adminInnocent Choga : Fitness
Just as much as it is important to exercise regularly and constantly eat well in order to be fit for life, it is also important to keep an audit on our fitness activities. The checks and balances will help us to step on firm ground and avoid treading on thin ice. When we start compromising our health or disregarding family needs and burrow ourselves in the comfort of exercising and diet our habit becomes a negative addiction.A young man who has just gotten into fitness ; started playing social soccer a few months ago and recently joined the gym for weight training fitness asked, ‘ What is exercise addiction , tell me how to realize when I am falling prey and how to avoid it?’
Speaking to a number of people on this subject I heard some mention words like overstraining and over-training confusing them with exercise addiction.
Overstraining is a new word to me, but I suppose it relates to straining of joints and muscles due to overloading either in resistance, or too much over use of muscles. Over-training is simply over exercising either one particular body part or the whole body within a particular period. It is just exercising too frequently, more than the particular body part or the whole body can handle. Both straining and over-training can cause injuries. Over-training can in addition cause fatigue and mental stress.
For us the ordinary people who are only trying to get fit, going to extremes in both exercising and dieting can be detrimental to our well being. Over exercising and over dieting leaves the body in a weak disposition thereby affecting our ability to perform our daily chores and exposing us to injuries.
Competitive athletes have no choice sometimes they have to over train and over practice to perfect their skills and excel in their respective sporting disciplines. It is their job. They just have to find ways and means of recovering fast from gruelling workouts and constant practice. They also have to find ways to stay clear of injuries that can come about as a result of these intense workouts and find ways to stay focused and motivated as well. The recovery process can be aided by the other two factors of fitness, which are diet and rest. It is important to research and be aware of other scientific methods that athletes are currently using, like the ancient Chinese healing process of cupping that athletes like Michael Phelps are using at the Olympics.
Exercise addiction has two sides; it can either be negative addiction or it can be positive addiction. Exercise addiction has emotional, psychological and physical side effects.
Negative or pathological addiction happens when exercise controls the life of the exerciser. Exercise becomes a priority ahead of the family, job, school and social life. In this case such individuals have a compulsion to exercise; they just feel they have to exercise most of the time they will even train whilst they have injuries.
If they do not exercise they may get depressed and experience anxiety, restlessness and insomnia, muscle tension, muscle tics and soreness. When prolonged withdrawal from exercise causes mood disturbances and personality changes which last until the individual returns to exercising, then the exerciser is really hooked.
When we get addicted negatively we create a situation whereby our bodies adapt to over-training thereby we are able to do so much exercises and we are able to withstand the fatigue and strain. We develop increased tolerance for over excessive workouts, running very long distances. But this does not mean one does not get hurt, actually the chances of injuries are high, but the negatively addicted individuals will exercise over injuries and illnesses.
Running and weight training are two activities that are mostly associated with addiction. Runners are mostly after the euphoric feeling, the “runners high” that we experience during running .In weight training individuals who are addicted to exercise and are always in the gym are referred to as gym rats. The term does not refer to people who work in the gym but to members who subscribe to exercise in the gym and are found in the gym most of the time.
The gym becomes a place of sanctuary as we run away from nagging problems to the comfort of exercising and the euphoric feeling we experience when we exercise, instead of dealing with the cause of the problem. In this case we will be abusing exercise.
Psychologist say negative addiction usually happens to individuals who start exercising in adulthood stage to acquire health benefits be it weight loss or just physical fitness. Once they have attained good results they feel in control not only over their physiques but they also develop self confidence and belief in their abilities and thus they become dependent on exercise. Some who start in early childhood might outgrow particular fitness regimes or sporting disciplines they started on and change to other disciplines.
Addiction can come about when someone who has been overweight for some time successfully looses weight through exercise and diet. They might develop a weight gain phobia and any slight increase in weight, be it a kilogramme or two is not welcome so much such that these individuals will regularly exercise impulsively even when they are supposed to rest. Apart from exercise addiction they might also engage in extreme diet habits and develop eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa.
Individuals who once felt weak and had a hard time gaining weight will also be reluctant to lose a kilogram once they gain weight through exercise. They will want to put on more weight or maintain the status quo and they will develop a huge appetite thus getting addicted to exercise and over eating. This may also result in a steroid and/or growth hormone addiction that is if the mass was also initially attained through the use of such substances.
When we find ourselves saying “I am on a diet” at social functions like weddings then we might be addicts and when we find ourselves eating double portions at weddings as well because we like to stay big then we also have a problem. We become anti social and a cause of headaches for our hosts who might have to cater for our unique habits. It is healthy to break our diet programs occasionally say during weekends or at times even take a week off the strict diet unless we have a condition that requires us to stay on a diet.
It is also healthy to rest 2 or 3 days per week and to occasional take a week break off exercising. We have to take it easy since it should be a lifetime commitment because negative addiction can severely affect our lives and can even result in family problems. For a negatively affected exercise addict the world takes a back seat, the family, job, school and friends will also have to wait, the addict has to get a dose of exercise and the diet is more important.
Positive addiction is when the exerciser has a regular but controlled exercise schedule. Although they are also often compulsive exercisers they are satisfied with their accomplishments and therefore do not take extreme measures to satisfy their ego. Psychologists call the positively addicted individuals “healthy neurotics” since they are able to control their exercising with reasonable, regularly scheduled workouts.
They take a breaks and are not on a strict diet all the time .They are not too preoccupied with diet at social functions, unless of course they are either following the doctor’s specific orders, or perhaps attending these functions is part of their job.
To avoid addiction, it is advisable to exercise with an unaffected partner who can help you to stick to scheduled workouts which should range from three to five days per week at durations of 30 minutes to 1 hour. Try to have a combination of high and low intensity workout on strong and lazy days. When injured try to recover fully before returning to exercising, unless exercising is part of the rehabilitation process.
Despite all this, experts say exercise addiction is better than not to exercise at all.
I had a word with Professor Joel White (88) who used to write movie review articles for The Herald. Professor Joel White is a well known regular member at Empire Gym, he has been exercising there for a very long time. He says he has been exercising all his life. Professor White says he was born on the 12th of June in 1928 in the streets of New York to poor jobless parents. In 1936, his father got a job as a ship builder for Great Britain and he started assembling his own gym. He started with three pieces of equipment and a few clients, but when he added on more equipment membership swelled.
Professor White says he started playing around the gym and exercising at the age of 8. He says he started school at a later stage than usual, but he managed to attain four degrees, one of them is a degree in psychology. When he got married he toured the world with his wife. The tour took them to countries like China, India, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mexico where he worked as a lecturer. He went back to America, and he says in 1972, his wife was struck dead by a car as she walked on the pavement. Depressed, he decided to leave New York. Armed with his four degrees he came to Zimbabwe then Rhodesia. He lectured at the University of Zimbabwe and retired in 1988. He became a family psychologist and a marriage counsellor.
We had the whole chat whilst the Professor was warming up cycling on a stationary bicycle. Caught up in the conversation and happy to relate his life and fitness ordeals, he surpassed his usual warm-up time.
He says he exercises three times a week without fail on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for 45 minutes to an hour .He warms up on the stationary cycle and goes on to do his fitness exercises. He is not into heavy weights but more of cardio work moving faster from one exercise to another. He says at his age he cannot lift heavy but needs cardiovascular work, and he concentrates on movement. He does not extend his workout time at all, but sticks to his planned schedule, but he walks a lot. He says he cannot do without exercise. He says exercise and his church are the only things that are keeping him alive physically and mentally. He says the body is as important as the mind and both must be exercised to avoid deterioration.
As for steroids abuse he had this to say “you know I fail to comprehend why the human being, despite being the most intelligent animal, is the only animal that knowingly heads straight into danger. Most animals accidentally get caught into dangerous situations but the homo sapiens actually heads for it knowing fully well how harmful it is”.
One young man asked me why I always write negatively about performance enhancers and he said: “Nowadays everything is done scientifically with fast results and should that not be an individual’s choice in a democratic country. What about beer and other drugs that float around?” My answer is, I thought so before I learnt that unlike other drugs that physically harm the user only, drugs like the growth hormone have ripple effects that can extend to the user’s generations of descendants afflicting them with diseases like mental illness .The initial origins of the drug are also horrifying; extractions from dead people. Though the probability of the said side effect is said to be low, but why take such a risk? Such careless and selfish acts are abhorrent and unforgivable because they affect individuals who never made the decision to chose to use them. The culprit might not be there to tell the story when the hibernating disease becomes active.
It is a good thing that our athletes who represent Zimbabwe in international tournaments have never tested positive for banned substances, but we have to keep telling them the bad side of these things. I always tell my sons “Do the best you can naturally, even if you do not win, as long as you try your best I will still be proud of you”, so there is no pressure to win. Even if they do not listen at least I will have told them.
According to Professor White “insofar as anything that is done over a long period of time can become an addiction and addictions that involve good deeds are welcome and plausible whilst we have to devise ways on how to handle destructive addictions”.
Email; [email protected] Innocent Choga is a six time National Bodybuilding Champion with international experience. He is studying for a science degree in Physical Education and Sport.
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