Believe it or not, you can have too much exercise. Jane Chapman, 34, has to force herself to take 'rest' days from exercise and feels she is obsessed with it, running about 35 miles a week and walking for an hour on 'days off'. 'As a classic self-loathing perfectionist I'll never really believe that I do enough exercise, let alone too much of it,' she says.
Exercise addiction is characterised by a compelling need to train everyday (sometimes so excessively health is damaged) combined with feelings of anxiety or depression if a session is missed.
The positive effects of adequate exercise cease if over-done, as celebrity trainer and author of The Ultimate New York Body Plan www.theultimatenewyorkbodyplan.com, David Kirsch, explains 'Too much exercise can lead to muscle fatigue and, in the extreme, injury or diminishing returns regarding muscle growth, body shaping and toning. Physically, the body needs to rest as it is during this stage that muscle regenerates and energy stores replenish.'
Singer Geri Halliwell admitted pushing her body to extremes throughout her infamous 'thin' period, commenting later in an interview, 'My menstrual cycle had disappeared, unsurprisingly, with the weight loss and stress. But the thought of not being able to have children was a wake-up call for me.'
Many factors contribute to an obsessive need to exercise, such as addiction to the endorphin rush that follows prolonged activity, or a fear of weight-gain. 30 year old solicitor Paula Brown describes herself as 'mildly obsessive', doing gym classes five times a week and feeling irritable and overly-anxious if she misses one. She says, 'It comes from being over-weight in the past, I worry about putting it on again. I think I'll be fat if I miss out exercise.'
Though not always linked to eating disorders or distorted body image, obsessive exercising can potentially lead to these conditions or be symptomatic of them. The recently published 'Alice in the Looking Glass: A Mother and Daughter's Experience of Anorexia' depicts the traumatic journey of daughter Alice Kingsley's condition, where she fanatically exercised to prevent weight-gain - even getting a bed sore on her back from midnight exercising when hospitalised.
Jane's experience may also be linked to the severe anorexia she had in her 20s, but in her case, she thinks exercising has helped improve her relationship with food. She says, 'That mentality never leaves you; you just learn to suppress it more effectively. I'm now able to eat without feeling quite so guilty.'
Realising something is wrong can be difficult, as with Geri Halliwell, it may take time. Hypnotherapist Barbara Ford-Hammond www.barbaraford-hammond.com has worked with a number of compulsive exercisers. 'Clients are not usually aware there is a problem until someone else mentions it or they realise it is affecting other areas of life,' she remarks. 'It wasn't until one woman's child was left waiting to be collected from school because she had to complete another circuit that it dawned on her.'
Get professional help if you are over-exercising and it's having an impact on your life or health; speak to a GP, counsellor or even an eating disorders association.
A good fitness instructor can help you find a suitable exercise regime. David Kirsch says, 'I have guided many clients through this problem by showing them different things to do every day if they need to do it. By varying exercise, one could basically do something physical every day and keep their mind and their body healthy.'
