How to Avoid Exercise Obsession

Addictions and obsessions are not limited to drugs, alcohol, sex, gambling, and eating. If you cannot live with yourself when you miss a workout, you have issues. There’s nothing wrong with dedication and discipline, but if your day is built around your time in the gym, you might be missing the point. It’s a “health” club, remember? So, in the name of keeping “health” in the equation, here are 10 ways to place your exercise program in proper perspective.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Set a time limit: Where is it written that you have to spend two hours in the gym? Typically, anyone working out that long is doing too many sets, too much cardio, or too much talking. If you allocate, say, one hour for a training session, you’ve already taken a giant step toward keeping your regimen sane and safe. The gym isn’t going anywhere and all those dumbbells and treadmills will be there tomorrow. Speaking of which…

2. There’s always tomorrow: It makes feel like changes—major changes, both good and bad—can occur overnight…but you know better than that. This is not about granting permission for anyone or everyone to take days off from exercise on a whim, but there is much to gain from remembering that staying fit and healthy is a marathon, not a sprint. And that marathon pits you against, well, yourself.

3. Don’t compete against others: In every gym, there is bound to be someone that makes you green with envy. Whether it’s the size of their biceps, the weight being benched, or the curve of those glutes…the muscles are always firmer on the other side. But is that really why you’re in the gym every day at six in the morning? Competition can be healthy but, again, unless you are planning to challenge your nemesis to a posedown, your real competition is yourself. Besides, rivals are rarely what they are cracked up to be anyway.

4. Steroids: Muscle magazines have inspired millions and helped teach exercise fundamentals to millions more…but those artificially-tanned, oiled-from-head-to-toe bodybuilders smiling at you from the pages of your favorite magazine have the power to wield considerable influence. “This is what a real man looks like,” they seem to be saying. “Envy me. I am a healthy man who commands the sexual attention of others.” But how many of those bodies were built on a foundation of steroids and thus will keep us forever unhappy with our results if we stay natural? Models not indulging in chemical enhancement get a little help from their friends…in the art department.

5. Photoshop: For those who indulge in the juice and still can’t satisfy a picky art director, there’s always a little thing called Photoshop. Cellulite vanishes, calves magically grow, and hairlines head back south…leaving us powerless to live up to such standards. Let’s stop holding up chemically- or technically-embellished models as heroes and take stock in what we have going for us.

6. You’re lucky to have the time: Americans are working longer hours for less money. The demands of job, family, and other responsibilities were not lessened by myriad high-tech inventions. Elsewhere on the planet, “free time” is a concept enjoyed only by a select few. So, the next time you walk into your gym and feel a little short on time, thank your lucky stars you can enjoy the luxury to keep yourself healthy.

7. You’re lucky to have the money: More than a billion people on planet earth live on the equivalent of one U.S. dollar a day or less. Meanwhile, many of us are able to plunk down tidy sums to join a gym, health club, or other fitness facility. When you walk into your gym and wish you could work less and train more, imagine how many humans out there would trade places with you in a millisecond.

8. You’re lucky to have the ability: “My hamstrings are out of proportion with my quads.” “When I run, my knee sometimes bothers me the next day.” “I wish I was stronger.” It’s important to set goals…but let’s not get carried away. If you have full use of your body and are able to challenge yourself to improve and advance, you are several steps ahead of many millions for whom just getting out of bed or putting on a shirt is an insurmountable obstacle. With numbers 6, 7, and 8, it comes down to each of us appreciating what we have instead of fixating on what we think we need.

9. Diet is more important: Gyms everywhere are filled with individuals who never miss a workout…yet never seem to lose weight. Thus, a powerful method to avoid gym obsession is to accept the crucial role our eating habits play in the way we look and feel. If you want to maintain perspective on the significance of your gym time, never forget that what you put in your mouth is more important.

10. Hunger/diet perspective: Number 9 is not an open invitation to switch from gym obsession to diet obsession. Eating healthy is essential…and helps not only you but also the planet itself. Still, in a world where a child starves to death every two seconds, there are roughly 1600 diet books in circulation in America. Every time you turn your healthy fitness regimen into a maddening fixation, reflect on that fact. There’s more to life than body fat percentage.

[cindyschulson]

on 2/25/2009 these are great tips! As a gym rat myself, I really appreciate your ideas. Like so many things in life, it is all about perspective. Five stars and a bookmark!

[JMKnudson]

on 8/8/2008 More people need to read this. A lot of great info here.