The answer is a bit of a sticky one, it's not so much that you can become addicted to endorphins as it is more that you can become addicted to the activity that causes you to produce the endorphins, mainly over exercising. This does not mean that you should not exercise, in fact just the opposite you should exercise 5 to 6 days a week if possible. The problem seems to arise when you get to the point in your exercise routine where if you miss a day you become very irritable and just generally in a bad mood. Lets explore some of the things you can do for this shall we?
Exercise Withdrawal
Anyone who has ever really gotten into an exercise routine, then had to suddenly stop it for one reason or another (injury, work schedule, etc) has probably gone through exercise withdrawal. What happens is that when you exercise you produce endorphins and your body gets used to having that in your system. When you suddenly stop exercising your body no longer produces the amount of endorphins that you were used too and you start to feel the difference. Symptoms may vary from person to person but generally involve being easily angered, short tempered, and irritable. They will usually only last for a few days but it can be a very depressing two days for the person going through it, and a very aggravating few days for the people around you.
What to do?
The easiest thing to do in this case would be to make sure when you do exercise, that you exercise properly so you can avoid injury. If you do find yourself injured or in a position where you can't find time to exercise because of schedule issues, you might want to try some flexing exercises. Basically all you do is pick a muscle group, say your arms, then squeeze all of the muscles in your arms for a few seconds. I'm not saying to flex your arm like your showing off, flex all of the muscles at once, in doing this your arms won't move they will just tense up. Hold that for a count of five, or more depending on your fitness level, then relax. Rest for a count that is equal to how long you flexed, then do it again. You can repeat this 5 to 10 times then move on to another muscle group. Do not flex an injured muscle, the point of this is to keep the muscles that are healthy doing something so they will stay in shape and you will not go through exercise withdrawal. This can be done at any time in any location, I used to do this at my desk at work, and will help you to be calmer.
Sometimes, when a person really gets into their workout, they will find that they have tension on the days that they are resting. Or they will find that they have to work out more and more to achieve the same good feeling that they used to get from a normal workout. This could be classified as exercise addiction, and is usually associated more with power lifting and long distance jogging or running. The symptoms are the same as exercise withdrawal only instead of occurring after a few days of not working out, it can occur simply by taking a day off from exercising or in extreme cases occur before you exercise for the day. Fortunately this is really more of a routine issue then anything else. You could use the flexing muscle technique I described above to give yourself a quick fix, but I would honestly recommend talking to a trainer to see what they would recommend. If you work out enough to get to this point you probably know several personal trainers or may even be one yourself. A change up in your routine would be the most helpful thing for you, get away from a repetitive exercise routine and get into more of a general routine that is slightly lighter for a while. This will allow your body to adjust more slowly to the endorphin level and help you to feel less tense before you work out.
No comments:
Post a Comment