of diabetes, high cholesterol and hypertension. Logically, it is worth doubling or tripling these loads to get optimal results. But that's not true. Two hours of exhausting running every day will not make you four times healthier. Over-indulgence in sports leads to injury, exhaustion, depression and even suicide. During exercise, the adrenal glands produce cortisol, a stress hormone. And if exhausting workouts are also combined with a low-calorie diet, such a duet can lead to fainting right in the gym.
Fitness freaks are often so busy with their workouts that they lose their jobs, their loved ones, and neglect their children.
Risk group
Most often people who become dependent on physical activity are:
restless and withdrawn people. Introverts who do not like to be the center of attention;
individuals seeking maximum control over their lives;
perfectionists. In the pursuit of perfection, a person goes to extremes and can no longer cope with himself;
people with complexes: women obsessed with the idea of losing weight, and men trying to build muscle.
Symptoms of fitness addiction
Ordinary people build their sports schedule around life, but fitness enthusiasts, on the contrary, build their lives around this schedule.
Addicts can exercise even at the most inopportune times. For example, they go for a run in the rain or go for a cardio workout with a fever. Even after being injured, they not only do not stop training, but also do not reduce the load.
Missing another workout for a true sports fan is a real tragedy. The person experiences sensations somewhat reminiscent of withdrawal. He develops depression, insomnia, loss of appetite, nervous irritability, isolation and aggression.
Soul or body
Scientists have long been investigating the causes of exercise addiction. Is it a physiological or psychological phenomenon? Modern research has shown that certain parts of the brain responsible for addiction to drugs, alcohol and gambling react in a similar way to the lack of physical activity in those who are “sick” of sports. A team of doctors from Oregon Health and Life Sciences University studied the brain activity of mice that were given an exercise wheel after six days of vigorous exercise. All mammals deprived of physical activity showed increased levels of activity in 16 of 25 brain regions. It is these departments that are responsible for the development of the above-mentioned attachments. According to researchers, a similar reaction occurs in humans. That is, these results give reason to believe that this is a problem of a physical rather than psychological nature.
Sport is a drug of joy
Physical activity is thought to increase levels of chemicals that help elevate your mood. Previously, scientists believed that endorphins, the hormones of happiness, had this effect. Recently this hypothesis has been called into question. In an experiment, one group of participants was given a drug before exercise that binds to endorphins, blocking their action. The second group did not receive it. After the lesson, the level of endorphins in the subjects from the first group actually remained at the same level, while in the second group it increased. But the mood was equally elevated for all participants in the experiment. It turns out that the reason for joy is not endorphins. Or not only in them. The researchers concluded that another hormone, serotonin, may be responsible for the positive mood after exercise. Experiments have confirmed that after moderate physical activity the concentration of this substance increases. Many modern antidepressants use serotonin. That is, physical education has an effect similar to the effect of antidepressants.
Prevent and neutralize addiction
To prevent dependency from occurring:
eliminate excessive daily exercise;
change your training program more often;
don’t forget about outdoor recreation;
Focus on social fitness activities, such as dancing or stress-relieving yoga and stretching. You can try martial arts, one of the components of which is relaxation and an attitude towards a positive perception of the world.
Methods to combat fitness addiction
Start by recognizing that addiction exists. The person thinks that everything is under control, but in fact, in the end the problems get worse.
Contact a psychologist.
Find fellow sufferers on the Internet. Surely among them there are those who have overcome the “disease”. Listen to their recommendations!
Evgeny Lykov, 39 years old:
“I owe my passion for fitness to a school history course, which revealed to me the Hellenic values proclaimed by ancient philosophers who took part in the Olympic Games: “Faster, higher, stronger...”, “A healthy mind in a healthy body.” As a result, by the end of school, I could easily do pull-ups on the bar 30 times and, without much stress, exceeded any school standards for physical education. After school, he continued to actively train at a military school. My friends and I re-photographed athletes from Western magazines to give us motivation to further improve our bodies. We can't count how many times we've watched Rambo and Terminator. Later in Moscow the opportunity arose to go to good clubs with modern exercise equipment - that’s when I really got involved! A missed workout causes me moral discomfort, a week of idleness due to a cold causes suffering on a physical level. Fitness addict?! I don’t regret it at all!”
Expert opinion:
Elena Lobacheva, psychologist
“If the gym pulls you like a magnet, making you forget a lot of important things, try to remember under what life circumstances you found yourself here for the first time. Annoyed by your own reflection in the mirror? Did you want to escape from work, everyday or love problems? Would you like to treat yourself to a currently fashionable pastime? The answer to this question will be the key to your “recovery”. After all, the way out of a problematic situation is usually located in the same place as the entrance.”
Olga Ponurina, personal instructor of an elite network of Parisian clubs, nutritionist
“During physical activity, many biochemical reactions actually occur in the body, leading to shifts at the hormonal level. For example, the production of a good mood hormone - serotonin. One of its actions is the mobilization of body functions, which gives a surge of strength, lightness and joy. Hormonal surges naturally give way to downturns, and as a result - a bad mood, a state of weakness. A person is intuitively drawn to the gym, where he felt better. This is how addiction to physical activity arises. In order not to fall into such a state, it is best to avoid overly intense and frequent training and alternate the load with proper rest.”
Each generation and century has its own diseases. Today's advanced level of medicine makes it possible to have a healthy body and live longer than ever. But at the same time, people began to experience much more stress.
If in the past diseases were more often physical ailments, now psychological disorders are more common. Due to crazy schedules, people simply do not have time to take a breath and calm their minds and thoughts. This aggravates the situation and increases the risk of psychological illnesses.
Despite the spread of body positivity, there are still common ideas about beauty. And almost everyone, pursuing the dream of being more beautiful and better, strives to correspond to these ideas. Therefore, people start playing sports and, unfortunately, often do not notice how the idea becomes obsessive. After all, such popularization of a healthy lifestyle through sports leads to the false belief “the more, the better.”
This situation is not always easy to deal with. When everyone around is talking about the benefits of sports, it is difficult to find an objective line, crossing which entails excessive physical activity. And at the same time, sports addiction and dependence on training.
What is sports addiction and training dependence?
Sports addiction is a special form of addictive behavior that is non-chemical. Being an addict, a person is overly passionate about sports and constantly overloads himself in training. This condition is characterized by an obsessive, irresistible desire to exercise.
Like many other forms of addiction, sports addiction interferes with a person's normal functioning in all areas of their life.
Some scientists divide sports addiction into two forms: primary and secondary.
In primary addiction, physical activity itself is the object of addiction.
Secondary occurs on the basis of food addiction. In this case, the overwhelming motivation for physical activity is related to the need to lose weight or change body shape.
American scientists were able to identify two criteria that define the disorder. They manifest themselves either as a hostile reaction to lack of exercise or an inability to adhere to an adequate amount of physical activity.
Causes of sports addiction
Basically, the causes of sports addiction and training dependence can be classified into three categories.
Hormone of happiness
It has been scientifically proven that during exercise, the hormone of happiness is produced. In half an hour, its concentration increases 5-7 times. Also, training is accompanied by the release of adrenaline, serotonin and testosterone. Their concentration increases several times in the body during exercise. These hormones cause a storm of emotions. And in order to experience this high mood again, the person continues to go to the gym. Thus, exercise becomes a kind of drug.
In addition, some of these hormones, for example, the endomorphin group, themselves have a narcotic effect and are addictive.
Sports addiction affects people with a certain type of mentality. Those who gravitate towards any other types of addiction - drug, sexual, alcohol, chemical.
Professional sports
At some point, a hobby may turn into a desire to engage in professional sports. This can lead to sports addiction. The athlete begins to train longer and more actively than before. The usual way of life is replaced by constant training. And if a person misses at least one of them, there is a lack of energy, lethargy, loss of appetite, and emotional disorders such as anxiety, depression, and apathy.
Also, former athletes who have completed their careers are susceptible to sports addiction. The inevitable end of a career in this case is perceived as a loss of status that the athlete is unable to accept. For him, this is synonymous with complete loss of himself and a possible fall into a social vacuum. Low self-esteem and depression occur. Moreover, the higher the level of the athlete, the more vulnerable he is and the more likely he is to become addicted.
Dissatisfaction with yourself
But the most common reason for sports addiction and dependence on training is dissatisfaction with one’s body and the inability to objectively evaluate it. This causes complexes and discomfort. People literally live in the gym in pursuit of their dream body. Afraid of getting fat, they exhaust themselves in the gym, believing that the body is a resourceful and lazy creature that needs to be forced to work until exhaustion.
Sports addiction and addiction, such as or anorexia, often go together. Such people, although they have an ideal body, can never achieve it. They are unable to adequately perceive the human body and think that they just need to lose a little more weight or gain a little more muscle mass.
So they go to the gym to build a good body and can't stop doing it. They get angry when they miss a workout because it takes them away from their goal and is perceived as a step back.
Symptoms of sports addiction and training dependence
Many people are so committed to being in good shape that they sometimes find it difficult to take a break from training. However, if instead of energy after playing sports a person constantly feels tired, then this is a reason to be wary.
To prevent the amount of stress from becoming excessive, you need to understand when to stop. The load is excessive if there are:
- decreased activity, fatigue;
- lack of coordination;
- recovery takes a long time;
- rapid heartbeat in the morning;
- high blood pressure at rest;
- headache;
- loss of appetite;
- muscle pain;
- weakening of the immune system;
- an increase in the number of musculoskeletal injuries;
- sleep disorders, insomnia.
Generally, physical activity and sports relieve stress and improve health. However, over-exercising has the opposite effect. People should maintain balance in their lives and not go to extremes.
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