Indigestion?

nanefy

Hey Guys,

So I've been properly working hard at the gym for a while now - I have a pretty hard routine at the gym, takes roughly 2 hours to complete, including 1 hour of cardio and then an hour of weights/lifting.

Last week, I did 6 days of training and by the last day I was really quite weak. Long story short, I believe I wasn't eating enough for the amount of training I was doing, so I've upped my calories.

I took 3 days off because my body really needed it, plus my knees were really hurting. However yesterday I went back to the gym and started my work out but had to quit half way through because I felt TERRIBLE!

I found my cardio much harder than normal, not sure why, but I only did 30 minutes and then went on to my weights. I have been gradually increasing the kg's on the weights to the point where it's really quite hard for me to lift the final couple of reps in each set. After I did my lat pulldowns I was feeling dreadful. My abs felt like they were on fire and I had a low level nausia that wouldn't go away. Normally when doing weights I get slight nausia after each set, but it last for a second or two, but this nausia feeling would not go away. I really struggled - did as much as I could, but after 5 machines my whole chest and abs felt like they were on fire - almost like acid indigestion, but kind of all over my chest and stomach.

I don't know if I just over worked myself last week and my body is still recovering or maybe I am coming down with something. What's weird is that I don't feel unwell and generally throughout the day I feel good, but as soon as I started working out last night it was like my body was screaming at me 'NOT AGAIN!' lol.

I don't know if anyone has experienced this before, but I just want to be sure it's not something more serious.

Any advice is welcomed.

Thanks,

Jo

milkyskinn

As someone with a lot of digestive problems that come and go, I can relate.

I do however, feel that it sounds like you're doing way too much. You say you've upped your calories; which is probably good given you are working out 2 hours a day, 6 days a week. But some questions pop up:

How long have you been working out? (A while can be anything from 3 months to 2 weeks) how many calories are you eating exactly, and how much weight is it you want to lose?

I think a good first step is to take a rest day or two, and rethink your strategy. Let's face it, if you're already struggling now, you are not going to keep this up in the long haul. Maybe split your cardio and strength and do them on separate days, and not in the same workout. Reduce your workout time to an hour, and for strength 45 minutes might be better. Longer is not necessarily better. I find that if my stomach gives me issues, doing both at once is just overkill. Another important thing to note is wait long enough after your last meal before you workout: if I eat too much fat/protein and workout an hour after eating that, I WILL feel slow and I will feel like I'm getting sick.

If you feel like you want to do more, just add a walk in on your strength days, which also helps with digestion and can actually ease muscle aches.

Just don't try to go too hard, too fast. You WILL burn out. One thing at a time, and please, be careful with your knees- an injury really isn't worth it.

Greytfish

Are you doing whole body strength training and cardio 6 days/week? If so, the problem is overtraining.

nanefy

Hey Guys,

Thanks for your responses.

To give you more background, I am very overweight but I am currently 50lbs down from 434lbs. I was, up until yesterday, eating 1800kcals a day, which is less than MFP recommended. On top of that I have been doing the following at the gym:

15 mins warm up on treadmill, power walking
20 mins recumbent bike HIIT
20 mins cross trainer HIIT

(all sets of 12)
2 sets of kettle bell squats 8kg
2 sets of squats on the smith machine (no weights, just the bar)
2 sets of bench presses on the smith machine 10kg
4 sets of lat pulldowns 35kg
4 sets of chest presses 15kg
2 sets of arm curls 10kg
2 sets of arm extensions 30kg
2 sets of leg presses 40kg
4 sets of calf curls 35kg
2 sets of leg curls 20kg
2 sets of leg extensions 30kg
2 sets of pulldowns 35kg

I've been doing this workout for about a month, previous to this, my workout was about an hour. I workout after work and I have a decent lunch to see me through my workout (I have lunch about 12pm and work out at 5pm).

Yeah, the more I read over this, the more I can see that it's perhaps a tad extreme, especially for someone my size. I am back to what MFP recommends my calorie intake be which is 2100kcals. I've also decided to swap some of my in gym cardio for some outdoor walking. I think I've just pushed my body too far and expecting too much from it - it's just that I've had such amazing results so far, my body shape has completely changed and I'm so keen to see more change that I think I'm overdoing it.

I shall chill out a bit! lol

Thanks guys

Greytfish

Try breaking your strength out into grouped body parts:

legs one day, back/biceps, chest/treiceps, etc. and do 3-4 sets of each

Working muscles harder and then giving them more rest time should give your body more time to recovery and you should feel better.

chani8

You've found a new hobby in exercise, and that is GREAT!!!

Glad that you realize that you're overdoing it.

tigersword

40 minutes of HIIT? No, you aren't. If you can last 40 minutes, it's not HIIT. To be fair, at your weight, less intense cardio would actually be more beneficial, as you can burn more overall calories.

Is that your weight routine every day? Way overkill. Who designed the program? You have access to a gym, so that's great. For weights, start with a proven basic beginner's program. Something like Stronglifts 5x5, or Starting Strength. I recommend the Stronglifts program, but Starting Strength is a fantastic book to learn about strength training.

Most importantly, you need rest. Rest and recovery is just as important as exercising.