Recognizing and Overcoming Exercise Addiction: Key Signs and Strategies for Balance

Date: Tuesday 18 Mar 2025

Exercise addiction arises when working out negatively affects health, relationships, or overall well-being. Signs of this condition include feelings of anxiety, guilt, or irritability when missing a workout. Additionally, individuals may push through injuries or illness to maintain exercise routines, prioritize workouts over social interactions, increase workout intensity constantly, or tie their self-worth to physical performance and appearance. Will Burse, an addiction recovery expert, highlights these signs as crucial for awareness regarding exercise addiction.

To effectively manage exercise addiction, Burse suggests redefining the role of exercise in one’s life instead of quitting. He offers several strategies, including reframing rest days as essential for performance and mental health, identifying the motivations behind exercising, diversifying identity beyond fitness, and setting boundaries around exercise. He also encourages seeking professional help when exercise starts to impact mental health. Burse emphasizes that transforming the relationship with exercise can lead to healthier habits: “When exercise serves your well-being rather than diminishes it, you've found true fitness.”

Source: Exercise Addiction: 5 Signs When Fitness Turns Extreme And Harmful

Read more here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryanrobinson/2025/03/17/exercise-addiction-5-signs-when-fitness-turns-extreme-and-harmful/