How do you realize that sports have become an addiction and it’s time to pause?

How do you realize that sports have become an addiction and it’s time to pause?

A healthy lifestyle is good, but you should not abuse even it.

For most, athletes are role models, role models or even objects of envy. Their self-discipline, ability to concentrate and overcome themselves is admired by many. Sports are becoming more and more popular, and today it is already difficult to meet a person who would not know about the need for regular exercise. However, sometimes the passion for healthy lifestyle becomes excessive and can do more harm than good. What is sports addiction and how to fight it, tells clinical psychologist, PhD Svetlana Bronnikova.

What is hypergymnasium?

For the last decade and a half psychiatrists have noted a condition in which sport turns into a painful addiction. It is called hypergymnasia, or excessive training syndrome. The main features of this condition are the need to train very intensively and the emergence of severe anxiety if the class has to miss.

It usually starts harmlessly – with a standard training schedule. But if you fail to achieve your goal, which is most often weight loss or gaining muscle mass, the number and duration of workouts start to increase. And now instead of three strength and a couple of cardio, a person decides to go to the gym in the morning before work – for a light warm-up and a full-fledged workout afterwards, practicing all weekend long, mastering more and more types of load.

Soon sports activities, preparation for them and recovery after them begin to occupy practically all free time. Social life suffers: people refuse to meet with friends, go to cafes, parties, because it disrupts the training plan. It is naive to think that hypergymnasium sufferers get only pleasure from physical exertion – on the contrary, the joy of victory and overcoming, the pleasure of feeling the strained muscles completely disappear. Everyone begins to manage anxiety: have I practiced enough today? How many calories have I burned? What do I need to eat to recover? When do I need to get back into a workout?

When to start worrying?

Experts believe that if physical activity in recreational sports exceeds five hours per week or if the days without exercise are less than two, we can talk about symptoms of excessive training. You should also be wary if you go to the gym or jogging while neglecting your health – with cold or flu symptoms or an untreated injury.

Hypergymnastics, like any addictive behavior, is fraught with serious problems. This is especially true for women who may develop the so-called “athlete’s triad”: when heavy exercise and dietary restrictions cause disruptions in the monthly cycle and bone density decreases. A low-calorie diet to maintain the desired shape after weight loss can lead to hormonal disorders and difficulties with calcium metabolism.

With sports addiction, just as with alcohol and drug addiction, recovery begins with recognizing the problem. No matter how useful physical activity is, it should not become the meaning of life – completely replace the joy of communication with family and friends and personal development. The next stage is psychotherapy, which involves complete withdrawal, that is, a temporary refusal of sports.

When the dependence will be overcome, it will be possible to return to exercise. The most important thing is to learn to take care of one’s own body and control the anxiety that makes one torture oneself with excessive loads.