Gyms Urged To Help Get Over-exercisers Off Treadmill
The Sunday Age
Sunday September 2, 2007
FITNESS trainers and gym workers should be trained to recognise clients who are compulsively over-exercising, says a leading sports psychologist.
Jacqui Louder, the Victorian chairwoman of the College of Sports Psychologists, said trainers were ideally placed to recognise the growing problem of adolescent exercise compulsion and related conditions.These included the eating disorders anorexia nervosa and bulimia, and muscle dysmorphia, a form of compulsive exercise in which victims seek unrealistic muscle bulk.Gyms operators had a "duty of care" to people showing symptoms of these conditions, Ms Louder said. "(Trainers) are really in a position to say to a person who seems to be doing a lot of cardio work that they might want to balance it up with some weight training, and if there is significant resistance to the idea, that should signal some alarm bells," Ms Louder said.She said bulimia candidates, who vomited and then exercised, were at significant risk of dehydration and fainting on treadmills. Help-line numbers and other forms of useful information about the conditions should be available in fitness centres. Anorexia and muscle dysmorphia mostly affected teenagers who were victims of bullying or undergoing significant change, such as parental divorce or moving schools, she said. Young adults often suffered from the problems during times of transition, such as starting university, work or when other parts of their lives felt out of control.Dr Stephen Touyz, co-director of the Peter Beumont Centre for Eating Disorders in Sydney, said adolescents were the highest risk group for suffering an eating disorder, with one in 100 at risk.Health professionals are working on combating the growing problem of compulsive exercising and eating disorders.Craig Knox, the state manager of Fitness Victoria, said its members, which include commercial and community fitness centres and personal training businesses, could subscribe to a voluntary code of conduct. Under that code, customers needed to complete a pre-exercise screening questionnaire and exercise could not continue without medical advice if a medical condition were discovered."Fitness professionals are not qualified to identify medical conditions; however, there is potential to increase awareness raising through professional development courses for staff and information provision for consumers," Mr Knox said.Dr Touyz said anorexia had the highest death rate of any psychological condition - even higher than that of schizophrenia or depression. Twenty per cent of patients diagnosed with anorexia nervosa died as a result of the condition.He said there were two kinds of over-exercising - a more formal exercise program and also an involuntary movement that patients seemed to have little control over.Many anorexia patients were worried they would become overweight if they stopped exercising, and needed to learn how to safely exercise.Many psychologists now realised the importance of re-training anorexia patients to understand healthy exercise, as well as healthy eating, Dr Touyz said. Sydney University, in a joint project with an English university, was creating a program for clinicians to treat patients that involved "safe" exercising, he said.St Vincent's hospitals in Melbourne and Sydney are working on an internet-based program to help secondary school students understand how distorted body image happens and its warning signs.Professor David Castle from the Body Image Disorders Clinic at St Vincent's in Melbourne said he hoped the program would be piloted in Melbourne schools next year and would then spread nationally."Our culture is also sports mad and there is an unrealistic expectation to have an elite level of sporting prowess," Dr Castle said."This is compounded by the obesity message and the stigmatisation of that, but if you are going to keep on selling that message, you have to temper that message for a small portion of the population that has a distorted view the other way."
© 2007 The Sunday Age