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Expand your running knowledge, identify running misconceptions and become a faster, healthier, SMARTER runner. Let Brodie Sharpe become your new running guide as he teaches you powerful injury insights from his many years as a physiotherapist while also interviewing the best running gurus in the world. This is ideal for injured runners & runners looking for injury prevention and elevated performance. So, take full advantage by starting at season 1 where Brodie teaches you THE TOP PRINCIPLES TO OVERCOME ANY RUNNING INJURY and letβs begin your run smarter journey.
This episode was recorded back in October 2020. Enjoy. On today's episode, is exercise addiction detrimental to your running? With Heather Husenblass. Welcome to the only podcast delivering and deciphering the latest running research to help you run smarter.
Brodie:My name is Brody. I'm an online physiotherapist treating runners all over the world, but I'm also an avid runner who, just like you, have been through vicious injury cycles and, when searching for answers, struggled to decipher between between common running myths and real evidence based guidance. But this podcast is changing that. So join me as a RunSmarter Scholar and raise your running IQ so we can break through the injury cycles and achieve running feats you never thought possible.
Brodie:I had a blast talking to Heather, and we talked about so much interesting things. So in way of bio, Heather Husenblass is currently working at Jacksonville University. She is currently a faculty member in the School of Applied Health Science. She was a past associate dean at Jacksonville University. She is a physical activity and health aging expert, researcher, and author.
Brodie:She examines the effects of physical activity and diet on body image, mood, adherence, quality of life, and excessive exercise. She is the co co auth I'll say that again. She is the co author of 6 books and published over 100 papers. And today's topic is all about exercise addiction. And we delve into so many different topics.
Brodie:One being like how to know if it's just exercise addiction or whether you just love exercise and you're just committed to loving the exercise of running and what can be the potential negative consequences. If there's any personality traits associated with it. Do how to recognize if there is an addiction. And just we talk about so much things like we go into social media like peer pressure devices. Does that have a detrimental detrimental impact?
Brodie:And strategies to help at the end because we we got to have strategies to help, don't we? And I feel like the way Heather answered all these questions was so concise and so informative that you're going to take so much away from it. We'll dive in in a second but just before we do just a gentle reminder to revisit season 1 of the podcast if you haven't already A lot of people are going to episode 1 and listening to episode 1 and then just scrolling through the other episodes and seeing what's relevant to them. Please, if you want to run smarter, if you want to take advantage of this podcast as best you can, have a listen to the first 10 episodes. They cover the universal principles to overcome any running injury.
Brodie:And it's it's very, methodical. I've planned this out. The first 10 episodes every runner needs to learn, if they want to run smarter and reduce their risk of injury or overcome any chronic injury. So please have a listen to all 10 of those. And yeah, let's dive into our interview with Doctor Heather Husenblass.
Brodie:I am pumped with today's, topic. It's gonna be extremely different to something I have, done in the past. And Heather, I just wanna say thanks for coming on to the Run Smarter podcast.
Heather:Oh my goodness. Thank you for having me. Thrilled to be here.
Brodie:Okay. So, I've got like the the title being is exercise addiction detrimental to your running? And I'm excited to to dive into some of these like subcategories but before we get into that can we just, take a step back and have a an insight into your career and how this sort of how you gained this interest around exercise addiction?
Heather:Yeah. You know what? It it's a great question and when I first became interested in exercise addiction, I wanna say it was almost by accident. I was studying exercise adherence. I'm an exercise health psychologist, so studying, you know, exercise behaviors, you know, why people do or don't exercise, you know, mood effects of of exercise.
Heather:And I was actually in discussions with one of my former PhD students, and we were in the process of designing, an intervention. So, we basically have studied trying to get people a certain group of people to to exercise more because we know that the vast majority of people do not exercise and they're missing out on a whole host of health benefits associated with it. So we were looking, you know, at this whole continuum, of exercise from okay. You've got these people that don't exercise at all, which is the vast majority. You have a few people that are that are, what we would say, meeting the exercise guidelines, but we said, what about people who may exercise too much, and can you actually become addicted to exercise?
Heather:And that was really the the the thought process And we thought, well, let's take a look, at this and see. Because, you know, with most behaviors, they can be taken to taken to an extreme, like, for example, gambling, where you can have just normal gambling, where you can become addicted to gambling. So the question was, could you actually become addicted to exercise? So our first our first step, and this is dating back now about 25 years, and I'm also, I guess, dating myself. There wasn't a lot of research done done on it.
Heather:So the field was really open ended. And what was fascinating is you almost had these two schools of thought where some researchers were saying that if you were addicted, so called, to exercise, it was a good thing, and they were calling it a positive addiction because x the thought behind it was exercise is a good thing. If you exercise a lot or an extreme amount, then that's a an even better thing with with more healthy benefits, and they call that a positive positive addiction. And there's another school of thought saying that, no. It's, it's negative.
Heather:If you're doing something too much and excessively, there's going to be bad things, you know, happening happening to you, but there really was not a whole host of of interest from a scientific community, looking at it. So that's really where we where we started just from just being intrigued by it and trying to understand it. So very early on, just delving into what was actually out there and then deciding that, okay. We did have a a feeling that this was this was a real thing and that there was a small group of exercisers that would exercise excessively and could potentially be, what we classify as exercise addicted. So as researchers, our first inkling was, well, how do we define this?
Heather:And then how do we how do we go about to to measure it? And that's what we we spent, several years doing was trying to develop a measure to actually, measure exercise addiction and then try to try to define it. And and then since this time, there really has been an explosion of of research taking a look at at exercise addiction, who gets addicted, how you define it, how you measure it, and then how you can potentially can potentially treat it. So the research has come has come a long way. We still have a long, long way to go, though, but it really is an intriguing and fascinating, area that you can take something that's typically really, really good for you, and it can become something that can become really, really bad for you when you do it too much and potentially become addicted to it.
Brodie:Okay. And did they, I noticed on another podcast that you were on that you said that there was no set definition of exercise addiction yet. Has that changed?
Heather:You know what? That's a great question. And I have to say that the the definition of it has has narrowed, but is there a set definition that everybody that all researchers go to? I would say no. And the reason for that is that it's not classified yet as a as a mental health disorder.
Heather:So when I say that we have diagnose a diagnostic and statistical manual for mental disorders that classify as all mental health disorders that are out there. And in the, a few years back, there was finding a new category that said that, you know what? You can become addicted to behaviors, and the first behavior that the, manual has acknowledged is gambling, saying that we now acknowledge you can become addicted to gambling and an exercise got got a quick mention in it stating that there's a possibility, but there's still not enough still not enough research out there. But the typical definition that most researchers will go to is is that it it's it's based based on certain types of components where, first and foremost, you need to be exercising what we call excessively. Now what does excessive mean?
Heather:For some individuals, that could be, you know, 2 hours a day. For other individuals, for example, that could be up to 6, 7, 8 hours a day. So there's a huge range in what we would say would be excessive because what really determines it is not just the the volume of exercise, but the the psychological aspects that go that go along with it. So we take a look at it as really this kind of this craving for for what we I we call, like, leisure time physical activity. So exercise, something that's done during your so called so called free time that's associated not only with physiological symptoms because typically when someone's exercising excessively, oftentimes, there's overuse.
Heather:Injuries that go along with that, but then also the psychological aspects, of it, whether it's, you know, withdrawal effects, you know, extreme extreme tolerance effects, this whole notion of a lack of control and not being able to not being able to stop. Because typically individuals who we would classify as exercise addicted know that this is an issue. They know that it that it that it that it's a problem, and that they they need help, and they just cannot stop.
Brodie:Okay. A lot to unpack there. When you were talking about that it does have a negative consequence and you quickly touched on a few, mental issues that might happen or some injuries. Can you maybe just paint a picture of perhaps, like, common characteristics of someone who follows into this exercise addiction? Like, is there a common, behavior that you might see?
Heather:Yeah. There's there's a few that are really, that are really telltale, you know, and from a from a health standpoint, we're typically interested in getting people to meet the exercise guidelines and that's really the the the challenge and there's a few individuals, and the numbers are the numbers are low, but just because the prevalence of exercise addiction is low, it's typically, you know, we would say around 1 to 3%, let's say, of of people who who exercise. It doesn't mean that it's not significant and doesn't affect, you know, thousands of individuals. But one of the the the the telltale signs of it is what we call, kind of a criteria called continuance. And what what I mean by that is being unable to either, you know, stop or reduce, you know, how how intense, or long somebody actually exercises.
Heather:So, for example, the average person would be able to, let's say, go to the gym and say, okay. I'm gonna work out for an hour and then I'm gonna leave. I've got other obligations. I've gotta get home to my family or I need, you know, need to get to work. But someone who's exercise addicted may go in with that intention of only exercising for an hour, yet they'll stay a lot longer and they will give up, you know, family obligations.
Heather:They would be late for dinner. They'll be late for work. They will give, you know, give these things up because they need to get their exercise in and they oftentimes will do a lot longer than than they, they intend. I remember, one individual, for example, who, clearly state was exercise addicted. She ran a marathon, and at the end of the marathon, that was her goal, to complete a marathon, which is an extreme, you know, an extreme accomplishment.
Heather:At the end of that marathon, she felt that she still had ran it ran enough, so she kept running. So that would be, you know, that would be an example of it. But one of the things that I I think is really important to get across to you to your listeners is just because somebody does marathons or ultra marathons or Ironmans, for example, or, you know, goes hiking all day long, does not mean that this individual is addicted to is addicted to exercise. It it's the, you know, ability to stop, the ability to take, you know, to take time off, and the ability to to, to, you know, have a balance is where, you know, where it's really where it's really key. Another aspect that you that you'll see are what we call withdrawal effects.
Heather:And it's a little unique with with exercise when we think of withdrawal effects because oftentimes individuals or people are exercising because it makes them feel better. It puts them in in a better mood. That that's been studied in in hundreds of different studies, and we know that when people exercise afterwards, they're in a better mood, they have less anxiety, less depression. Well, somebody who is exercise addicted is oftentimes exercising to avoid the the these types of these types of feelings. They become really intense, for the, you know, for the individual.
Heather:They're spending extreme amount of time, with this. For example, one individual, who participated in one of our studies said that you know, and he said, I I I know I exercise too much. I know it's I know it's an issue. And he said, and now and now it's becoming a very expensive issue for me because he was trying to cover, you know, cover it up how much he was actually exercising exercising. So he ended up buying, 3 or 4 different gym memberships at different gyms.
Heather:So in the morning early, he'd go to 1 gym, in the afternoon, another gym, and then in the evening, another gym, because he did not want the the fitness staff to know how much she was, you know, how much she was exercising. So typically, these individuals can acknowledge that, hey. I know I'm doing this too much, but I can't. I can't stop. And that's really, you know, in part, you know, the the, you know, the the telltale sign of, of what what's going on.
Heather:And, also, another key issue is continuing to exercise through injuries. So, typically, you know, many of us have have experienced injuries over the, you know, over the years, whether it's an overused injury or you you've hurt something or strain something, and you go to your your health care provider and they tell you to take some time off, whether it's a couple days, you know, a week, a month, whatever it may be. The average person is able to is able to do that to to heal their body. Somebody who's exercise addicted is not. They are not able to stop, and they will continue to exercise despite some type of injury.
Heather:They will exercise through the pain or they're going to to change the type of activity that they're doing, but they're still gonna keep the, the, the amount that's going on. I had, for example, to put it in perspective, a doctor threatened to actually cast somebody's somebody's foot that what they had an overused injury saying, is this the only way that I'm gonna be able to get you to, you know, to stop exercising? So it's really this type of, you know, extreme extreme type of behavior. And I really wanna get, you know, the point across that for the most part, exercise is one of the best things you can do for your overall health. In fact, it's up there, you know, the top, you know, the top 2 to 3 things that you can do from a behavioral standpoint for your health.
Heather:So it's really important that people that people, people know that. But, yes, for an extreme like, a small amount of of individuals, it does become it does become negative and it does have extreme negative health effects for individuals in there. I would classify them as potentially exercise addicted.
Brodie:Yeah. And just the topic like is exercise addiction detrimental to your running and you've just listed out a a clear, list of things that could definitely become detrimental if someone's trying to manage an injury but they have to exercise and exacerbates that injury can set you back from, you know, true like running potential for sure. And you did list a fair few mental impacts that might manifest itself as well. And I think you briefly touched on kind of not keeping to appointments, not sticking to like family commitments or relationship commitments because they're they're held up at the gym or, running that sort of thing. Is there any other elements or any other components of someone's daily life that might be impacted, if they are addicted to exercise?
Heather:Yeah. These are kind of like the key things, you know, you're giving up your, your, whether it's your work obligations or your family obligations, you know, if you have an exercise, then you may say, okay, I'm not showing up for the family dinner or I'm gonna show up late because I need to get this in because really it becomes the, the top, you know, priority for the individual. Also, what you begin to see are narrowing of of of interests and and oftentimes a lot of the interests are tend to focus around exercise or around the the activity that they're doing. So if they're not actually exercising, they may be reading about it or, you know, watching YouTube videos, you know, on it. So it really takes up a huge amount of their amount of their day.
Heather:Even if they're not physically out there exercising, oftentimes they're thinking about it or getting themselves ready, you know, for that for that activity. And and there's also this feeling of a loss of loss of control that they cannot, for whatever reason, you know, reduce, how much they're exercising, whether it's the duration or the or the intensity, you know, the intensity of it. And they they tend to have good good intentions, oftentimes saying, okay. I'm only going to, you know, let's say, go for for a 10 mile run. But they, for whatever reason, even though they intend to only do that, oftentimes, they will exercise longer than they've actually planned, you know, planned to planned to do, and they'll try to fit it in, you know, throughout the day throughout the day as well.
Heather:I had interviewed, a woman who I would classify as exercise, addicted, and she said that even when, for example, she would she would go to the bathroom. She would be in the bathroom doing squats and doing wall push ups, and then when she would be sitting down, she would be constantly, you know, constantly fidgeting because she felt that this type of movement was going to help for her help her overall exercise. She was really trying, you know, almost this obsession, trying to fit it in wherever you possibly wherever you possibly can.
Brodie:Wow. That's that's very extreme.
Heather:You know what? It it it is. It really it is. And it and you're thinking about, you know, individuals who who really it's it's an obsession and and a compulsion where they're constantly thinking about it in this constant need to, you know, need to move and to do it to do it more and more. It's important to note that try to make a distinction because you for example, often will be asked, you know, about athletes and because, you know, athletes typically, depending upon their level, are training, an extreme amount.
Heather:And does this mean that every athlete is addicted to exercise? No. By no means no means at all. You know, they've they've got very specific goals, and reasons for why they're doing that type of that that type of, training. And typically, you know, most athletes are are look forward to a day off, are able to take, you know, able to take time off.
Heather:And if they have an overused injury, they will stop and maybe do other types of other types of activities. Now it's not to state that someone who's an athlete can't be exercise addicted. They certainly can, but you need to take a look at the whole, you know, the whole context of, of what's going on. And it's important to make a distinction between in the literature, what we, from a science standpoint, where we try to provide a distinction between primary exercise addiction and then what we call secondary exercise addiction. So primary exercise addiction is in part largely what what we've been talking about.
Heather:Talking about, you know, for for at the start of this podcast, secondary exercise addiction is when somebody is exercising excessively, but it's secondary to to an eating disorder. Because, one of the components or potential components of an eating disorder is excessive exercise, which is used, either to try to lose weight or to or to maintain weight, so really to, to burn calories. So it's important to to to kinda provide that ex that, that distinction because if somebody has secondary exercise dependence, their excessive exercise is secondary to their to their eating disorder. So it's a method for them to to try to control or maintain, you know, maintain their weight. And to put it into perspective, for example, one individual, that I had that I interviewed had secondary exercise dependence.
Heather:So she had an eating disorder, and she would spend or try to spend most of her day doing any types of movements possible, to try to lose weight or maintain her weight. So she when she was sitting, she would be constantly fidgeting. When she was just standing, she would be, you know, doing, doing toe raises. For example, she'd even, like, tap her fingers constantly. Anything that she could do to try to, you know, try to, you know, get rid of extra extra calories through even these small types of of movement.
Heather:So it's important to know kind of that there's 2 distinct kind of categories of of exercise addiction also.
Brodie:Very interesting. And when when I think about the activities that someone could participate in, I think about running and I think probably like the gym goers, just because it's kind of like an open ended activity and those with exercise addiction can kind of just like it's as open ended they can just keep going and going and going. And you did draw a couple of examples with gym goers. Do you see any other activities or any other examples where someone can be addicted? Because if I think about team sports, like, you you play that team sport and then that game is over and, you know, there's there's, like, an end point where, you know, you you stop, you shake hands, and you go home.
Brodie:Are there any other common activities that you see people get addicted to?
Heather:You know, it's, it's a really good question. And you bring up kind of the team sports versus more of the individual sports. And typically with, you know, individual sports or individual activities, you know, potentially more of these endurance types activities where we come back to, like, let's say, biking, you know, and and, and running, we tend to see more or a larger prevalence of of exercise addiction within those types of activities because you don't need to rely, right, on on other individuals necessarily to be able to to go out and do this. If you're playing a team sport, then you have to rely, you know, rely on your your your teammates, to to be able to engage in the to be able to engage in that activity unless you're going in training, you know, by by yourself. But it tends to be more so with these, with the individual types of activities and more of the endurance types types of activities that we see more, more of what we classify exercise, addiction.
Heather:But you still see it, for example, in in the team type of activities. It's common also, for example, in in bodybuilding as as well and in weight training that you see a larger a larger prevalence occurring.
Brodie:Okay. I I wanna dive into, like personality traits because this is what I'm extremely interested in and I do know in past research there has been, some links between personality types and someone developing an injury and whether that be the type of personality that is like type a, like perfectionist who would, have, you know, extremely high standards for themselves, push themselves, less likely to take rest days. That sort of self driven self motivated personality. And that's what makes me think is they're an underlying personality that is more likely to become addicted to exercise because they elicit these same personality traits. Has there been any studies done or any research done or in your opinion, are there any characteristics or personality traits that might lead someone to become exercise addicted?
Heather:No. It's a great question, and and personality just in general is a fascinating area to to take a look at, and researchers have looked at just, you know, regular exercises. Is there a certain personality, or certain personality traits where individuals are more likely to exercise? And, yes, the research has has found that, and there has been, you know, some research also taking a look at, you know, exercise addiction and are you know, are there certain personality traits that maybe, you know, maybe, kind of differentiate? And, yes, we do we do find we do find that, and it's coming back to, and personality in and of itself is really difficult to difficult to define and measure.
Heather:But most of the research has taken a look at, what we call the big five personality traits, which consist of extroversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientious and what we call openness to experience. So those everybody falls along those 5 big traits, you know, whether they're high or low or right in the right in the middle. And what the research what we what the research finds is that individuals who tend to be high on extroversion. So extroversion is characterized by, having a lot of energy, being a a little bit more go outgoing, potentially, enjoying being with being with group in groups, finding that that tends to be, individuals who tend to score or tend to be more extroverted or more likely to, to exercise addiction and also individuals who score higher on neuroticism. So neuroticism tends to be, individuals who, are a little bit more excessive, a little bit more compulsive, tend to have mood swings a little bit more easily.
Heather:So maybe going from happy to sad, you know, quite, quite quickly. So we do know that individuals who score high on neuroticism are also, more likely to be exercise dependent in individuals who score low on the the personality trait of of agreeableness. So and it's kind of inherent within the, you know, within the title of the, of it, but individuals who, who are low on agreeableness tend to, be more argumentative, more confrontational, less likely to to, to get along with to get along with individuals. So by saying all of that, yes, there are some personality traits, and typically your personality traits, you can't really change them. They come they become fairly ingrained by the time we're, you know, in our early late teens, early early twenties.
Heather:So kind of the telltale ones are individuals who are higher on neuroticism and higher on extroversion and low lower on agreeableness tend to, tend to be more at risk or more likely to be, to be exercise, you know, exercise addicted.
Brodie:I have a scenario I wanna run by you because this is something that I see myself. I often like in the the early days of the podcast or when I was, appearing guests on other podcasts, I constantly said that sometimes runners don't make the right decisions. Sometimes they make stupid decisions, especially when it comes to injury and they would tend to run on a certain injury, make it worse and then once they're unable to run because it's so bad that's when they'd see a physio. But I had a bit of backlash and, several runners come to me and be like Brodie you don't understand like I might be injured but running is my only kind of positive mental health, like, outlet. It's sort of it's the only thing that gets me going.
Brodie:Like, I've got a busy life. I have to look after my kids. I've got such a like, it's constantly going, it's constantly stressful and running is the only stress relief that I have and I can't take that away. I can't replace that with something else. And so when I'm injured it's my only outlet so I need to continue running.
Brodie:My question was going to be like is that kind of on the similar similar grounds to exercise addiction and but what you're saying earlier if kind of like a loose definition if you're unable to stop or reduce this exercise then you might argue that this is kind of a similar trait to exercise addiction.
Heather:You know what? That's fascinating. And, yeah, you I I I could see how you get backlash, you know, you know, from this. And, and it it's challenging because we have, you know, these inventories, these self report inventories that will have individuals complete, and if they're scoring high, then we'll say, okay. They may be at risk, for exercise addiction.
Heather:The only way to really know is then you have to do, like, an interview with them, you know, with, you know, a mental health counselor to actually see what are the what are the driving the driving forces. And I would say, you know, these individuals, it would be difficult, unless they go through, you know, an interview to actually know specifically whether I'd say they're just extremely committed, exercises or they're actually exercise addicted because you can be really committed to it. And if all of a sudden you're not able to do it or taken away, whether you're addicted or or just a regular exercise, you're still gonna miss it. Right? Because it's part of your daily routine and it's, you know, sure it's going to be potentially a coping mechanism because even if you're a regular exerciser, oftentimes people are are drawn to to exercise and main and keep with it because it puts them in a better mood and it gets rid of their, you know, gets rid of their their stress and their their, their anxiety.
Heather:So that's really the the the challenge to because it's not just all of a sudden they go from being a regular exerciser to, you know, boom, they're they're exercise, you know, addicted. There's kind of this this fine line that that goes on. And I would say for for these individuals, potentially, they're just really committed exercises and all of a sudden they're not able to do something that they have done maybe, you know, for years, you know, years on years on on end and all of a sudden they're not able to, they're certainly going to miss it. But if they're addicted to it, then they're not gonna be able to cope, right, with with their day. They may continue to, engage in excessive exercise, exercise, you know, through, you know, through the through the pain, and that's really kind of the, the telltale the telltale signs.
Heather:And I've had several, you know, for example, several, of my, even my friends, for example, who, you know, over time, it you know, they get an overuse injury. I can see some of them are are able to take time off, others are not, and then the injury becomes even even worse. And those are the individuals that I become concerned about because they're not able to take that that time off. And they'll say, like, what you're you know, what what you've encountered that this is I'm a busy person. All I have is, you know, 45 minutes in the day, and this is my potentially my social time with my with my friends as well, and I I'm just not willing to, you know, I'm not willing to give it up.
Heather:So it becomes really difficult to actually pinpoint where that trigger is and where that almost that tipping point is going from regular exercise to excessive to potentially addicted.
Brodie:I'm glad you put you bring that point up because I think a lot of people will be listening to this and know a friend who who they think is exercise addicted, who goes to gym every day and, like, you know, just, is constantly working out. But they in reality, they might just be committed. And I think potentially, like, if this exercise addiction, term is, you know, rippling into the running community, it might actually be overused. Oh, yeah. They're exercise addicted.
Brodie:Oh, yeah. They're exercise addicted when, in fact, it might be just a habit. Like, they're just the the exercise itself. They're just fully committed. But the tipping point might be to, like you're saying, that those negative consequences start to to pile up and the ability to or the inability to stop that exercise is when it starts to tip over into that addiction spectrum.
Heather:Yeah. That's you know what? That's exactly you bring up an excellent point as the the term is probably overused. Right? Oh, that person's addicted to exercise because maybe they exercise every day.
Heather:And you know what? There's nothing wrong with exercising every day. It's probably a really for most people, it's a really it's a really healthy, you know, it's a really healthy thing. It's important to prioritize it in your day and to try to to try to fit it in because of all of the the health benefits. But it's for those small, you know, small few that it does, you know, cross the line and they are unable to stop.
Heather:And they're they're you know, I've known individuals that I that have participated in some of our studies that have lost their lost their jobs, lost their occupation because they're showing up late to work or they're leaving early or their their lunch break becomes longer and longer because they need to they need to exercise. And these are, you know, some of the, you know, some of the telltale, you know, telltale signs, you know, that that, you know, that are going on. Like, for example, this morning, you know, my my person, that I was going to run with texted me that she didn't sleep well and she wasn't going to run and, you know, so I thought about going by myself, but I didn't. And, you know, I can feel it during the day because in part, you know, I exercise because, yeah, it's a social aspect, but it also relieves my anxiety, my stress, and puts me in a better mood. And I could tell that I was just a little off today because I didn't go for my, you know, morning half hour half hour run.
Heather:Am I exercise addicted? No. But I certainly do, you know, do miss it when I when I didn't do it, but it doesn't, you know, it doesn't affect me to that to that to that absolute level. So I think it's important for people to to know that if you exercise, you know, regularly and, you know, if you take a day or 2 off, you're probably gonna feel it and you're probably gonna miss it, you know, miss it a little bit because it's something that you do on a continual basis, but that's okay. It's when it's taken to the the extreme.
Heather:So individuals who, I'd say, are exercise addicted and, you know, let's say, for example, they're they're on a flight and they're flying somewhere and their flight is their flight is delayed and they're stuck, you know, on the tarmac, you know, for hours on end, and they're not able to exercise, they are gonna experience what we say what would we classify as extreme withdrawal effects. They are going to be extremely agitated and irritated. They'll probably have a hard time concentrating and and functioning because they they haven't been able to exercise. Whereas the average person would would, well, probably be annoyed because they're on the plane for so long, but it wouldn't affect them to that extreme level.
Brodie:Yeah. Super interesting. I'm loving every every topic of this. I did, have written down actually, I might just dive into this. Are there any questions that someone might ask themselves or ways they can identify if they are addicted to exercise?
Brodie:Like, some perhaps maybe some questions to self reflect on?
Heather:Yeah. I think, you know, the the kind of the key, the key, you know, aspects when we're taking a look at it is not necessarily, you know, the amount of the amount of time, but are you giving up, you know, whether it's, you know, social, like, you know, obligations with family, friends, and work? Are you beginning to to give those up so that you can can get your exercise in? Are you exercising typically longer, or at more at higher intensity than you typically, intend to do, and are you exercising through, you know, through injuries as well? You know, the basically, the inability to, you know, to take to take a day off or take 2 days off.
Heather:And I know there's individuals and you'll see these websites of, you know, well, I have run for the last, you know, 500 days in a row. Well, that just because someone does that doesn't mean that they're exercise, you know, they're exercise addicted. They could be extremely goal oriented, you know, and very strategic, and and, you know, very be very conscientious, and and that's okay. It's the you know, if these in if these individuals who, let's say, ran 500 days straight, and got injured, are they able then to take take the time off? That's the that's the the key aspect.
Heather:So I really wanna get across that just because you're a committed exerciser does not by no means mean that you are addicted, you know, addicted to exercise.
Brodie:Yeah. And do you ever see any external influences? Like, do you ever come across maybe social media, like peer pressure, like certain devices, Strava, all these sort of things have an impact on exercise addiction?
Heather:Yeah. That's a great question. You know, and the the social media now that that's out there, you know, what we call the fitspirations or the fitspo. So it'd be a, you know, an image of someone typically who's, you know, hyper fit, and then some some, like, caption basically saying, you know, something extreme, like, you know, work through the pain, never take a day off, you know, just these extreme extreme types of messages are really giving the average person the wrong message about about exercise. But this for the most part, you know, we should be doing it for for largely for for health related, you know, health related, reasons.
Heather:And these images with these hyperfit individuals that represents, you know, those types of bodies are on, you know, you know, about 1%, you know, 1% of the population because not only do you need to be extremely fit, but you need to also be extremely, extremely thin as well, and that may not necessarily be healthy. And what's fascinating, the studies, that have shown individuals those types of image, those fit spirations, and then ask these individuals, you know, how they feel about exercise and how their mood is. It is continually found that after individuals take a look at these fitspirations, it actually has the opposite effect because individuals feel demoralized. They they're they're they're in a worse mood, they're more they're more anxious, because they take a look at these images and say, I I can't I can't achieve this, or this is what you need to look like to to be healthy. So, yes, I would say that, like, these types of images and and it's difficult, but people need to realize that for the most part, they're they're not realistic.
Heather:And, you know, at a minimum, try to, you know, try to hit the, you know, the the fitness or the physical activity, you know, guidelines of trying to, you know, exercise almost every day for about, you know, at least 30:30 minutes and try to stand more. Stand more during the during the day to be, you know, to to be healthy and that's really the the that's really ultimately the goal.
Brodie:Okay. And following on from, like, social media and devices, that kind of thing, do you see any common patterns with demographics, age, gender, culture, any similarities?
Heather:Yeah. You you're going to see it more in, you know, younger younger individuals that are on social media all the time, you know, whether it's, you know, Facebook, Instagram, you know, Snapchat, you know, TikTok, where they're bombarded, you know, with these, you know, with these images. And we do know that the longer somebody spends on their phone or on their, you know, their device looking at these types of images, the worse mood they're going to be and less in touch really with, you know, with with reality because this is not, you know, what you often see out there is not necessarily the, you know, the the reality. So I would encourage individuals to get off their get off their devices and just get out there and and get outside and go for go for a walk or run or whatever, you know, whatever activity, they may wanna do. And we're living in an age now where there is so much technology associated with with fitness.
Heather:And I see so many people out there, whether it's with a Fitbit or or they're exercising with their phone that will track, you know, the distance that they that they have that they have gone. And that's gonna be good, or bad. Right? When when individuals take it to to an extreme and say, well, yesterday, I, you know, I got 15,000 steps in, and today, I need to get more. And then it's this always trying to build on what they what they have done, you know, done the day before for certain individuals.
Heather:That can become detrimental as well.
Brodie:Okay. Yeah. That makes a whole lot of sense. And when when we're talking about, say, measuring your, like, health metrics, like, looking at your watch and seeing how far you've gone, how fast you've gone, what your heart rate's been like, you know, your heart rate zones, how many calories you've burnt, how many steps you're doing. Do you think someone who is addicted to exercise, do you think that device, and following those numbers can be detrimental?
Brodie:Or if that if that device is taken away and they just exercise without that, they're just gonna do exactly the same thing. Like, is the is the watch and the data, kind of feeding this addiction?
Heather:You know what? It can pit potentially can when it becomes that obsession and they're always looking at the looking at the numbers and needing to, you know, needing to have that have that type of of feedback, then that's when it certainly can become become detrimental. And one of the, you know, one of the challenges with somebody who who may be, you know, exercise addicted or engaging in excessive exercise is you don't want them to not, like, stop doing it. Right? Because exercise is one of the best things you can do for your health.
Heather:So it's really almost reframing how they think about the exercise to bring it back to a level that that is that is a healthy that is a healthy level. And this is one of the challenges, that we see with exercise as opposed to other types of, addictions, let's say, whether it's, you know, alcohol or drugs, for example, where you tried your smoking, where you try to do abstinence and not doing it at all, we don't want to accomplish that, right, with with exercise. So it's really a challenge to say, you need to you need to cut back, but we still want you to we still want you to do it. And that's really the the challenge because then we'll say, okay. Well, I'm going to cut back, but then they'll go and do it, and then they wanna do it even, you know, even more.
Heather:So that's one of the, you know, one of the challenges, you know, with with this type of addiction.
Brodie:Yeah. And I think the challenge is, like, identifying, like when does good become bad? When does like the the data, the social media, when is it helpful? When is it unhelpful? And I think that's where self reflection really does come into it and like asking yourself these questions or potentially taking a step back and looking back over the last 6 months, 12 months and think okay have I been running through an injury?
Brodie:Why am I running through an injury? Or am I, constantly pushing further and further and further and my other obligations and commitments are becoming a sacrifice and because they might not be able to see in that moment. They might not be able to look over the past couple of days or past couple of weeks and see a pattern, but then once they take a step back and see what's progressed over months months months, that's when they might see the level of importance or it might be teetering into an addiction. And they might not be able to magnet like, get the sense of magnitude of what the, how detrimental it could be. Would you agree with that?
Heather:I would definitely agree with that because oftentimes these individuals, you know, they may lack a self awareness to to know that they're actually doing it too much or maybe it's a gradual, you know, build up over the course of of a year or 2 where they continue to to exercise more and more, and that's where, you know, their close friends and family or maybe, individuals that they work with are, you know, be able to say, hey. Think that, you know, this is taken to taken to an extreme, but it's the question of do they even want to do they even wanna hear it. Like, for example, I had a a student, and this is dating back years ago in one of my, one of my graduate classes, and it was a a a 3 hour class. So we'd give periodic breaks for the for the students and also for myself. And I had one student that when we would have a 5, 10 minute break, would actually go and go for a run and sprint and do, like, sit ups and push ups.
Heather:And, you know, and that could potentially be okay, but this individual is also exercising before class and after class and first thing in the morning. So it was like every time this person could could move, the person would, you know, would move and would try to move, like, excessively. So and this individual didn't have self awareness that this was actually, an issue until some of the classmates actually pointed it out to her and then kind of having helping her to to reframe how she thought about exercise and bringing it down to a level that was that was healthier.
Brodie:That takes us perfectly into it. Our last kind of question or segment, which would be strategies to help. What could we do? And I understand that a tailored approach would be like beneficial. Like it's everyone would be different and tailoring a strategy would be different for everyone.
Brodie:But you did briefly talk a couple of times about this reframing what this exercise is and potentially pulling back if possible. Are there any other strategies that could help or just like generic strategies that could help exercise addiction?
Heather:Yeah. I think, you know, what's critical is creating the awareness. I would highly encourage somebody who thinks that they, maybe, exercising too much or exercise addicted to seek help with a clinical mental health counselor. And it's important to take a note of what's the distinction between, like, primary exercise addiction and secondary exercise addiction. I would say if somebody has secondary exercise addiction so that they have an eating disorder, then they certainly need to go and and get get help for the eating disorder, you know, 1st and foremost.
Heather:Right? Because that's the critical, you know, really the critical aspect and hopefully then the excessive exercise will also, you know, taper off to, to a more reasonable effect. But I would clearly say if someone thinks that they they may have have an issue, that first and foremost, they should seek out professional professional counseling, for it.
Brodie:Okay. Are there any questionnaires that exist, that we could potentially, like, quantify, you know, a certain level or maybe a possibility of exercise addiction in the future?
Heather:Yeah. Definitely. There's, there's a few, self report assessments that have been, you know, studied by scientists and and are are validated that have, like, cutoffs for whether somebody, what we'd say, would be at risk for for exercise addiction, and I can certainly share those with you if you'd wanna share those with your, you know, with your with your listeners. There is one called the exercise it's actually called the exercise addiction inventory, which is a really brief inventory that's very quick to, you know, to score that will give you a cutoff as to whether you may be at risk. Another one that's used a lot is the exercise dependent scale as well, which is kinda touching upon, you know, the these issues with, are you spending a lot of time exercising?
Heather:Are you, not able to not able to stop? Are you giving up, you know, obligations with your friends and family and really also cognitive aspects and how the individuals think about the exercise, you know, exercise as well. So, yes, I can share those if that would be helpful.
Brodie:Am I able just to Google it, look it up on
Heather:Oh, yeah.
Brodie:The Internet?
Heather:You probably Google. Yeah. The one of them is the what I recommend would be the exercise addiction inventory or the exercise dependent scale. And you should be able to pull those up if you if you Google them.
Brodie:Yeah. I think I'll look them up, and then I'll just add them to the show notes. Yeah I'll have a look that'll be very very helpful. Heather this has been incredible, I think this is something that hasn't been discussed like I've been working with runners for such a long period of time and I actually haven't ventured into the topic of exercise addiction and it has been super insightful. I've learned from every single question that I've asked.
Brodie:Before we finish up, are there any other takeaway messages or, advice you'd like to give to athletes, that we haven't touched on yet?
Heather:You know what? I I think, you know, I really enjoyed talking with you and sharing, you know, the knowledge that I've, you know, learned over the last, you know, 25, 25 years. I think for the most part, you know, to get it out to, to your listeners that that exercise and moving, whatever that may be, is one of the most important things you can do for your overall health. But anything, whatever it is, we can take it to to an extreme and it can become unhealthy. And for people to have awareness to know that there is for certain individuals that type of tipping point where it can become too much and then it becomes unhealthy.
Heather:And the sooner that individuals can get help for it, the better that they'll they'll be.
Brodie:Yeah. And when I think about addiction, you know, there's drug, alcohol, like gambling, like you said, and everything just contains some sort of dopamine hit or some sort of thing that makes you feel good and exercise is exactly the same in that effect. And like anything that has that hit of dopamine it can be excessive and it can start to have negative consequences. And I think just raising awareness around exercise addiction is a super helpful thing because people might be able to identify it in themselves or be able to flag it in others and perhaps like just start asking some questions and, start bringing that awareness to, to people's like consciousness. And I wanna thank you for coming on and the years years of research you've done on this topic because you're helping a lot of people.
Brodie:So thanks for sharing your knowledge and thanks for coming on.
Brodie:If you are looking for more resources to run smarter or you'd like to jump on a free 20 minute injury chat with me, then click on the resources link in the show notes. There, you'll find a link to schedule a call, plus free resources like my very popular Injury Prevention 5 Day Course. You'll also find the RunSmarter book and ways you can access my ever growing treasure trove of running research papers. Thanks once again for joining me, and well done on prioritising your running wisdom.