Balancing workouts with a busy schedule full of work, family, friends, and chores requires careful planning and mental effort. It’s important to schedule your runs, spin classes, or strength training sessions in advance to ensure they happen. However, have you considered the impact of constantly thinking about exercise on your overall well-being?
The emergence of GLP-1 receptor agonist medications like Ozempic has brought attention to the concept of “food noise.” This term refers to obsessive thoughts about food, eating, and diet, which can be quelled by these medications. Similarly, constant thoughts, worries, and pressures about physical activity, exercise routines, and appearance can be classified as “exercise noise.”
Could exercise noise be a consequence of societal pressures, diet culture, and fatphobia? Lisa Folden, DPT, believes that the need for control over our bodies leads us to obsess over both food and exercise. When thoughts about exercise become obsessive, intrusive, and stressful, it crosses over into exercise noise—a phenomenon that can have negative effects on mental health.
Identifying exercise noise involves recognizing when thoughts about exercise become unproductive, critical, and anxiety-inducing. Compulsive exercise and exercise addiction can also be linked to exercise noise. It’s important to distinguish between a healthy inner dialogue about movement and exercise noise that is harmful and destructive.
By addressing the root causes of exercise noise, such as societal pressures and body image issues, individuals can cultivate a positive relationship with exercise. Understanding exercise noise as a symptom of larger issues can help individuals tune into their body’s needs and combat harmful self-talk. By fostering a healthy inner dialogue about exercise, individuals can turn down the volume on exercise noise and prioritize their overall well-being.
