The (Over-)Motivational Roots of Orthorexia, Overtraining & Co - Plus: Symptoms, Recovery Times & Scientific Questionnaire to Recognize Early Signs of Overtraining
Image 1: Does not look motivated, right? This kitty just knows about the value of carefully planned laziness! Originally I had planned another article for today, but after Adelfo's somewhat unexpected "2nd place victory", I do not just want to go back to business as usual and thusly decided to take a brief look at what science has to say about winning, losing, motivation and getting back on track. And lo and behold loosing due to the obviously subjective decision of judges and the subsequent "discouragement", which, in psychological terms, could be subsumed under "non-self determined amotivation", is something that is significantly more prevalent in high performing athletes (Bulgarian title and medal holders in this particular study) than in the 2nd row of top athletes ( Chantal. 1996 ). When it comes to motivation "over-" can be worse than "under-" And while the Bulgarian athletes in the 1990s certainly had other "amot...