It doesn’t happen very often, but occasionally at Urban Athlete in Mt. Airy, someone takes their exercise program to a level beyond healthy. Exercise becomes their addiction. They spend hours in the gym each day, pushing their body to the limit. It’s obvious to everyone they don’t enjoy what they’re doing. If that person is a professional athlete, hard workouts are part of the game, but for the average person, this type of compulsive behavior could be affecting life negatively, creating a need to build a far healthier relationship with exercise.
Over-exercising could be a sign you aren’t willing to face another issue.
Exercising too much may be an indication of an exercise addiction and with all addictions, it’s often a way of dodging an issue in your life. Why are you exercising so much that it interferes with your life? Do you even realize you’re overdoing it or are friends and family telling you? If you have an issue, communicate it to someone, even if that issue is your worry that you’re exercising too much. Talk to someone you trust or a loved one about the problem. Keep them in the loop. Any problem is easier to solve when two people carry the weight.
Try not to fly solo when you workout.
Switch your workout from exercising alone, to exercising with others. Change the purpose of the workout to something more social. If you’re working out virtually, ask a friend to join and plan a healthy snack after the workout with plenty of time to talk and enjoy each other’s company. It takes the pressure off of having the perfect workout, changing it to having time to enjoy an activity with the company of others.
Listen to your body.
Your body tells you when enough is enough, so learn to listen. If you’re over-exercising, you’re probably getting some signals that you’re doing too much. Realize that resting isn’t being weak and you need to be smarter, especially if you’ve pushed yourself to the limit and are experiencing symptoms of working out too much. Those symptoms can include a high resting heart rate, constant exhaustion even when you’re not working out, poor recovery from a workout and diminished quality of the workout.
- Other signs that your body needs to rest is low immunity. If you find yourself more susceptible to colds and flu, the stress you’re putting on your body over-exercising may be too much. You may also lose muscle, rather than gain it and even gain weight rather than lose it.
- Learn to shift your mental approach to fitness. Make it fun and something you enjoy, not punishment for doing something bad or to prevent something bad from happening.
- Focus on each movement and enjoy it. Instead of pushing yourself harder to burn more calories or reach an unreachable goal, enjoy every movement. Feel each muscle move as you do your routine and appreciate that you have been given the gift of movement.
- Back off a bit and workout every other day for shorter periods. If you don’t feel good, don’t workout. Control your workout, don’t let it control you. You control how frequently you workout. Learn to be more flexible.
For more information, contact us today at Urban Athlete