Golshani Sanobar, Najafpour Ali, Hashemian Seyed Sepehr, Goudarzi Nasser, Shahmari Fatemeh, Golshani Sanam, Babaei Masthaneh, Firoozabadi Kimia, Dürsteler Kenneth M, Brühl Annette Beatrix, Shakeri Jalal, Brand Serge, Sadeghi-Bahmani Dena
Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah 6714869914, Iran.
Student Research Committee, Faculty of Medicine, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah 6714869914, Iran.
Healthcare (Basel). 2021 Sep 28;9(10):1289. doi: 10.3390/healthcare9101289.
Physical inactivity has become a global somatic and mental health issue. To counterbalance, promoting regular physical activity appears plausible, above all among adults, where physical inactivity is particularly high. However, some, but sparse, research also indicates that excessive exercising might be associated with unfavorable mental health dimensions. Here, we tested the hypothesis that excessive exercising was associated with more mental health issues. To this end, we assessed mental health issues, stress, mental toughness, and sleep disturbances among heavy and light adult exercisers.
A total of 200 adults (mean age: 35 years; 62% females) took part in the study. Of those, 100 were heavy exercisers (18-22 h/week), and 100 were light exercisers (1-6 h/week). Participants completed questionnaires covering sociodemographic information, mental health issues, perceived stress, mental toughness, and sleep disturbances.
Compared with light exercisers, heavy exercisers reported higher mental health issues, more stress, but also higher mental toughness scores and less sleep disturbances. Higher age, lower mental toughness scores, heavy exerciser-status, and more sleep disturbances predicted higher mental health complaints.
Compared with light exercising, heavy exercising might be associated with more mental health issues. As such, it appears that the association between exercise frequency, intensity, and duration and psychological well-being might be related to an optimum point, but not to a maximum point. In a similar vein, heavily exercising athletes, their coaches, parents, and representatives of sports associations should get sensitized to possible adverse psychological effects of excessive physical activity patterns.
缺乏身体活动已成为一个全球性的身心健康问题。为了应对这一问题，推广定期体育活动似乎是合理的，尤其是在成年人中，因为成年人缺乏身体活动的情况尤为严重。然而，一些研究（但数量稀少）也表明，过度锻炼可能与不良的心理健康状况有关。在此，我们检验了过度锻炼与更多心理健康问题相关的假设。为此，我们评估了重度和轻度成年锻炼者的心理健康问题、压力、心理韧性和睡眠障碍。
共有200名成年人（平均年龄：35岁；62%为女性）参与了这项研究。其中，100名是重度锻炼者（每周18 - 22小时），100名是轻度锻炼者（每周1 - 6小时）。参与者完成了涵盖社会人口统计学信息、心理健康问题、感知压力、心理韧性和睡眠障碍的问卷。
与轻度锻炼者相比，重度锻炼者报告的心理健康问题更多、压力更大，但心理韧性得分也更高，睡眠障碍更少。年龄较大、心理韧性得分较低、重度锻炼者身份以及更多的睡眠障碍预示着更高的心理健康问题投诉率。
与轻度锻炼相比，重度锻炼可能与更多的心理健康问题相关。因此，锻炼频率、强度和持续时间与心理健康之间的关联似乎可能与一个最佳点有关，而不是与一个最大值有关。同样，大量锻炼的运动员、他们的教练、家长以及体育协会的代表应该对过度体育活动模式可能产生的不良心理影响保持敏感。
