Exercise Addiction Exercise has become a trend! People are now exercising more than ever before, whether it’s on a sports team or activities such as running, badminton, and biking. Not only is exercise fun, but it has many benefits including, weight control, increase endurance and improved moods. Furthermore, exercise also reduces the risk of serious diseases. Although exercise itself isn’t difficult, the commitment to do it continuously can be, and this consistency is the only way to see the true benefits of exercise. Exercise programs are often started with good intentions, but quickly fail because of overtraining. People often misunderstand what moderate exercise is, and they think that by exercising at extreme limits, they will reach their fitness goals faster. Overtraining actually has the reverse effect, either creating a serious addiction to exercise, and potentially leading people to the point of injury. There are many reasons why people become addicted to exercise. The primary reasons are physical appearance; and to reach optimum health. The addiction to reach these goals motivates the need to over train, and ignore the longer term benefits of moderation. Another reason for exercise addiction is because the addiction itself is a fad, or a social trend. For example, people might want to be like a famous celebrity who keeps a beautiful shape for films. Similar to extreme diets, extreme exercise can also be seen as excessive behavior and can potentially cause physical harm, including sleep disorders and exhaustion. Exercise in moderation allows the body to naturally rest and recover. Excessive exercise also increases the risk of eating disorders like “bulimia” where people become so over concerned about their body image and weight that they do extreme exercise and follow extreme diets to control the shape of their body. Compulsion exercise will greatly your affect people’s personal lives. Often time this compulsion causes many social constraints and can lead to broken relationship. People become so addicted that they give more attention to exercise than personal and family relationships. In general, there are 3 signs that indicate you may be addicted to exercise. First, you might realize that you’re happier when you are alone and try to isolate yourself from others or start skipping work or classes, or other social events to do exercise. Second, you follow an inflexible exercise pattern. You never have time for anything else because you are preoccupied with getting to the gym. The third symptom is that you do exercise more than 2 hours daily without a break which can make you sick or cause injury. Compulsive exercise can be treated in many ways. First of all, you must completely understand your purpose for exercising. List the things about exercising that you should do and the things you shouldn’t do. Most importantly, you must know your limits. Exercising without knowing your limitations leads to injury. Another way is too simply change your habits from extreme to moderate types of exercise such as yoga, cycling or playing an easy sport. Consider exercising with friends or family will make you feel better and more enjoyable and relaxing. However, if the extreme addictive nature of exercise persists, get advice from a therapist or counselor who can help you control and understand the addiction Exercise is the truly the best way to keep healthy but excessive exercise can lead to many problems. People continue to neglect their bodies by not understanding that exercise in moderation will lead people to fitness goals, while excessive will only lead to compulsions and injuries. It is important to remember that exercise is a good thing and can extend your life but too much exercise also can make your life shorter!