Exercise Addiction in Practitioners of Endurance Sports: A Literature Review

Abstract

Practice of endurance sports/activities has gained most devotees over recent decades, thanks to its capacity to maintain and improve health. However, their characteristics and accessibility have facilitated the emergence of addictive behaviors. Excessive practicing can lead to adverse physical and psychological effects seriously prejudicial to health, to the extent that individuals are unable to control this behavior. Recognizing that exercise addiction is still a controversial concept, the aim of the present review is to analyze the state of research into addictive exercise behaviors, specifically centering on running and endurance sports. To this end, a search covering article written in English and dated from 2010 onward was carried out in the Pubmed, Scopus, Web of Science and EBSCOhost databases. Of a total of 2,675 articles in the four databases, 25 were eligible for the final review. The studies reviewed confirmed that excessive practice could encourage the appearance of addictive behaviors and health problems. Most research has reported no age or sex differences in exercise dependence among endurance sport practitioners; however, obsessive passion and dedication to sports activities may be predictors for addiction to exercise. Owing to terminological confusion and the variety of tools used to measure addiction, figures for prevalence differ widely among studies, with values quoted ranging from 3 to 42%. Furthermore, it is clear that there are problems in delimiting, defining and diagnosing this sort of behavior, which has led to addiction to exercise not yet being considered a behavioral disorder.

Mental Recovery and Running-Related Injuries in Recreational Runners: The Moderating Role of Passion for Running

“…Finally, since obsessive passion is considered to be one of the key predictors for exercise addiction [42], our results are also consistent with research on exercise and running addiction (e.g., [42][43][44][45]). Exercise addiction can be defined based on the same criteria used to define other addictive behaviors including tolerance, withdrawal, lack of control, time, reduction in other rewarding activities, and continuance despite negative outcomes [46].…”

“…Exercise addiction can be defined based on the same criteria used to define other addictive behaviors including tolerance, withdrawal, lack of control, time, reduction in other rewarding activities, and continuance despite negative outcomes [46]. Of all the types of sports studied, endurance sports such as long-distance running are those showing the greatest risk of addiction [42,43]. For example, runners who find they need to run more to experience the same positive neuropsychological effects (e.g., runners high), experience irritability or even depression when unable to run, find that running time interferes with responsibilities in other domains (e.g., work or family), or exercise despite RRIs may have an addictive-like relation with exercise [47].…”

The relationship between food addiction and patterns of disordered eating with exercise dependence: in amateur endurance athletes

“…Prevalence for EXD is 0.5-3.5% in the general population [22] and up to > 50% within triathletes [23]. Some research groups also describe pathological excessive exercise as 'exercise addiction' [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32]. Prevalence for exercise addiction is 0.3-42% in various samples [25,30].…”

“…Some research groups also describe pathological excessive exercise as 'exercise addiction' [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32]. Prevalence for exercise addiction is 0.3-42% in various samples [25,30]. Both terms, EXD and exercise addiction may in fact represent a similar, or even the same, phenomenon of pathological excessive exercise [33,34].…”

Imagen Corporal y Obesidad mediante las Siluetas de Stunkard en Niños y Adolescentes Indios de 8 a 15 Años

“…Actualmente el cuidado del físico y la imagen corporal es un hecho de gran relevancia social (Cantón, 2016;Chacón et al, 2016;León, González, Fernández, & Contreras, 2018;Meneses, & Moncada, 2008;Morrison, Kalin y Morrison, 2004;Nogueira, Salguero, & Márquez, 2017;O'Dea y Abraham, 2000). En la infancia y sobre todo en la adolescencia aparecen multitud de problemas de autoestima derivados de la gran cantidad de cambios que experimenta el cuerpo en esas edades.…”