by Rebecca Carberry
If some work is good, more must be better- right? It’s a mentality that you can find all over American culture. In the office, in school, even in relationships. But nowhere is it more prevalent than the gym.As someone hoping to go into the fitness industry, obviously there’s a number of things I love about it. I’m no stranger to the endorphin rush that comes with pushing your body a little further than the time before. This is the ‘good stress’ that makes exercise a taxing but emotionally and physically beneficial past time. For people who struggle with mental health issues (like depression and anxiety) regular exercise can help regulate their emotional state (Reynolds 2008).
When working out has a positive place in your life those last few reps are your salvation, and your sweat is rain on a parched field. But there’s a darker side to this feeling as well. If you continue pushing to reach this feeling, going for more results, day after day, the body begins to breakdown. A psychologist at Indiana University named John S. Raglin bluntly described this problem by explaining that “Exercise is a stimulus that can have beneficial or deleterious psychological outcomes. And the threshold that separates those two outcomes is poorly understood.”(Reynolds 2008). At some point, putting this kind of stress on the body will have a negative mental (and physical) effect.It’s most widely known as ‘over training’, but we also call it ‘staleness’ or ‘burnout’. It means pushing your body repeatedly past it’s without allow it to recover and repair.
According to the article ‘Crash and Burnout’ published in the New York Times and Ace Fitness Website, many of the side effects of over training have a huge impact on the mind. People who push themselves hard physically are often searching for relief from negative emotions by achieving something- they put pressure on themselves to do better and better. Ironically, over training will lead to decreased results, as the body becomes exhausted. Over trainers are easier to irritate, and struggle with insomnia and appetite. (Weiss 1995) (Robinson 2017)
At its worst, over training can even be an indicate suicidal tendencies. An article titled ‘Exercise dependence: Associations with capability for suicide and past suicidal behavior’ surveyed 540 people to collect information on their exercise habits and histories of suicidal behavior. What they discovered makes perfect sense- a strong link between unhealthy exercising and suicide attempts. The phrase ‘exercise dependence’ indicates someone who has allowed exercise to take the place of other activities in their life, constantly seeks a more intense workout, and experiences withdrawal symptoms when they can’t exercise. People who exercise recklessly without letting the body recover are likely to be less concerned about caring for themselves on a larger level. (Rogers, Duffy, Buchman-Schmitt, Datoc, & Joiner 2018)
It’s a recipe for disaster- you have someone who is typically an athlete or someone who holds themselves to similar standards. This pressure pushes them to do more and more, ignoring their need to recover until one day- they hit a slump. Training isn’t giving them results they crave anymore. So they go harder. Less rest and less food because of the insomnia and lack of appetite. They become more irritable and depressed and because exercise is their typical coping mechanism, they don’t know any other way to deal. They push harder. They go faster.
They work longer.
Stop.
Breathe.
Sometimes, less is more.
To learn more about the symptoms of over training, I recommend the American Council of Exercise website, a resource used by the physical fitness program at BCC. This article will give you a good start: www.acefitness.org/education-and-resources/lifestyle/blog/6466/9-signs-of-overtraining
Bibliography:
(1) Reynolds, Gretchen. “Crash and Burnout.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 2 Mar. 2008, www.nytimes.com/2008/03/02/sports/playmagazine/02play-physed.html.
(2) Weiss, Rick. “STALENESS SYNDROME.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 8 Aug. 1995,www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/wellness/1995/08/08/staleness-syndrome/2dcaf770-0349-4f00-b9ff-46ab1faeb384/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.49e90171cf65.
(3) Rogers, Megan L., et al. “Exercise dependence: Associations with capability for suicide and past suicidal behavior.” Journal of clinical psychology 75.1 (2019): 165-177.
4)Robinson, Justin. “9 Signs of Overtraining.” ACE, The American Council on Exercise., 21 June 2017, www.acefitness.org/education-and-resources/lifestyle/blog/6466/9-signs-of-overtraining.
