Addiction to sport: what consequences?

Since the confinements, more and more French people have taken up sport. However, specialists are beginning to warn of the risks due to excessive physical activity, both for the body and for the brain.

It’s proven, whatever our age and our physical condition, sport is good for our health! It has a thousand virtues for our heart, our arteries, our breath, our muscle tone, our weight, our sleep and our mood… The WHO recommendation is to practice at least two hours of sport per week.

However, practicing excessive physical activity can conversely be disastrous for our body and our mind! Answers with Doctor Victoria Tchaikovsky, sports doctor and expert for Compex.

The overtraining syndrome

We talk about overtraining when the person practices their sport on a daily basis for several sessions a day and especially without a muscle recovery period. And the first risk of overtraining is obviously injuries. “Every time you do an intense activity, explains doctor Victoria Tchaikovsky, you create micro-lesions in the muscles. 

If we do not allow ourselves a recovery time of at least 24 hours (so that the body produces new cells and repairs them) these micro-lesions will turn into real lesions – visible on the images – and cause pain during sports sessions but also in everyday life. »

Muscle injuries can be of different grades. They can be benign, from simple aches or contractures, to more serious like elongation, to very serious like complete muscle tearing!

Specific injuries

We can take the example of the amateur sportsman, who despite the pain and the contracture persists in going to play his tennis match and end up ending up after an hour with a breakdown! “With overtraining, continues the sports doctor, there is also a decrease in vigilance, which means that the athlete controls his balance and proprioception less well and therefore risks more injury. » Injuries depend on the age and physical condition of the person but also on the discipline: thus the cyclist is more exposed to knee problems, the runner has knee and/or ankle problems and the swimmer shoulder tendonitis… However, there are injuries typically linked to overtraining, called stress fractures or fatigue fractures. The athlete's fracture does not result from a sudden shock but appears when the bone is badly or overstressed.

Diversified symptoms

These bone tissue lesions generally concern the bones supporting the weight of the body (hip, tibia, patella, femur and bones of the foot) and occur in the event of very intense practice, a somewhat abrupt resumption of sport, lack of rest or even a lack of progressiveness, “that is to say, specifies doctor Victoria Tchaikovsky, too great an increase in load. If a runner, for example, is used to running 5 km at the weekend, and suddenly decides to ramp up and prepare for a marathon in a month, he is bound to be exposed to the occurrence of problems such as stress fracture. ! On the other hand, excessive sport inevitably leads to overwork of the body, which is manifested by a whole host of general symptoms and which are not always associated with too intense a practice, such as fatigue. , irritability, headaches…

A weakened body

…difficulty concentrating, sleep disturbances, palpitations, joint inflammation, persistent pain and reduced immunity. “The body is so exhausted, notes Dr. Tchaikovsky, focused on tissue repair that it no longer has the strength to fight against all infections. There is a real drop in immunity which means that the person will be more susceptible to ENT infections such as colds, angina... and therefore to be sick more often. 

And if it is proven that sport is beneficial for the libido, conversely, too much sport leads to sexual problems, especially in men erection problems. On the other hand, recent studies show that excessive sport would harm our cerebral capacities, in particular cognitive control, causing impulsivity and perhaps even a burn-out syndrome!

Bigorexia, quesaco?

Finally, the famous hormones of happiness which are secreted during exercise and which provide well-being and a form of ecstasy, can lead the athlete to a compulsive practice that is longer and longer and more and more intense, in other words to an addiction called bigorexia. This is why it is crucial that the athlete remains vigilant in the face of his practice.

 “Above all else, reminds the sports doctor, you have to listen a lot to your body, which gives signs of alarm. We worry when there are repeated injuries, persistent pain, fatigue, headaches, lack of sleep, difficulty recovering, vulnerability to infections... and if we has, despite intensive training, the feeling of being less and less efficient and effective. »

Optimize rehabilitation

You suffer from osteoarthritis, from Fllias, a biomechanic by training, K-Invent is a Montpellier company that designs, develops and manufactures for health professionals (physiotherapists, sports doctors, orthopedic surgeons, etc.) and sports professionals , support solutions for athletes undergoing rehabilitation. Connected objects which aim to optimize the rehabilitation of patients (for example by measuring muscular, cardiac or respiratory activity) but also and above all to evaluate their progress and make their sessions more engaging and motivating.

Indeed, all the athlete's data, thanks to sensors, is collected on an application, which allows a very personalized follow-up!

Rehabilitation to practice

Treatment consists of a more or less long period of rest and treating injuries when there are any. Then to question the person about his practice, to guide him on the intensity and to accompany him, through different protocols, on the resumption of his sport. Amateur athletes are the most affected by this syndrome. Top athletes are indeed regularly subjected to overtraining screening questionnaires in order to minimize the occurrence of problems.

For amateurs, the advice of doctor Victoria Tchaikovsky is therefore to consult as soon as possible from the slightest sign, of course to avoid all doping and all self-medication which can sometimes prolong or even aggravate injuries!

With in particular anti-inflammatories: recent studies have shown that if these substances are taken in the first 48 hours after a sprain, the ligament takes longer to heal!