Hi guys, Kris from Custom Fitness here, your Amarillo personal trainer. Today we’re going to be talking about exercise: is it a habit, or is it an addiction? This is going to be the first part in a two part series, so be on the lookout for part two coming soon. And if you have any questions about today’s blog, then please give us a call at (806)-322-3188
So with exercise, what is good and what is bad? Is it a habit or an addiction? Well, this is a question that comes into play a lot, especially with people that have more experience with the big box gyms. Obviously here in the studio our training team works very hard to make sure that people are in a healthy balance of not only what they are doing. But long ago when I worked for many big box gyms, there were several people that I can think of, two in particular, that would really just hit the gym hard, and that is when you start to have a problem.
So what is the difference between a habit and an addiction? Well, when I was working at the big box gyms, I used to see these people come in and they would go to four classes in a row, and then go lift weights, and them go swim, and then come back and go for a run. There is another woman that would run at least twenty miles everyday and come back in to do three hours of lifting.
Now, these are not people that were training for events. They were not training for a marathon, they were not training for powerlifting competitions or anything like that, what they were doing was replace bad habits with what they thought were good habits. And exercise is a great habit, as long as it is done in moderation.
What makes a good habit? Well, a good habit with exercise builds your health, so it gives you a lifetime of good health. It is done in moderation, so it helps the body rather than hurting it. And it helps to boost your physical being from the inside out. So exercise can be done in a myriad of fashions, all different styles and types, but when you do too much of it you start to have a bad situation on your hands.
Addiction of exercise really encomapses overtraining, but I don’t want you to think that it is just overtraining. Overtraining is another deal all together. But addiction is where you mentally and emotionally feel like you have to have this thing in order to continue. And when people start to get set on something, with a lot of people it is weight loss goals, then they start to get into this mode where they feel like they need to get to the gym.
Getting up and going to the gym is good, but then when you feel the absolute need to go the gym, then that gets into a dangerous territory. People that overtrain start to break their body from the inside out. It is too much for their body physically, and it leads to poor health over time. So exercising all of the time really can be a bad thing.
So what is overtraining? Overtraining is where you have done so much to the body, considering that each and every workout basically does minor breakdowns to the internal structure to the body. Now that is not to be taken as a bad thing, because that damage is how the body rebuilds and gets better and stronger. So in order to get that, you need to have these micro tears in the muscles, and in the fascia tissue it starts to displace things, so you have to be able to go back in and repair those things. When you allow the body to heal, it makes you better, faster, stronger, or whatever it may be that you are training for.
But that overtraining itself, if you do too much training back to back, then your body doesn’t have the time to recover, it doesn’t have the time to heal. So it gets that downtime, but it doesn’t have time to do enough so the next day you go back and are even more sore than before. So maybe that first workout when you go back you’re really sore, but that should be less and less and you should be able to more during your sessions.
Well, when you are in an overtraining habit, what happens is that you do feel sore each time, and possibly get more sore each time. And you can do less and less each time, and that is showing you that you haven’t had enough rest and recovery to be able to go back to work at 100%. Instead what happens is that it goes to 100% that first day, and then the next day it’s at 90%, and it just will keep going down from there until you are left with nothing and your body can’t function.
So i’m going to end part one here. In part two we’re going to be talking more about habit vs. addiction.
If can’t wait for part two, or you want to know more about Custom Fitness and what we do here, then please give us a call. If you’re wanting the accountability and help with creating an action plan to see results, or are wanting to someone to help create a workout plan to push you to your greatest potential, then that’s what we’re here for. Our trainers are here to look out for you and make sure that you are meeting your goals in a safe way.
At Custom Fitness, we customize a plan for you. We sit down with you and find out what your needs are and then build a health and fitness plan around that. We have an entire team of dedicated professionals to help you with your health and fitness goals. To get your consultation set up, give us a call at 806-322-3188 or email us at info@customfitness.biz At Custom Fitness, we are YOUR personal trainers in Amarillo, Texas. Have a great day.