In 2000, Peach Friedman, a college senior freshly broken up from her boyfriend, set out to beat the blues by beating herself into shape. Running ten miles a day and taking in as little as 800 calories, she fell from 146 pounds to 100 in three months and was at serious risk of cardiac arrest. What Friedman suffered from was exercise bulimia—a newly diagnosed and rapidly spreading eating disorder that affects some 400,000 American women, and which gyms and colleges across America are beginning to take seriously. In Diary of an Exercise Addict Friedman recounts her descent into a life-threatening illness, her remarkable recovery, and the setbacks along the way. With refreshing candor she lays bare her relationships with family, friends, and lovers and the repressed desire that finally surfaced as she found her own way back to health.

Designed for individuals concerned about their workout habits, personal trainers, family and friends of folks with a problem, as well as working mental health professionals treating exercise addicts, The Truth About Exercise Addiction provides an easy-to-read, illuminating glimpse into the rising trend of over-exercise. Delving into the history of exercise addiction and the growing influence of “thinspiration,” Katherine Schreiber and Heather A. Hausenblasillustrate the symptoms and dangers of obsessive exercise with true stories from sufferers, all while exploring why and how such a seemingly healthy behavior morphs into a dangerous means of self-destruction. Analyzing the causes and consequences of excessive physical activity alongside the influence of genetics, culture, and personality, this book allows readers to gain a greater understanding of what exercise addiction looks and feels like. The Truth About Exercise Addiction also provides an unprecedented list of resources to address exercise addiction, a snapshot of treatments currently available for sufferers, and to top it off: guidelines on how to confront and care for someone who may have a problem.

The new edition of Sport and Exercise Psychology asks four fundamental questions that get to the heart of this flourishing discipline: What inner states influence what people think, feel, and behave? How can people manage or self-regulate their own inner states? How can sport and exercise psychology professionals help people manage their inner states? Is sport psychology just a placebo effect? Taking an applied perspective that bridges the gap between sport and exercise, the book answers these questions by covering the key topics in the field, including confidence, anxiety, self-regulation, stress and self-esteem. There are also chapters on the role of music in performance, imagery and exercise addiction. Each chapter is written by an expert in that field, and includes a range of features illustrating specific issues, either within the research literature or their practical application. This is a comprehensive and engaging overview of an evolving discipline, and will be essential reading to any student of sport and exercise psychology. It will also be of huge interest to athletes and coaches seeking an accessible understanding of the role of psychology in sport.

An old adage tells us that everything in moderation is healthy, but what about exercise? Unfortunately there is such a thing as too much exercise and there are real victims of this addiction. It can cause extreme weight loss, overuse injuries, exhaustion, depression, and heart problems, among other serious problems. This volume provides young readers and researchers a means of understanding exercise addiction and its ramifications. Readers will learn what causes it, how people live with it, and the latest information about treatment and prevention.

Now in its second edition, Applied Exercise Psychology emphasizes the application of evidence-based knowledge drawn from the fields of exercise psychology, health psychology, clinical and counseling psychology, and exercise physiology for physical activity behavior change. Thoroughly revised, the new edition offers readers: two new chapters covering Excusercise and Mood Alteration’s link to exercise; fully updated sections on current research and theoretical bases for understanding and promoting physical activity behavior; interventions for facilitating physical activity behavior change and the tools for measuring the effectiveness of these interventions; cross-cultural considerations for practitioners to ensure multicultural competency; considerations to guide best practices with special populations (e.g., persons with medical conditions and persons with mental health conditions); overall applied implications and future directions. An essential read that covers a variety of critical topics in applied exercise psychology, it brings often overlooked issues to the attention of practitioners to promote not only evidence-based practice but also responsible ethics and referral. The collection is a key reference for up-to-date research findings, relevant field experiences, and applied implications.

Why are sport and exercise important? What can the study of sport and exercise tell us about wider society? Who holds the power in creating contemporary sport and exercise discourses? It is impossible to properly understand the role that sport and exercise play in contemporary society without knowing a little social theory. It is social theory that provides the vocabulary for our study of society, that helps us ask the right critical questions and that encourages us to look for the (real) story behind sport and exercise. Sport, Exercise and Social Theory is a concise and engaging introduction to the key theories that underpin the study of sport, exercise and society, including feminism, post-modernism, (Neo-)Marxism and the sociological imagination. Using vivid examples and descriptions of sport-related events and exercise practices, the book explains why social theories are important as well as how to use them, giving students the tools to navigate with confidence through any course in the sociology of sport and exercise. This book shows how theory can be used to debunk many of our traditional assumptions about sport and exercise and how they can be a useful window through which to observe wider society. Designed to be used by students who have never studied sociology before, and including a whole chapter on the practical application of social theory to their own study, it provides training in critical thinking and helps students to develop intellectual skills which will serve them throughout their professional and personal lives.