Find out how good or bad it is to have an emotional attachment to sports. And how not to cross the border from one extreme to another in the training process. Perhaps not everyone will believe that sports addiction exists. However, in practice, this phenomenon occurs quite often. Today, more and more people are starting to engage in fitness, and if previously show business stars were actively involved in sports, now ordinary people are also joining it. There is no reason to doubt the benefits of physical activity, because even daily walks can significantly improve the body's health.
Unfortunately, now more and more often a simple desire to pump up turns into an addiction to sports. This is due to the desire of people to achieve high results as soon as possible. Men strive to build muscle mass and give their muscles relief. Girls, in turn, are trying to lose weight and come closer to the standard of beauty.
How does sports addiction come about?
The main reason for obsession with sports is dislike for your body. More precisely, this is a kind of altered perception, leading to body dysmorphia - the inability to objectively assess the state of one's own body. That is why a person strives to spend the maximum amount of time in the gym, spending it on creating the body of his dreams.
In medicine, there is such a thing as bigorexia. In simple terms, it presupposes painful human reactions to all issues related to aesthetic perfection. This can include strong feelings about the lack of a quick result after the training.
As a result, the athlete begins to spend more and more time in training, trying to give the body the desired proportions. In this regard, it should be noted that very often people who are addicted to sports have a markedly reduced self-esteem. As a result, progress in training becomes for them the only coveted reward for all their work in the gym.
From this point of view, bigorexia can be considered a kind of protective mechanism that is able to compensate for a person's low self-esteem with the appearance of his body, which should delight others. If anorexia is almost always hidden by people, then with bigorexia the situation is the opposite, and it is always put on public display.
How can you recognize a sports addiction?
One of the manifestations of addiction to sports is addiction. For people suffering from it, the exercise itself becomes an end in itself, while most people prefer an increase in physical parameters or a harmonious development of the body. It should be said right away that exercise addiction is today ranked among the psychological non-chemical addictions of a behavioral nature. It is customary to refer to the same category of addictions, say, nymphomania or Internet addiction.
Scientists have been investigating this condition for a long time, which made it possible to distinguish several characteristic features observed separately from each other or in combination:
- With dependence on sports, a person develops a tolerance to physical activity and to obtain the same result, it is necessary to increase the "dosage".
- Addiction can completely take over a person's consciousness, and he constantly thinks about the upcoming activities, even when there is a lot of time left before they begin.
- If you remove physical activity, then there is a withdrawal symptom, accompanied by a deterioration in well-being.
- It is possible for the "patient" to enter into conflict with the circle of people around him.
- The entire daily routine of a sports addicted person is tailored with their passion in mind.
Sports addiction is very actively studied by foreign scientists and a few years ago they introduced a special psychometric indicator - Exercise Addiction Inventory (EAI). With its help, you can assess the degree of a person's dependence, as well as track the dynamics of the course of treatment.
Scientists believe that this type of addiction can be overcome, but they have not yet come to a consensus on whether this is necessary. This fact is due to the fact that after refusing to exercise, a person may start looking for other ways to get their "dose" of endorphins.
Overtraining and sports addiction
Overtraining is not uncommon among athletes, but more often than not, it should not be equated with addiction. Many athletes understand that sometimes it is better to undertrain than to overdo it in the gym. However, it is extremely difficult to find that "golden" mean, which will allow you to conduct effective classes without being overtrained. For each person, the limit of the physical capabilities of the body is individual and very often, in order to continue effective training, you have to rest for a week or two. If you feel very tired after training, then you should be alert, as it is quite possible that you have overtrained. Among the main symptoms of this condition, it should be noted:
- Rapid fatigue and a drop in physical activity.
- Impaired coordination of movements.
- Increased heartbeat in the morning.
- Headache.
- Disorders of the digestive system.
- Weakening of immunity.
- Sleep disturbances and frequent insomnia.
- A sharp decrease in appetite.
- High blood pressure during rest.
Some of the above signs are of a physiological nature. During normal sports activities, a person becomes less susceptible to stressful situations, and overall well-being increases. But with excessive training, the effect can be the opposite and the consequences may appear: apathy, increased aggressiveness and a drop in self-esteem.
If you find one or more of the above signs of apathy in yourself, then you must first of all admit to yourself that you overdid it with loads. After that, it is important to determine the cause of the onset of the state of overtraining. If this happens to a professional athlete, then it is quite understandable, since he must achieve a high result by any means. If you train for yourself, then it is worth considering - do you need loads that threaten your health?
When symptoms of overtraining appear, you need to return to the previous loads, because the body needs time to adapt to them. You must understand that even professional athletes need a certain amount of time to achieve high results. At the same time, it should be remembered that today high-performance sports are unthinkable without appropriate pharmacological support. And it, in turn, does not imply the use of only AAS. Professional athletes use a large number of different drugs that allow them to carry enormous loads.
It is quite obvious that an ordinary person cannot afford this, and there is no need for it. It should also be said that the main reasons for the development of overtraining may not be physiological, but psychological in nature. If you work in the gym for hours on a flight, then talking about a simple improvement and even more keeping in shape is simply meaningless. In this situation, we can already talk about dependence on sports.
No one can explain the reasons for this in relation to sports fans. If the justification for the use of steroids in amateur sports, though difficult, can be found, then in relation to high training loads on the verge of the possible, it does not work.
Athletes who do not plan to participate in competitions and train for themselves need to focus on improving their health. Of course, you may be attracted by photographs of bodybuilders from specialized magazines, but at the same time you need to be aware of how this result was achieved.
Nowadays, sports addiction is as real a problem as various types of diseases or gambling addiction. It's just that addiction to sports is quite difficult to diagnose. You should understand that excessive physical activity, which is of a regular nature, can only worsen your health.
Moderation is essential in any business, including fitness. If you want to be healthy and enjoy your workouts, then you need to exercise in accordance with your capabilities. Working in the gym at the limit of these very possibilities will be a step back for you and this should be remembered.
More on exercise and sports addiction in this video:
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