A specific addiction that interests me is student athlete’s abuse of and addiction to exercise. Addiction to exercise is unique because it is based on the need to repeat healthy action in an unhealthy manner. When abused, the fatigue that comes along with exercise addiction can lead to injury. Also, addiction to exercise can lead people into making extremely unhealthy choices. The addiction to exercise has made the student-athletes of this generation more prone to injury, and susceptible to bad study habits. Think about this, how often when you walk around at school, do you see fatigued students in the gym, the classroom, and in their sport? The answer is too often. Student-athletes have little to no free time and resort to abusing exercise for endorphin boosts
.“Exercise addiction is thought to afflict an estimated 3% of regular gym-goers (Monok et al., 2012). This figure, however, seems to vary based on the population studied, the type of physical activity, and the level of competition. For example, amongst sports science, university students the risk of exercise addiction jumps to almost 7% (Szabo & Griffiths, 2007). When it comes to runners, some research suggests 25% of amateurs qualify as exercise addicted, with the prevalence doubling to 50% in marathon runners (Anderson, Basson, & Geils, 1997). And, among triathletes, the prevalence of exercise addiction has been found to top 52% (Blaydon & Lindner, 2002).”This statistic is important because it proves athletes are more prone to addiction. This shows that the more competitive an athlete is in their sport, the more exercise dominates their life. When exercise dominates an athlete’s life, athletes have less time to socialize and relax. This is bad because athletes need to have a healthy balance of life, especially student-athletes, who need to study and perform in the academic world as well. Exercise addiction results in behaviors that make individuals consume more time than necessary being obsessive about training. “as with other addictions, the attempt to exert control eventually leads to a loss of control over the ability to balance the activity with other priorities in life.”.
This is relevant for student-athletes, and their attempt to exert control over their stressful lives while they are losing the ability to manage a healthy balance between academics, athletics, and rest/recovery. Our Nation has found a way to make fun of people, for using athletics as their only free time. Maybe you have heard the phrase that student-athletes are “always on the grind”. The physical demand of student-athletes is incredible. For example, in this image from NCSA sports.org, it is evident, that student-athletes are overstimulated and are abused into becoming addicted to exercise from exercising on a day to day basis. Nowhere on this schedule do I see time for relaxation and mindfulness. Exercise is taking over these athlete’s lives, and taking away from socialization and rest. This sounds like an addiction to me. As seen in this image, the athletes have no free time. The NCAA abuses student-athletes by consuming their time and energy and relies on them getting endorphin boosts from exercise rather than socialization and relaxation. By giving a player no free time, these athletes turn to use exercise to stabilize their endorphins. This is bad because it teaches a player to be rewarded for getting fit, rather than getting physically ready to play. Exercise addiction in NCAA sports can simply be characterized by “intention effects: consistently going beyond the intended amount”; For example, when the trainer says to do an extra set to become the starter, even though you have already fatigued. Exercise addiction can also be characterized with “time consumption: when a great deal of time is spent preparing for, engaging in, and recovering from exercise;” All athletes suffer from this, and most are pressured to do more and recover less. And “reduction of activity in other activities: as a direct result of exercise social, occupational, and/or recreational activities occur less often or are stopped;” As seen in the following quote, student-athletes don’t have the ability to study and focus on their intended major. “They’re individuals who need to maintain an equal balance between work and life because their job on campus is to perform highly in and out of the classroom. Each day, they are extremely occupied to a point where they must utilize any slight free time very strategically and exert it for beneficial use.
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The daily life for a college athlete is extremely busy and routine-oriented. Unlike a student who is not a member of a collegiate team, the college athlete must use their time wisely and capitalize greatly on moments where they can sit and complete their academic work” Student-athletes in Division 1 football, are being abused physically for money, and are not given adequate time to rest and recover. The NCAA forces student-athletes to obsess overtraining with little or no free time . The inability to have free time for psychological relaxation is obviously unhealthy and is taking away from students’ abilities to explore their academic interests. This unhealthy schedule is challenging human nature, and forcing student-athletes to find enjoyment in surviving a taxing schedule. The athletes are rewarding their brains for the wrong reason. They need to have psychological relaxation, so the brain stimulates the reward system on the field instead. We need to integrate a rest period into this schedule so that rather than allowing a student-athlete to find enjoyment in lifting, they can find enjoyment during their relaxing periods so that they can put all effort into playing the game they love.
As we learned throughout this unit in psychology, addiction challenges human nature in many different ways. Addiction is defined as “the need to trigger the brain’s reward system by repeating a certain action, or event.” The addiction to exercise is unique because it is influenced by us in so many ways by trainers and coaches in college sports. As college sports have evolved, so has the need for peak physical fitness. Just like it is said in Bigger faster Stronger, “The greatest athletes in American history, all became addicted to exercise because of the way it freed daily stressors from their jobs.” The NCAA needs to combat addiction to exercise and introduce healthy recovery time periods so that student-athletes can expend proper energy in playing the sport they love and have energy left over for normal daily functions such as socialization and academics.
One of the underlying bad behaviors exemplified by people with exercise addiction is “Engaging in the behavior even though it’s causing physical harm.” This often is accompanied by ignoring consequences. People addicted to exercise, often reach their peaks in weightlifting very quickly, because they are committed to a program, but when they go above and beyond what is recommended for them, they step into something my trainer Eddie Doty calls the danger zone. When someone enters the danger zone, they are at high risk for injury. This is because they are pushing themselves past their abilities in their current state of fatigue. If student-athletes were aware of this, they could put proper energy into training and have the ability to save energy for football. An exercise addict would walk into the danger zone and proceed to get injured, a smart student-athlete would take the next set down a notch to prevent injury and still reap benefits. Another bad behavior exemplified by people with exercise addiction is “reducing activities in other areas of life to make time for exercise” This is most evident when people are in crisis and trying to use exercise as a way of stress reduction. For example, if a student missed two tackles during his game, maybe you would find him in the gym during his lunch hour doing an extra shoulder workout. Spending too much time with exercise, “can cause an energy imbalance (between the amount of energy consumed and the amount of energy expended during exercise). If you’re in an energy deficit for an extended period of time it can cause many health issues,” Spendlove said..” These health issues could prevent a student-athlete from performing at their highest level, and keep them off the field. People become diagnosed with exercise addiction when their behavior begins to become detrimental to personal health. This can be diagnosed when secondary traits such as eating and obsessive disorders become evident”. There are two types of exercise addiction.
The first addiction: Primary addiction, is when repeating the physical activity serves as gratification itself. This is more common with men”. And “secondary addiction: primary addiction paired with an eating disorder. This is more common with women.” “Both types of addiction result in compulsive behavior disorders.” “Compulsive disorders, as a type of anxiety disorder, are maintained primarily by negative reinforcement through anxiety reduction. For a student-athlete, added pressure to perform can cause them to turn to use exercise compulsively.Men and women who are division one athletes can both successfully defeat exercise addiction. The added pressure to abuse exercise, to maintain a 200,000-300,000 scholarship might cause a student to break their program formula for success. With trusting in the process, a student-athlete can add more time for recovery in their life, and avoid doing the extra work that could set them up for injury and fatigue. Coaches and trainers all have a formula for success that needs to be strictly followed.
