The Never-Ending Workout

[TheHipHopBillGates]

The Never-Ending Workout
Always at the gym and no time for life

Q: I'm addicted to exercise. While I mostly enjoy it, I'm emotionally unable to skip a day. I work out seven days a week for at least 2.5 hours a day—usually 60 minutes of cardio machines, 30 minutes of weight training, then 60 minutes of kickboxing or other cardio workout. If I'm not at the gym every day, I have trouble sleeping that night, worrying about how much weight I might have gained by not exercising that day. The rest of my family is obese, and I'm determined not to look like them. It seems like I have no life outside of work and the gym.

A: Exercise has many health benefits, but like anything, you could be doing a good thing for the wrong reasons, and therefore overdo it. Even professional athletes allow an essential period of recuperation and rest that helps them stay fit. You seem to be aware that you’re doing a good thing to a potentially harmful degree, since you call it an addiction.

You might be falling into several errors in thinking, making you more driven than you have to be to stay healthy. Are you telling yourself that if you slow down, you’ll start an inevitable slide into obesity? That type of all-or-nothing thinking drives you to exhaustion, and then may tempt you to call it quits altogether, making it hard to stay fit with a healthy regimen.

It’s possible that you have some genetic predisposition to obesity, and your rigor is good, but your absolutism could create physical strain or other problems. Then, if you’re sidelined, you might succumb to depression. Perhaps the absolutism about your fitness regimen is telling you: “I can and must attain perfection.” That also drives you to an extreme, and scares you into driving yourself to exhaustion.

The vicious spiral: You have less and less of a life outside of exercise, so you exercise more, then have less of a life, and so on. This is a recipe for depression. Better to schedule some healthy fun and social activity, get yourself out and interact with people.

Perhaps your endorphin levels are helping you to feel better temporarily (after an exhausting workout), only to fall back down, making the contrast seem depressive. This may warrant a question: Are you depressed? Are you masking feelings of depression with busywork that keeps moving hard and fast, never allowing yourself time to reflect in the least (lest you feel down)?

Your desire to fight your familial tendency toward obesity is to be commended. We want to encourage your dedication to health—but you need to focus on the long haul, rather than running yourself ragged, emotionally and physically.

Fight this absolutist thinking by asking yourself: Why must it be all or nothing? Ask yourself why you can’t keep to a rigorous—but not rigid—regimen.

Exercise is great, but if you do it for the wrong reasons you may do it too much. That could create problems and might mask underlying issues like depression. Tap into your talent for discipline and desire to stay fit and to schedule a daily regimen, but refuse to give in to self-talk: “You’ll go totally downhill unless you make exercise the sole focus of your life.”

http://health.msn.com/fitness/articl...2135&GT1=31036

[DEEPER KEMICAL]

i've been there. i still am actually!

[TheHipHopBillGates]

i've been there. i still am actually!

Me 2 not 7 days a week though.

[DEEPER KEMICAL]

yea im 5 days a week, but when i miss a day im scheduled to go, mentally im upset.

[Zbad1ne]

yea im 5 days a week, but when i miss a day im scheduled to go, mentally im upset.

same here.

[TheHipHopBillGates]

yea im 5 days a week, but when i miss a day im scheduled to go, mentally im upset.

definitely, put a lot of strain on my last relationship bc I had to choose between quality time and the gym. Oh well, live and learn.

[Suzie*Q]

Working out is therapy!

[soberone421]

I've been going for 6-7 days a week since January @ ~1.5-2hrs each day, took a week off this week, I feel pretty good about it, figured I'd give my body a rest, can't wait to start up again next week

Once you get in the swing of going every day, the day isn't right w/out it

[DEEPER KEMICAL]

I've been going for 6-7 days a week since January @ ~1.5-2hrs each day, took a week off this week, I feel pretty good about it, figured I'd give my body a rest, can't wait to start up again next week

Once you get in the swing of going every day, the day isn't right w/out it

exactly!

[TEMPERAMENTAL]

I just sent this over to the kid that works on my team because this is exactly how he is. I helped on bolded the really important parts.

[crazyray™]

part of teh reason i switched to crossfit was i was going 7 days a week, and with stretching etc spending 2 hours a night

not anymore.

[TrippinFace101]

If im not at the gym. Im at work or bar or club lol.

[luvmeluvmycat]

I can somewhat understand where that person is coming from.

I work out alot bc most of my family is on the chunky side, and I don't want to be like that- considering I was once 170lbs. On top of that, I like the way I feel when I leave the gym, like I achieved another level of health. Although I only work out 5 days a week, about an hour to 1.5 hrs a day. You really have to give your body somewhat of a rest at some point. 7 days a week is serious.