Doctors and health professionals are always telling us to exercise but is there such as thing as too much.
Well yes there is.
Exercise releases the drug endorphin. Endorphins can ease pain and make you feel good. It is this drug that is behind the phrase ‘getting a high’ from your workout. Like any drug that makes you feel better it can become addictive. But with exercise there is an additional outcome that can make exercise even more addictive and that is it can make you look great as well.
Combine the two and for some people exercise can become a compulsion.
When this happens exercise no longer provides the wonderful benefits it is designed to achieve but becomes an unhealthy dependence.
For a compulsive exerciser problems will manifest themselves in many ways. First they will start going to the gym or working out at home every day and then two or three times a day. If they miss a workout they get moody and irritable. After time the physical problems will appear. Training too hard will but stress on joints and muscles causing torn ligaments and tendons, muscle strains and even heart problems. These injuries will still not stop the exercise addict. They will train though serious injuries and workout through the pain, which in turn will worsen the injury. Doctors can stress upon them to stop and rest but expert advice will just be ignored. Eventually exercise overrides everything else, life, family, friends, work and even play.
Like any addiction professional help will probably be required. Even if an injury is so bad that one has to stop training, which will then allow the physical side of the body to heal, the mind is still in the same place.
So if exercising is constantly on your mind or you are never away from the gym you may be heading for dark waters. Exercise should be part of your life, not your whole life. You should control it. Exercise should never control you. If it does then the benefits will no longer be forthcoming and everything you have achieved through sensible exercise will disappear.
Further information from Fitness Options
At Fitness Options, we can help advise you on the right equipment for you and ways that you can exercise effectively for your fitness goals. We have been in the fitness industry for many years and offer a wealth of expertise. Call us on 0115 973 6444