How to get rid of fitness addiction. How to recognize sports addiction? Video: Exercise addiction: symptoms, consequences, treatment

Sports and fitness are an integral part of the life of a modern person. Sports activities build character, instill teamwork skills, and are generally good for health. Regular physical activity strengthening the cardiovascular system, reducing the risk of osteoporosis and depression, and even prolonging life.

Masha Gavrosh

Every time I miss a workout, I am tormented by a feeling of guilt and inferiority. I'm starting to think I'm weak-willed. These pangs of conscience are so strong that it’s easier for me to go to training than to torment myself like this. It seems that without exercise I am worthless. Sport is what allows me to be different from others. And when I forget about training, it seems to me that I lose this feature and cease to be a superman.

People who are passionate about fitness or sports constantly follow their rivals on social networks, compare their successes with their own, and this is not beneficial. There is always someone who has run a marathon or covered a distance faster. This causes envy or feelings of inferiority.

Victoria Kaylin

If things are not going smoothly for a person in real life, likes become a source of pleasure. Social isolation, lack of friends, poor relationships with family lead to addiction virtual world, which literally sucks you in, because it provides all the necessary conditions in the form of approval, praise and a temporary increase in self-esteem.

3. Harm to social and personal life

Lenny Sadykov

I was the head of the youth affairs department of my town, then I was demoted to a school director, and in October I was transferred to a simple teacher: more and more time was required for sports, the authorities made comments. I decided that I needed to be able to leave on time. But my running results are growing! I’m getting an education as a physical education teacher and building a house in the suburbs to make a farm there like the Kipchoges or the Ingebrigtsens. This is a diagnosis...

A sports addict can easily cancel a work meeting, forego a get-together with friends, or sacrifice a family dinner just because he needs to exercise. Sometimes this leads to layoffs, changes in social circles, and problems in family life.

It's better to undertrain than to overtrain. Short exercise is sometimes more beneficial for health than intensive training. An excessive training program leads to severe physical fatigue and even “sports” illness. And you need to tell yourself in time “Enough!”

Text: Alevtina Ivanova

Where is the critical point beyond which fitness and sports not only do not contribute to the development and training of the body, but have a negative impact on it? For each person this point comes at a different time. For example, most people can only dream of the endurance of Olympic triathlon athletes. Needless to say, not everyone is able to first swim 1.5 km, then ride a bike 40 km and run another 10 km. And without a rest break!

For some people the limit physical capabilities body is just an additional “pancake” on the barbell or a trip to the fitness center “above the program.”

Many people are so eager to get fit that it is sometimes difficult for them to slow down and take a break from their training program. However, if after playing sports, instead of a surge of energy, a person constantly feels tired and physically overworked, then this is a reason to be wary. Perhaps he overtrained, becoming a victim of physical overload.

Key signs of overtraining

To prevent overtraining from becoming pathological, it must be recognized in time. Here are the main signs:

Decreased activity, fatigue
. Coordination disorder
. Needs more time to recuperate
. Rapid heartbeat in the morning
. High blood pressure at rest
. Headache
. Loss of appetite
. Muscle pain
. Gastrointestinal disorders
. Weakening immune system
. Increased number of musculoskeletal injuries
. Sleep disorders, insomnia

Some of the signs are physiological in nature, but not only. Typically, physical activity and sports relieve stress and improve our well-being. However, overly intense activities and training have the opposite effect and can cause irritability, aggression, apathy and low self-esteem.

Causes of overwork

What to do if you notice one of the signs of overtraining? First you need to understand what is its true cause, and honestly admit it to yourself. Can be understood professional athletes who, in an effort to get more good results, deliberately increase the load in training. But if an excessive training program threatens your health, then you should think about whether it is really necessary?

The easiest way out is to reduce the intensity of your training to the previous level. The fact is that the body needs time to get used to new higher loads. Even professional triathletes cannot suddenly and immediately complete the Olympic triathlon program, not to mention the exorbitant Ironman program. This is also a type of triathlon - truly a survival sport: swimming - 3.8 km, cycling - 180 km and running - 42.195 km. To achieve such results, athletes gradually increase the intensity of training, allowing the body to adapt to new physical stress.

Another important point. It happens that overwork is caused not by physiological, but rather by psychological reasons. When a person exhausts himself for hours gym, trains with increased physical activity, then one can hardly talk about his desire to “improve his shape.” Rather, it is a real addiction. Training to the point of exhaustion, with the risk of injury, as well as a shift in values ​​from the scale of “health, well-being” towards “sports” - all these are signs of real addiction. It is no coincidence that addiction to sports and fitness is recognized as the same real problem as well as eating disorders. But recognizing sports addiction is much more difficult.

Regular overload can lead to serious problems with mental and physical health. By locking themselves in the gym, people are risking their health.

Everything is good in moderation

Moderation is the key to solving the problem. To live a healthy lifestyle and feel good at the same time, it is best to exercise to the best of your ability. You shouldn't train for two hours a day, since that's how much time your buddy spends in the gym. The body needs time to adjust and adapt to stress, and time to recuperate. And training to the limit can be called the “one step forward, two steps back” tactic. Frankly, not the most effective tactic.

Each generation and century has its own diseases. The modern advanced level of medicine allows you to have 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 healthy image living through sports leads to the false belief “more is 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 dependence physical activity itself is an object of dependence.

Secondary arises on the basis 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 in the body during physical exercise several times. 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 do 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 though perfect body but can never reach 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 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 backward.

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.

PHOTO Getty Images

There are more and more fitness maniacs. 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 running or a fitness class, brings significant benefits to the body: from losing weight and improving your figure to maintaining the cardiovascular system, preventing osteoporosis and other pathologies caused by overweight, and general good health. 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.

Gettyimages/Fotobank.ru

For about three months I rushed around like crazy: 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 there New Year, 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 degree in dance? sports injury(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.

"At physical activity are produced in the brain, 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 is true for fitness mania: 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 the laboratory specialists told me physical culture and practical psychology of the Federal State Institution VNIIFK, 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.