Hooked on Exercise: How to Understand and Manage Exercise Addiction

Prussin is director of inpatient services at New York's prestigious St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital; Harvey is director of clinical research at the equally prestigious Mt. Sinai, also in New York; DiGeronimo has written two self-help books (including Raising a Healthy Athlete ). But even with their strong credentials and earnest intentions, Hooked on Exercise seems to jog over familiar ground. There is no disputing the authors' claims that exercise addicts are like any other addicts. The ``stash'' is the gym, jogging path, or aerobics class; the addict builds up a high tolerance for physical activity, which creates even greater craving; withdrawal brings on physical and emotional problems; and those afflicted frequently deny that anything is amiss. But exercise addiction isn't really news--articles on the subject can regularly be found in women's and fitness magazines. And if anything, Hooked on Exercise reads like the expanded version of a standard, well-researched magazine piece, with its problem-solution chapters, statistics and regimens and large cast of abusers introduced on a first-name basis only: ``Rosemary'' works out obsessively to achieve the perfect body85 , ``Jack'' exercises to avoid dating23 . Does gathering such information in a single volume serve any purpose beyond adding one more book to an already crowded shelf? (May)