ADDICTED TO EXERCISE

Keeping fit is a good thing - until it turns into an obsession that can have serious consequences on your body and mind

- ROISIN KELLY

SHE was back in the gym with a vengeance after the festive season, Adele announced recently, doing two to three sessions a day.

"I want to get back to peak physical fitness until my bum is rock solid again, the singer declared.

Nothing wrong with that, you may think - Adele has transformed her figure into a sleek hourglass and kills it on the red carpet in glorious plunging gowns. But for British journalist Roisin Kelly, the statement sent alarm bells ringing.

Stars like Adele might boast of their "daily grind" but Roisin warns that what starts as a healthy habit can do serious harm to the body and mind.

And she should know: Roisin used to be so addicted to exercise she ended up in hospital. She tells her story.

THERE are three minutes left of my high-intensity interval training class. My watch says my heart rate is 189bpm but I've only burnt 289 calories (1 209kJ).

I try to calculate whether that, on top of the 20 000 steps I've done so far today and the gym session I did this morning, will be enough or if I'll need to jump on the treadmill.

Thankfully, this isn't me now. But this was me two and a half years ago, in the throes of an addiction to exercise that occupied my every thought and took over my life.

What began as a healthy habit to help me through an awful breakup soon turned into a compulsive coping mechanism. I was going to the gym seven days a week, tail-ending days at work with early morning workouts and evenings of back-to-back classes or 10km treadmill runs. On weekends I spent all day in the gym.

Adele has described herself as an "exercise addict" and rapper Stormzy has a similarly intense approach: he recently posted a video of his workout on TikTok, which includes four hours of exercise every morning, plus an hour in the evening.