Extreme exercise has never been more popular. There are more people entering challenging events such as triathlons and ultra marathons and hardcore exercise trends such as cross fit are becoming mainstream.
But while many claim their new found passion was inspired by the love of it, a new study suggests that there is another reason that we’re all obsessed with exercise –– and more about feeling in controls than actually enjoying the sweat.
According to Keisha Cutright, co-author of the study published in the Journal of Consumer Research, feelings of overwhelm make people push themselves harder, so that they can feel more in control of another aspect of their life – exercise.
“Consumers actually look to products that require hard work to restore their belief that they can drive their own positive outcomes,” she told Time Magazine. .
Cutright says demands from work and family as well as more general pressures such as the economy, could all lead to feeling out of control. High intensity workouts and training for extreme events can bring back a “feeling of empowerment,” she says.
Sports psychologist Dr Joann Lukins says that the finding does not surprise her. “People often describe to me how constant their work environment is, how it doesn’t seem as if any tasks are ever fully completed, that there is always more to do. The beauty of these high intensity events is that it offers us an opportunity for mastery and completion – a sense of achievement,” she explains.
So is exercise obsession born from lack of control a worrying trend? Dr Lukins doesn’t think so. “I would far rather hear about people challenging themselves physically and psychologically through physical activity than they spend the whole weekend on the couch,” she says.
But Dr Lukins also notes that anyone taking part in extreme exercise needs to be careful. “It is important that people are sensible with regards to their training, hydration, nutrition, rest when preparing for such events,” she says.
Ex-Olympian and sports coach Stephanie Prem warns that using exercise to re-gain a sense of control can backfire if overdoing it leads to injury. Something she experienced herself when she retired from competitive snowboarding. “I was always an ‘over trainer’ and when I retired due to injury I found it insanely hard to get my head around the idea of not training every day,” she says.
Prem says it took years to realise that pushing herself too hard led to renewed injury. “I think people (myself included) don’t understand their limits until they are broken,” she says.
The risk for some people, says Prem, is that an injury could mean no exercise at all. “It can be a bad thing if the person does not have another outlet. I believe this can lead to other obsessive habits which can be far worse a threat than exercise.”
For others the pursuit of extreme exercise as a means for gaining control is a positive thing. Fitness blogger Zoey Martin started running as a way to gain more control in her life when she experienced a period of severe depression. “Everything could be completely out of control but I could go out and run for an hour. Running gave me something to hang on to, a habit when things were not good.”
A year after taking up running seriously in 2013, Martin has completed seven half marathons and is now training for her first full marathon. She has been able to stop taking anti-depressants.
While Martin acknowledges that there is an “element of control” in her training, she also thinks that there is a bit more to it.
“It’s also about choosing something that grounds you and connects you and gets you out of your head,” she says.