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Burnout syndrome
Now even Ralf Rangnick, the coach of the German football team Schalke 04 has succumbed to it. So has Markus Miller, the goalkeeper at Hannover 96, who had to be admitted to hospital for treatment. Both are suffering from burnout syndrome. Burnout mainly affects people who work for long periods at or above their maximum limit. They are overcommitted to their professional and social environment and often set themselves targets that they cannot achieve.
Society has produced a generation of multi-taskers, who do more than one thing simultaneously rather than consecutively; they can apparently get by with almost no sleep and are on the go virtually day and night. Naturally, they are also always contactable. You see them on high-speed trains or aircraft eating and working simultaneously, telephoning the girlfriend and immediately afterwards the wife. On the trip home the same evening, they will be working on their laptop, drinking a beer and using their mobile to get the children to bed.
Multitasking is the new buzz word and it has already made inroads into every aspect of life: leisure, family life, eating and drinking and even our love life, the focus is on packing in as many experiences as possible. However, this constant availability and excessive communication overwhelm our psycho-physical reserves.
Sufferers are often in a state of denial about their own needs. And because they are so heavily committed, those in their immediate environment often find it difficult to recognise the first signs of a burnout: frequent careless mistakes, serious exhaustion, chronic fatigue, lack of energy, loss of libido, frequent infections and difficulties with sleeping and concentration. This may be followed by a complete loss of joie de vivre, a tendency to blame others or aggression and finally they may develop anxiety disorders and depression.
What effect does Kieser Training have on …
… burnout syndrome
Schiller may have said that it is the mind that makes the body but today rather the reverse is true: only those with a healthy body can have a mind that is unfettered, creative and productive. Only then, can we concentrate and complete tasks with as few mistakes as possible. The benefits of strength training are many.
People at risk of burnout suffer from high stress levels; in physiological terms, this means that muscles tense up. Muscle training not only improves spinal and joint stability but also reduces muscle tension and hardening and with it the associated pain. In addition, the build-up of muscle increases the number of very tiny blood vessels or capillaries within the muscle tissue (capillarisation). This increases the blood supply – and with it oxygen – to the muscles. A further benefit is that the increase in the quantity of muscle tissue reduces the percentage of body fat. This is a good thing; after all fat is not just fat: metabolically, fatty tissue is highly active and produces various substances that encourage the inflammation that maintains or even intensifies tension and pain. That is something that those at risk of burnout can well do without.
Psychologically, whole-body training immediately improves self-perception. During those 30 minutes, the focus is solely on you and your body. As a result, you rekindle your acquaintance with the body – and not just as thinking machine functioning solely at the intellectual level – but also as a whole. This in turn improves self-esteem – something lacking in many of those on the verge of burnout or actually suffering from one. However, there is yet another plus point: The intense physical activity occurring during strength training breaks down stress hormones. Stone Age man eliminated stress hormones by fleeing from sabre-tooth tigers. Today we eliminate them – if at all – by smoking or “gulping down” quantities of food, alcohol or drugs. And last but not least: training invokes feelings of physical fatigue that improve sleep quality.
I can only recommend, therefore each time you train, you take a short timeout and focus just on you. Switch off your mobile and leave it in the changing rooms – simply be non-contactable. This will allow you finally to concentrate on a wantonly neglected person: yourself!
Doctor‘s tip
What to do if diagnosed with “burnout”
The key currency of the 21st century is energy not money. However, the way we think and act does much to bring about a premature destruction of energy levels. With an acceptance verging on the shocking, we even describe our daily life as “a quite normal frenzy”, “absolutely stressful” or “non-stop”. This final term, in particular seriously contradicts the intentions of nature and biological rhythms. It is nothing less than committing energy suicide in instalments.
If burnout is diagnosed, it’s important that sufferers get off the “hamster wheel”. They must be freed from the stimuli produced by excessive communication and learn that humans – like life – need polarity to function. In the same way that night follows day, tension must be followed by release of tension and the state of being awake requires adequate sleep. What drives us to exhaustion and eventually a burnout, is not absolute workloads. Rather, it is a lack of physical, and even more a lack of psychological regeneration. Oscillative work – by which I mean work combined with sufficient relaxation – can include major peaks in workload. In fact as part of a project this can be very enjoyable. However, these peaks must be interspersed with rest periods during which we are not contactable – “not even briefly”.
In this respect, the smarter top sportsmen and their trainers can show us a thing or two: they are not always in top form but divide their year: basic training, build-up training, pre-performance training, the season followed by a break and regeneration. In contrast, in the world of work, there are many who still think that we can perform at our personal limit continuously. In some cases, workers no longer take their full holiday entitlement and of course when on holiday they are still contactable by email or mobile. Or as the self-employed say – it’s them on call – constantly! This blind alley often leads to rehab or a stay in an expensive private clinic. Unfortunately, it’s increasingly common.
In some cases, psychological treatment may be necessary and in the most severe cases, inpatient treatment may be required. However, in all cases, this must be supported and accompanied by a focus on an active body. This includes, in particular regular health-oriented strength training: a strong appearance is good for both self-esteem and the soul!
Articles on Page 2: Dr. med. Marco Caimi
