We all know that regular exercise has many positive benefits. But what happens if you develop an unhealthy relationship with exercise and it starts to take over your life?
What Is Exercise Addiction?
Although exercise addiction is not officially recognised as a mental health disorder, an unhealthy behavioural pattern related to exercise can have negative impacts on your mental and physical health.
When you experience exercise addiction, you effectively feel a lack of control over your exercise routine. You might exercise so much that it has a negative effect on your health and life overall. You might feel dependent on exercise or feel the need to work out compulsively. These behaviours can sometimes, but not always, be linked to an eating disorder.
Exercise addiction can happen to anyone of any age, gender, weight, or body type. Ultimately, exercise addiction is a way of describing when someone has a negative relationship with exercise.
Signs of exercise addiction can include:
- Pushing yourself to exercise even when you’re sick or injured
- Getting anxious or upset when you miss a workout
- Saying no to spending time with your partner, friends or family because exercise is more important
- Using exercise as an escape from stressful or difficult situations, or to avoid dealing with uncomfortable emotions
- Prioritising exercise over other commitments
- Finding reasons or excuses to add extra exercise into your day, even when you have already exercised
- Hiding the frequency or intensity of your workouts from others
- Not enjoying your workouts, but pushing through because you are hyper focused on your goals
These aren’t always signs of an exercise addiction but can be indicators of when a negative relationship with exercise is developing.
If you do feel that your relationship with exercise is becoming harmful, speaking with a mental health professional is the best course of action.
If you simply need to reset your relationship with exercise, here are some tips to help you develop healthy habits and exercise in a balanced and sustainable way:
- Vary your routine to include strength training, cardio, and more gentle forms of exercise such as walking, tai chi or stretching
- Increase the amount and intensity of your training gradually, allowing your body to adjust at each stage
- Ensure you have regular rest days to allow your body and mind enough time for recovery
- Get plenty of good quality sleep so your body can recover and restore energy reserves
- Eat good quality, fresh food so your body has adequate fuel to complete regular workouts
Hiring home fitness equipment from BeFit Hire can help you develop healthy exercise habits. Our expert BeFit Hire agents are available to help you choose the perfect pieces of equipment from our range, which includes treadmills, manual and programmable cross-trainers, upright and recumbent exercise bikes, rowing machines and back inversion tables.
BeFit Hire has serviced thousands of happy clients for more than 50 years now, by offering the safety and convenience of exercising on professional equipment in your own home. Every piece of BeFit Hire equipment is tested, cleaned, and disinfected prior to delivery, with free delivery available to most of metro Adelaide and Melbourne for most hire periods.
Photos from Shutter Stock
