By, Martina Spencer, Personal Trainer

Martina Spencer, Personal Trainer

6 weeks ago, I broke my toe. Except for the excruciating pain which is bad enough, I couldn’t exercise for about 10 days. Well….I was able to do my resistance training and hobble around my gym, but couldn’t do any cardio sessions which are a staple in my daily workouts.

I became so moody and grumpy; I didn’t even want to be with myself! This started me thinking that I might be addicted to exercise. After doing some research, I came across signs of addiction–  I was horrified to see I ticked most of the boxes!!

1. Always working out alone, isolated from others (well I like to have my workouts done instead of listening to my friend what happened to Jordan and Pete!).
2. Always following the same rigid exercise pattern
3. Exercising for more than two hours daily, repeatedly.(ok, 1.45 hours actually)
4. Fixation on weight loss or calories burned.
5. Exercising when sick or injured. (What else am I suppose to do?!)
6. Exercising to the point of pain and beyond (no pain no gain).
7. Skipping work, class, or social plans for workouts. (I am getting up at 5 every morning to have my workouts before going to work so I am not missing any drinks after work J)

With your studies in Personal Training, you too will be able to diagnose these symptions. The term “exercise addiction” was appointed in 1976 by Dr William Glasser, whilst studying long distance runners.  He noticed that many of them experienced low moods when they couldn’t train. There are two types of addiction:

Positive addiction: involves a love of the activity, and the exercise is scheduled around other everyday activities. You run your running schedule, for example, rather than it running you, and if you have to miss your workout it’s not the end of the world.

Negative addiction: the exercise overrides everything. Relationships and work suffer, a day away from the gym, pool or road causes distress, and health levels can decline as overtraining leads to injury and illness.

People who are addicted to exercise are mostly driven by a need to control and change their body shape, and often accompanied by an eating disorder. They regularly run long distances in order to maintain a low body weight. Others have the need to focus on something—they may have just broken up with their partner, stress in the family or work stress or any physiological problems

I also want to stress the importance of staff working in gyms and health clubs to have knowledge about this matter and are properly trained to spot any signs of addiction and address it appropriately. It’s also vital to approach people who are showing signs and have a friendly chat rather than confronting them and driving them away from the club. They will only find different gym where they are not going to be hassled and vicious circle starts all over again.

After my research, I feel I do have mild addiction to exercise (the positive one J) but its more likely I am addicted to wearing my high heels, and my grumpiness was result of wearing flat shoes for last 10 days

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