I Don't Have a Disorder, I'm an Athlete

by Paula

I cannot tell you how tired I am of the comments about how much and how often I workout. Yes, I do want to keep my body looking nice, but that is not the only reason that I workout so much.

I have been told recently that I am “workout anorexic.” This makes me laugh!!!! There is a disorder called anorexia athletica, which is when somebody feels like they have to workout constantly, and they feel guilty if they do not workout. These people are addicted to exercise.

Yes, I enjoy working out, and I workout compulsively, but only because I am an athlete. I am not working out for the soul purpose of burning off all the calories I intake. I do not exercise the perfect body! Don’t get me wrong, I would like to have a perfect body, but this is not why I log so many hours in the gym.

I also hear quite frequently that I am wasting my time working out for more than an hour a day. This would be true if I were focusing on cardio only for more than an hour, or if I was focused on weight training for more than an hour. The truth is, weight training and cardio make up only an hour at the most of my workouts everyday. The rest of my workouts are focused on sport specific drills.

A marathon runner runs for more than an hour a day and they also incorporate cross-training and weightlifting into their workouts. A gymnast trains for more than an hour a day. The gymnast must spend several hours in the gym in order to train for all the different events they participate in. The same is true for me. I need to condition (cardio and weights), I need to spend time training for sparing, I need to spend time training forms, and I need to spend time training with my weapons. There is no way I could accomplish this in less than 60 minutes a day.

I may be a little crazy because I love to workout, but I do not have a workout disorder. I may work my tail off, but doesn't every successful athlete?

Anorexia athletica is a serious disorder, and if you know somebody who spends their days focused on working out only to achieve a certain body image, please get them help.