This post is about the gym but bear with me for a minute while I set things up…

I have an addictive personality no doubt, some would even say obsessive at times (you know who you are).  I’m certainly not alone, according to “Prevalence of the Addictions: A Problem of the Majority or the Minority?” some 47% of Americans suffer from maladaptive signs of an addictive disorder. 

From my perspective, without doing any research, I believe there are only main ways to deal with this character trait, either control it or let it control you.  Let’s start with the latter, these are the kinds of things that become front and center for those who don’t take control:

• Alcohol
• Drugs
• Food (eating disorders)
• Gambling
• Work (loss of work life balance)

Now if you have the self-awareness and the control to harness this condition, I think you will find that these focus areas can help you achieve incredible things in these areas (just listing a few!):

• Professional life
• Academics
• Healthy eating
• Fitness
• Sports
• Self-development (reading, seminars, certifications, etc.)

I recently taught a class on Happiness and my opening slide was a list of my achievements in these areas.  I can tell you that after putting it together it was a little embarrassing and highlighted what people like me sometimes get labeled when they harness these “powers” for good… an overachiever 🙂

OK, so this post is about the gym, right?  Let’s focus on fitness and addiction/obsession.  I’ve been a gym rat for 35 years and I think it’s safe to say that I’m addicted, OK, obsessed. Hitting the gym has always been a high priority for me but in the last ten years or so I’ve made it job #1. That doesn’t mean I ignore other aspects of life, I have just adopted the mentality that to accel in other areas of life, my mind and body need to be at their very best.  And, for me, that means working out 6-7 days per week. Sometimes 2x per day.  This is entirely possible, without suffering the effects of overtraining, if you program your routines accordingly.  By that I mean rotate muscle groups, include active recovery days, include lots of variety (strength, cardio/HIIT) and of ceruse focus on sleep and eating right. And, of course, always change up your program every so often. We all know Einstein’s definition of insanity, right??

Now we can talk about when an obsession such at this, even done right, can lead to mediocrity at the gym if you forget that you’re dealing with obsession.  For me getting to the gym every day is top of mind but of course is only beneficial to a point – and I’m not talking about overtraining.  That’s a whole other blog topic.  I’m talking about what happens, for me at least, when I’m recovering from an injury or even a common cold.  When I’m forced to miss 3 or more days from the gym, I get anxious.  A break from such a high priority routine for me is very disruptive.

What I find, and I learned about this phenomenon somewhere maybe getting my CSCS or MS in Sports Performance, I don’t remember. Could have been advice from my last trainer too.  But it was called something like “the trap of the medium intensity workout” or as I call it “How Obsession Can Lead to Mediocrity”

Here’s what happens:  Following time off I have a built-in urgency to get to the gym every day.  Usually, the first day is a little tough depending on what I’m coming back from, but I power through with less intensity and/or volume just to satisfy my need to be there. Rinse and repeat.  This is the trap, a compelling desire to get back in that sometimes can be hard to recognize because it feels like I’m doing the right thing but in reality, I’m hurting my recovery from “whatever” forced my time off.  Suddenly, I’ve had two weeks of mediocre workouts because my addiction blinds me to the fact that I’m making no progress because I’m too obsessed the need to get to the gym as opposed to results.

Luckily, the answer is simple self-awareness.  Sometimes I don’t catch it happening though but when I do, I take a few days off and then when I start back up, I usually find myself pleasantly surprised with my strength (endurance not so much LOL).  And it usually only takes a few days to return to normal, so I end up wondering why I didn’t do it sooner!

This is happening to me right now, as I write this post, so I thought I would share for anyone else who falls into this trap. 

Happy training!