Addicted to Training
A regular reader of the big-arms website sent me an email recently and told me he was addicted to training and asked if this was a good thing or a bad thing. I guess it all depends on the level you are addicted to training but I would have to say in most cases it’s a pretty healthy addiction to have. I mean in a world full of people who are addicted to drugs, alcohol and a whole host of prescription medication they probably don’t even need, I think having a training addiction is a step in the right direction.
I have been bodybuilding for 20 years as of this year and although I still train hard most days of the week and always eat well, I wouldn’t say I have a training addiction, just a healthy appetite for hard and heavy weight training workouts. Although when I first started bodybuilding back in the 1980’s while I was still in school I must say I quickly developed an addiction to training.
I had been actively involved in many sports while growing up in
Now 20 years later I am still bodybuilding but probably not quite as addicted to training as I was all those years ago. As you get older though other things in life tend to take priority over training but since I am a personal trainer, training plays a big part in my life. I have a number of personal training clients who are addicted to training and some of them were once addicted to other things that were not quite so healthy. Getting involved in bodybuilding at any level can be a great way to overcome other personal problems and as you start to feel better about your life and your body sometimes you swap a previous unhealthy vice for an addiction to training.
I believe being addicted to training only ever becomes a problem when you continue to train when you are injured or sick. Or sometimes training addiction forces you to spend more time in the gym or exercising to the point where you suffer from severe overtraining which can, over a long period of time have the opposite effect of training and you may begin to lose muscle and get sick. Overtraining can become a serious problem for some people who don’t take a break when they feel symptoms of overtraining. Although, most people are smart enough to give it a break when their body and mind really needs some rest and recuperation.
All in all I think being addicted to training is certainly better then being addicted to watching TV or drinking and smoking but if you just can’t stop working out maybe you could alternate your training with other pursuits you enjoy. Perhaps change your style or type of regular training to something that works different areas of your body to give certain parts of your body an essential break like mixing some cardio sessions in with your weight training sessions to give your core muscle groups a chance to recover. You should be doing this anyway on a weekly basis otherwise you might burn out and stop training all together and you definitely don’t want that.