When we talk about the word addiction, we often think of drugs and alcohol. However, it is not only these substances that can cause individuals to be addicted, but fitness is also an obsession too.
People are turning into fitness fanatics. They are heading out to the gyms and engaging their bodies in extensive training. There can be many factors that make people obsessed with the idea of fitness. The newest technology and machinery in the gyms like treadmills, elliptical runners, vibrating plate technology, spinners, and heavy dumbbells attract fitness fanatics like a moth to a flame.
In recent years, we have been hearing more and more often about fitness obsession. People are extensively training in the gyms and fitness centers to achieve a “Beast Body”.
Social Media pressure
The apparent “influencers” or social media have been doing more harm than help. The social media offer unrealistic body images labeling them dream bodies and fit bodies. These impractical body goals encourage behaviors that can trigger obsessions for fitness in vulnerable populations since the desired and idealized body styles go hand in hand with advertising and fashion.
Desire to be slim
Often, a fitness addiction can also conceal a sickly obsession with thinness or beauty.
Many people are not satisfied with their bodies. That’s why through the fitness obsession they aim to achieve a goal of thinness and beauty. In the way of achieving the goal, they harm their health rather than improving it.
High in demand and trending
A majority of the active population seeks gyms to get fit. With the rise in gym culture, clothing companies have also cashed the opportunity and have started making gym clothes which have further exacerbated the situation.
Diversity in training techniques
Beyond functional Training or more traditional fitness, new training methodologies are applied and are client-focused. There is always a different method for each person, which broadens and diversifies the public interested in fitness.
Much than a place to just train
Gym goers are looking for something more than training. They seek to create a community and a social group in which to be included. This makes people who formerly felt a certain rejection by gyms see them in a closer and more attractive way.
Fitness as a passion
Okay, it may be something logical, but not everyone qualifies for it. Passion and obsession are two different things. If fitness is a passion for someone, they will never abuse it to a point that it ends up harming them rather than improving their quality of life.
Self-admiration
They live obsessed with their image and have a tendency to show their bodies, talk about themselves and keep themselves up on a pedestal. This is also a psychological disorder and it’s very real.
How to overcome the obsession with fitness?
Obsession about fitness is a spiral that will keep sucking you in once you get affected by it. A conscious effort will be needed if you want to free yourself from this self-harming practice.
Free yourself from social pressure
Everyone on social media wants a skinny appearance to be the benchmark for a beautiful body. The pressure is such that even when the trend is of curvy hips and a heavy chest, women are still expected to have a slim waist and long legs. Being thin is often associated with the idea of being healthy, having energy, and being feminine.
Social pressure drives bulky or plus-sized people to fall into this obsession and rigorously train not to be fit, but to be thin merely.
These standards of beauty which are certainly appreciable to the eye for some is far from being possible to all and therefore extremely harmful to people with low self-esteem. This obsession with weight, therefore, comes from the complexes that society creates which encourages us to look like what it defines as “beautiful and healthy”.
Reconnect with your body
Because of comparison, we will end up no longer seeing ourselves as we truly are but what society wants us to be. Reconnect with your body, rather than lingering in front of the mirror, and criticizing yourself.
Accept the nature of your body
Some bodies are not made to stick to the image we want. Some bodies are not made to be thin just like others to be round. Try to recognize your body weight and your physical nature. This will save you from thoughtless efforts to change your body and get the desired result when it might not be possible.
Observe your heredity, your body’s musculature, its skeleton, and its weight over the years, as many clues that can tell us if we have reached our natural weight or not.
If you consider that you have to make efforts to regain your natural weight, it may be necessary to go back in time to find out if a specific event will have triggered a loss or a particular weight gain. It could be an emotional shock, a drug treatment, a change in habits or a change of environment.
For example, students leaving their families often experience variations in weight as they manage their food themselves.
The Importance of Nutrition and Caring for Your Health
Working on the content of your plate is very important whether you are looking for weight loss or gain. Eating a balanced diet and eating mindfully will allow you to return the balance of the body which is the right approach to become fit. Sometimes we snack on unhealthy items which make us gain weight. We eat mindlessly when we aren’t even feeling hungry. Having a health intention rather than a “weight” intention in choosing your diet will be much more beneficial and effective.
It’s easy to fall in the complexes which we become prey while scrolling any social media application. The Instagram models are not someone you should start starving yourself for. Understand your body type and what your body needs rather than blindly following a fitness regime that harms you more than it does good.