Exercise and fitness have drastically grown in popularity in past years, and I admit that I myself love exercising and going to the gym. Not only does exercise have benefits to physical health, but sources across the world report that exercise can also benefit mental health.
According to HealthDirect Australia, regular exercise can “reduce stress, boost memory, and reduce symptoms of mental health conditions.”
As a fitness-enjoyer, I couldn’t agree with this statement any less, as exercise often helps me reduce stress I experience or simply get a breath of fresh air, but I can’t say that this is true for all people. Why? In some cases, exercise can have adverse effects on mental health.
First, let’s look at exercise’s effects on the average gym-goer. Like stated by Healthdirect, consistent exercise can help reduce symptoms of mental health illnesses, but I believe that there is a condition to this statement, being the amount of exercise. Regular and consistent exercise is in almost all cases, beneficial on all levels, looking at both physical and mental health.
According to MedlinePlus, exercise can help people maintain healthy weights, reduce risks of heart disease and strengthen muscles. Exercising has many benefits, yet when intervals and schedules of working out become uncontrolled and excessive, that’s when the adverse effects occurs.
Physical injuries often occur from overtraining. According to Mayo Clinic, “exercising for too long or simply doing too much of one type of activity can strain your muscles and lead to an overuse injury.”
As a past athlete myself, I have personally experienced injuries from overtraining, specifically in my shoulder after playing water polo for two years. Overuse injuries are just one of the many injuries that can occur when exercising, and the gym’s unpredictability when it comes to injuries makes care for your body all the more important.
We as a society have asked ourselves, “Can exercise help improve mental health conditions?” But now that we know they can, we should ask the opposite, “Can exercise worsen mental health conditions?”. As for answering this question literally, I think the answer is no–regarding the question of the possibility of mental health worsening from exercise. However, I do think that exercise can cause the development of mental health illnesses.
According to the International OCD Foundation, muscle dysmorphia is characterized by “beliefs that one’s body is not sufficiently muscular and large enough, over valuing appearance, [and] intrusive negative thoughts about one’s body that leads to distractibility and difficulty focusing attention”. Body dysmorphia is one of the unfortunately common mental health conditions associated with the fitness and gym community, and stigma surrounds the disorder. From this, eating disorders can further develop, as muscle dysmorphia often causes irrational actions, such as overconsumption of protein, something I personally struggled with.
Furthermore, looking at sports and athletes, whether youth or professional, exercising can have its adverse effects on mental health. The pressures of games and meets, fan culture, even coaches can all worsen pre-existing mental health conditions in athletes, including anxiety, or later cause them to develop. VeryWellMind defines performance anxiety as “when stress is… caused by an athlete’s high expectations and the added pressure of being observed by onlookers“, and many athletes, including myself, have experienced this phenomenon. The physical health of athletes, which is often in peak condition, does not always correlate to their mental health.
None of this information is meant to discourage or scare anyone from getting into the gym, exercising, or sports, but rather, to promote balance and mindfulness when exercising. Exercise is undoubtedly beneficial to mental health, but it’s a tool to be used with caution.
