Are You Addicted to Exercise?

Mahalo news reports on Heidi Montag’s obsessive 14-hour-a-day workouts.

In the middle of America’s obesity epidemic, there exists the exact opposite problem. Men and women who push their bodies past the brink of exhaustion, feeding their obsession with exercise. While this is nothing new to the realm of health and fitness, the recent news of reality TV star Heidi Montag’s 14-hour workouts has brought exercise addiction back into the spotlight.

It’s a clear-cut case of too much of a good thing. Fourteen hours is 28 times the daily recommended workout length for the average American looking to maintain their health. Although Montag’s case is a rare and very extreme example, symptoms are generally harder to spot, especially in the early stages.

Photo credit: Science Daily

What separates a love for going on long runs from an all-consuming need to work out everyday despite aches, pains and sickness? According to Ian Cockerill, a sports psychologist at the University of Birmingham, England, “Healthy exercisers organize their exercise around their lives, whereas dependents organize their lives round their exercise.” Shape magazine offers these three indicators as warning signs: you never miss a workout, you give up on other interests and you feel guilty or anxious about missing a workout.

Though the benefits of working out include weight management, reduced risk of chronic disease and mood improvement, the dangers of over-exercising include dehydration, muscle fatigue, burnout and the increased risk of injury. WebMD says, “Your adrenal gland, pumping out hormones as you pound the pavement, can only produce so much cortisol at a time. Suddenly, the heartbeat you’d lowered to a resting 48 is up to 80.”

The drive for perfection or chasing that runner’s high can become overwhelming, affecting both men and women in different ways for different reasons. And while recovery doesn’t always have to mean psychotherapy or counseling, like with any other addiction, the most important first step is alway admitting that you have a problem.

But exercise addiction isn’t like drug or alcohol addiction where sobriety is the most effective answer. People still need to exercise but in moderation. Doesn’t that seem to be the key to life in general? Balance. If anyone out there has found an easy way to accomplish this, let me know.

Personal trainer Torri Shack explains the dangers of overexercising.