Are you a fitness fanatic? Define a fitness fanatic! Basically the name is exactly how it sounds, a person who has become obsessed with keeping fit and staying in shape. Is this bad or good? Well it depends on the level of fanaticism involved. Generally speaking, we should be fanatics about our body and physical shape.

The only way we can truly enjoy life and all it has to offer is if we are healthy. I cannot tell you the amount of people who wasted their health in an attempt to get rich, and when they finally did, they ended up spending thousands to get back the health they lost. As the saying goes, we generally don’t know what we have till it’s gone.

So to define fitness fanatic, it is a person who is so into staying fit that it has become an obsession and to a greater degree, an obsession that can interfere with social, work and spiritual life. As stated before, there are different levels of fanaticism and to a great degree almost everyone is a fanatic of something. However the problem arises not because of the idea itself but rather the amount of time it takes away from other important tasks.

So a classic example of a fitness freak is one who nine out of ten cases would rather spend time at the gym than hanging out with friends, studying or working. That’s taking it to the extreme, and that’s where problems arise.

In our life we are so often carried away by some things and activities that to strangers it may seem abnormal and even a bit crazy. These words are often associated with extreme activities in such spheres as fitness and sport. According to one of the definitions ‘extreme’ is something very dangerous or difficult. Actually it could be both difficult and dangerous at the same time.

Extreme fitness is being widely popularized today. Fitness clubs owners consider this as a great attraction for more new members. These members are not newbies in active fitness. Generally it’s people who have been long engaged and can’t imagine their life without fitness. We can even say that fitness is their life. And extreme fitness is a new higher level of their development. The more difficult and more dangerous the aim is the more interesting and encouraging for them is the process of its achieving. It’s worth saying here about quite the opposite situation when extreme things make people feel scary and consequently refuse from becoming a member of extreme fitness clubs or generally this extreme community.

It’s really hard to estimate and evaluate something that can’t be measured in numbers. And sometimes even in this case also. So, where is the line between ‘casual fitness’ and ‘extreme fitness’? Does this line exist at all? How to find it? It’s hardly possible to give some exact measures of this issue. Every person makes his/her own decision about where the line of extreme is, and whether it’s worth and necessary to cross it.

Extreme fitness is not only what you do. It’s also those numerous things that you use without even thinking about their role in your activity. First of all it’s special clothing. For harder and more intensive exercising you just need to have appropriate equipment a part of which is the cloth.

Some of us also associate extreme fitness with extremely expensive fitness. And it’s not occasionally. The cost of clothing and other equipment is really higher than the cost of average equipment. But without them it’s nearly impossible to go in for extreme fitness. It’s an integral part of this activity.

Let’s try to name some components or parts of extreme fitness:

• Special equipment
• Special clothing
• Hard exercising
• Strict dieting
• Rapid weight loss and rapid weight gain

Extreme fitness makes people dependant to it. It’s like a drag: if you start you can’t give it up anymore. Only several approaches in a short period of time would be enough for you o realize whether it’s really what you need and whether it’s that what makes your life full of sense. One thing is obvious here: it is illogical to go in for extreme fitness if it’s not a part of your profession. As an athlete, extreme fitness can help you step up your game. You can become a better runner, stronger swimmer or more worthy opponent as a triathlete. So, we can say that in our case ‘extreme’ could mean professional or even highly professional.