Exercise Obsessives article for Marie Claire

I wrote a piece for Marie Claire about Extreme Exercise. It's about those women you probably know--the ones who work out twice a day, do back-to-back spinning classes, or hop on the treadmill for 40 minutes before taking a vigorous yoga class. We looked at whether, physiologically this makes sense (spoiler alert: it doesn't) and what psychologically drives some women to do this (often, the need for control). You can read the full article HERE.

Celebrities do it all the time: In anticipation of a film or event, they whip post-baby bodies into top shape by training like madwomen — lunging, squatting, and tricep-dipping their way back into the size-00 kingdom of heaven.

The good news for the rest of us: a) We aren't endlessly scrutinized by paparazzi, and b) it doesn't actually take that kind of high-intensity training to reach peak form. In fact, most experts agree that by pushing your body to the limits, you're more likely to get injured, sick, or burnt-out than reach HD-ready perfection.

And yet, more Americans are engaging in extreme exercise than ever before. According to Running USA, a nonprofit organization based in Colorado Springs, the number of marathon finishers has increased by nearly 50 percent since 2000. Yoga, meanwhile, has exploded — going from 4 to 20 million practitioners in the U.S. alone over the last 10 years — with a surge of interest in vigorous forms like Bikram (hot yoga) and Ashtanga (an athletic series). Add to that the proliferation of high-octane boot camps, Spinning classes, and barre workouts — many of which inspire almost cultlike obsession.