Sports addiction: watch out for excess!

A recent study by researchers from the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm) reveals that overtraining, which affects many high performance athletes, induces brain consequences similar to excessive cognitive stimulation.

Sport is good for health. But if you are a top athlete or an amateur sportsman who shows a very intense and regular practice, maybe he is not that good. The symptoms sports overtraining are easily identifiable: drastic drop in performance and asthenia chronic. A recent study therefore sought to understand what would cause a stimulation excessive sporting in professional athletes. The experiment was funded by the French agency to fight against doping.

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Athletes are also at greater risk of developing eating disorders, especially in aesthetic sports or those concerned with weight categories. It is strongly advised to be followed by a multidisciplinary team comprising a dietitian and a psychologist to avoid this type of pathology which can ruin the quality of life and performance of athletes.

A unique experience

For their study, scientists recruited 37 triathletes, all volunteers and free from health problems. The latter were randomly separated into two groups: one group would undergo standard training for nine weeks, while the others would see the intensity and duration of training increase by 40%. During the experiment, the athletes underwent imaging examinations at resonance functional magnetic (fMRI) So that we can study their brain activity as well as behavioral questionnaires. Small downside to the study: the participants all had access to free food and drink. With the fundamental role that nutrition plays on good recovery, one wonders to what extent this influences the results, given that the participants were not subjected to the same diet.

Too much sport or work: same fight?

What experience tells us is that sports overtraining induces a drop in activity in terms of prefrontal cortex lateral. This area is fundamental for cognitive control and a drop in activity is manifested by impulsiveness and inconsistency in decisions regarding sports goals. But excessive sport is not the only way to reduce the activity of this area of ​​the cortex. Overwork, Which usually ends with the infamous " burnout Can also be the cause. In our current society, constantly turned towards performance, we can wonder if an explosion of burn-out cases will appear if we are not careful to prevent the installation of a burn-out caused by too much work. , too much sport or sometimes both at the same time.

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