A former Tipp hurler has expressed concerns over gym and exercise addiction in today’s culture.
John Leahy, who is now Drug Education Officer for the HSE, says that we are living in an era where having the perfect body can consume people.
He told Tipp Today that balance is extremely important when it comes to anything and this mindset should applied to sport and exercise.
He believes that modern day pressures to have a certain body type are triggering this addiction.
“People now are wanting to get this body image. They want to get the big muscles, to get the guns, they want to have the ripped stomachs.
“There is an addiction to that in the point of view that it’s becoming obsessive. You know, where do you stop? And I often say this to people, you know, with training, with sport. They’ll often say, ‘oh teams are not fit’, and I’ll say, ‘measure fitness, measure where do we stop at this.
“You see it with young people now. They’re pushing their bodies, their boundaries, their physicality.
“They’re getting addicted to that and getting obsessed with that. It would concern me if I had a young lad or saw someone in the gym or training the whole time.
“Something that is really important is balance in life.”
