Is being a jock as bad as being fat – myth or reality?

Everyone around you is losing weight, because summer is coming soon and you need to be in shape. To walk proudly among less responsible companions, enviously looking at their abs with cubes and relief muscles.

Some go further and in their desire to look athletic enroll in the “jocks”. They pull huge weights exceeding their own, drink protein and amino acids that stimulate muscle growth. And now the “jock” is flaunting giant biceps. The goal seems to be achieved, but what about body flexibility and psycho-emotional state?

Veronica Tyurina

psychologist-counselor in the field of interpersonal relations

Tells why any extreme – whether it’s overtraining or overeating – is harmful to the body.

Over-pumped athletes often face muscle cramps, and over time the flexibility of the body deteriorates significantly. The fact is that “clogged” muscles require regular massage, which is often ignored under the pretext of “I’ll get over it”.

As a result, muscle spasms become chronic, blood flow is disturbed: blood circulation suffers, blood oxygenation worsens. The consequences can be very different and even manifest themselves in cognitive impairment.

Veronika: Overtraining also affects the psyche. Muscle imbalance and at the same time the deterioration of blood circulation create an inhibitory effect. Apathy, slowness, narrowing of interests, obsession with your body and its parameters appear. In the future, this can lead to depressive experiences and the formation of neurotic character traits, eating disorders, hormonal malfunctions. Emotional background, as a rule, in this case is unstable.

Veronika: The well-known myth about the good temperament of fat people is nothing more than a myth: in reality, such people have a lot of self-love inside and, as a consequence, dislike for others. Derealization (perception disorder) and depersonalization (self-perception disorder) as a psychic defense is often found in people with excessive body weight, who by method of unconscious self-hypnosis have convinced themselves that they are fine, their weight is only a little higher than normal, and it is not terrible.

They call thin people “poor, miserable, skinny, always hungry”. But in fact, it can be very difficult for obese people to look at themselves objectively. Therefore, they often take offense when they are called “fat,” perceiving excess weight as an insult.