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Playing sports is one thing, but becoming addicted to a daily practice lasting several hours is another. This is called bigorexia, a condition recognized by the World Health Organization.
From 5 am, Sandrine gets on her exercise bike. “It’s 40 minutes, it’s high intensity”, confides the latter. She works out six days a week. For 20 years the university teacher has also run at least two marathons a year. “It’s true that it may sound like addiction”, she admits, even if she assures us that “do not encroach on [s]in professional or private life “. In the evening, she finds her athletics club in Angers (Maine-et-Loire). Passionate people like her come to secrete endorphins, hormones produced by the body during exercise.
Servane Heudiard, she does 5 hours of sport a day. “You shouldn’t hang out with me when I haven’t done my sports sessions during the day”, she warns. She is dependent on physical activity, a disease called bigorexia, recognized for ten years by the World Health Organization. “Exactly like a drug addict who hasn’t had his dose”, she describes. After several accidents caused by fatigue, she has eased off a bit, and is now writing a book to confide in. “I wanted to take the plunge to help everyone in my situation”, she says. How do you spot excessive practice? “If it is a user, he realizes it when he has injuries, (…) when those around him make comments to him”, notes Doctor Dan Véléa, psychiatrist and addictologist. Today, 15% of professionals or amateurs suffer from bigotry.