Is Exercise Running Your Life?

                   

It's not talked about often but some women are seriously addicted to exercise, or compulsive exercise addiction. It's when you take working out to a whole new level and your workouts run your day.

Now as a woman who used to workout multiple times a day for several hours this is my problem, but I have a great support group that helps keep me on track. So why do some women become addicted to their exercise routines?

For some it's a desire to have control over their weight and shape, for some it's as if the world will fall apart if they don't workout and for others, they are looking to get a workout "high". 

But it really doesn't matter the reason, being addicted to exercise is not a good thing. It can be bad psychologically and physiologically. For example, when I was in college and dealing with anorexia and exercise addition I ended up breaking my wrist while riding my bike. 

I was biking because I was trying to heal shin splints at the same time. Well, with my wrist in a cast, I had no choice to start running again even though I knew my shins were in bad shape. To make a long story short, they turned in to stress fractures and I had my leg in an air cast while my wrist was in a cast. Do you think it stopped me? Nope, I just started on the elliptical for less stress on my leg. Sad, I know.

So what helped me? 

When I got tired of my workouts and my diet running my life. Enough was enough and I knew that since I was hiding stuff from my friends and family that I had a problem.

What constitutes exercise going overboard?

Exercise addicts allow their workout plans to run their lives. Over family, friends, work, etc... workouts come first. There is no exception: More really is better. If there is more free time then that means more time to train. Nothing holds them back. It doesn't matter if they are tired, sick, injured... they will find a way to workout.

So, how am I today? I admit that I get very anxious if I miss a workout. But I don't have the need to workout every single day. I do have a strict workout routine that I follow and if I get thrown off than I find a way to get that workout in! But overall, I never workout more than 4-5 days a week and I never workout for longer than an hour.

Taylor Ryan is the "women's trainer" with her weight training for women site, The Art Of Weight Lifting to give fat burning workouts, muscle toning programs and more to help you hit your fitness and weight loss goals. Get all the help you need, including nutrition to make a healthy lifestyle and not just another failed attempt to get in shape.

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The Rise Of Anorexia Athletica

                     

The bad news is not all of gentlemen are lucky enough to have such a sculpted body. First of all, we might not be fortunate enough in terms of 'genetic lottery'. You know, when it comes to genes we inherit from our parents, no one can protest in any possible way. Whether our genes are good are bad, we have no option but deal with the reality.

Some men are lucky enough to inherit handsome faces from his father, or inherit the high level body metabolism which makes them less likely to become obese.That's the lovely side but what if your dad gives you 'dark' genes that makes you gain weight easier? Or genes that causes your body height increases slower than your peers? Well, I'd say you have to make peace with yourself because the harder you push yourself the more you'll get hurt.

Secondly, most of us are not able to have enough time and tools needed to keep ourselves fit. It is perhaps the most frequently mentioned excuse but it holds true for people whose daily activities are not related to physical jobs. If you're working 8 hours a day and going into overtime hours after that, no one wouldn't be that surprised to see your beer belly that stores pounds of fats.

But do you know that most men nowadays think that having an athletic figure is a must? Probably you and I are some of those men but hold that thought. Let me tell you an astounding fact that men are now swept away by a wave called 'athletica nervosa'. This is a new term coined by media to refer to a type of anxiety that men commonly have by exercising excessively at gyms. And this is what i just read on a site:

"Men who regularly read 'lads' magazines' are increasingly obsessive about their body image resulting in them doing excessive exercise and possibly taking steroids to improve their physique, according to a study by University of Winchester psychologist Dr David Giles."

'Lads' magazines here are magazines that are usually read by men and boys and most of the content is about how to stay healthy, lean, fit, and of course how to grow more muscles. But I think it's not only 'lads' magazines that endorse the importance of muscular physique. If we are sensitive enough, we'll notice recently there are more and more young, good-looking, muscular male models being featured on TV commercials, banners, ads in magazines, even clothing catalogs (which were assumed to be quite girlie in the past). It may be just a coincidence but I don't think that way.

What strikes me most is that this apparently starts to infect our kids! You can call me a hyperbolic liar but after you read this, you won't. A 5-year-old infant named Giuliano Stroe in Italy has started to become a fitness freak after he regularly accompanied his dad exercising at a local gym.

All these things seem to lead to a complete insanity. And what is initially meant to be an endeavor to get healthier and fitter proves to be a misleading campaign for instant muscularity. Some men who are not patient enough in the journey resort to a shortcut. This shortcut is called steroid. As we know that using steroid is no good especially in the long run.

So is having muscular physique really worth it? Or is it just another mirage men have been tricked into? Being unsatisfied with our appearance is humane and everyone experiences that. But being too much worried about what image people can have in their mind about us is somewhat ridiculous. Gentlemen, in my humble opinion, we should choose health over muscularity. If we're exercising, we must focus more on being healthier, so as to be able to function normally at work and in household. When ego has taken over our sanity, however, we're more likely to get drowned by the endless competition of enlarging biceps, showing off six packs, or how to get larger pectoral muscles.

In the past decades we've already bombarded with a series of news about women developing anorexia nervosa and then dying afterwards. Now men are dealing with the same plague. We now see more women are rebelling against the 'slim is beautiful' dogma. Some of these ladies (who are not as skinny as those female models) are compellingly successful and set their own trends as they appreciate their body figure more than before. It's OK to be plump or a bit obese but as long as they take themselves as they are, nothing is ever problem.

Women have shown their resistance against the 'slimmer is always better' proposition and what about men? Can men have the audacity to say NO to 'beefier is always better' proposition? Ask ourselves.

(quotation: http://www.tricitypsychology.com )

Akhlis Purnomo

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