Too Much Exercise and the Spiritual Consequences

On realising that exercise can’t heal your soul.

Antony Pinol
Human Parts
12 min readJan 22, 2025
Photo by bruce mars on Unsplash

When I was younger I exercised a lot. Whether it was soccer with my friends at the local park or any other team sport that my school held yearly trophies for, I loved it. The gentle competitiveness and general physicality of sport just felt fun. There was no more to it.

Throughout my teenage years I started to take one form of exercise more seriously — I was a county-level track athlete in the UK, 800m and 1500m were my speciality. I was always at a running track either training or racing. Despite this nigh-on obsession, I was in a good place mentally, there was a purpose to my actions. I was trying to win races, improve my times, and gain selection for various championships. Most importantly, I was still having fun.

Something changed as I got older. I can’t put my finger on exactly when or why but exercise became less of a passion and more of a medication. And not a medication in the comforting and holistic sense. A medication in the scientific sense, a chemical designed to be taken at regular intervals less the pain it was preventing returns or withdrawal symptoms begin.

The older I got the more reliant I became on my exercise medicine. I wanted to numb myself from something and intense exercise was…

Human Parts
Human Parts
Antony Pinol
Antony Pinol

Written by Antony Pinol

Thirty-two years old. Living in Carlisle in England. Graduate in Philosophy. Caregiver. Christian. Writer. Contact: antonypinol1991@gmail.com

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