Feeling nauseous?

JessieSky

Just a quick question here, but at what point is nausea/seriously feeling like you're going to puke too much in relation to exercise? Due to health problems and chronic pain, I had been very sedentary for a long time. Within the past 3 weeks I've been working to change my lifestyle overall; diet, exercise and sleep. I feel fine on the diet and sleep fronts, but it doesn't take much exercise at all for me to feel winded, in pain, and often very nauseous. I know there's the whole cliche about "as long as you don't puke, pass out or die- keep going!" but is it really normal to feel nauseous so easily?

ellew70

So I don't know how true this is, but in my Les Mills Combat video, one of the trainers talks about that feeling and indicates that it means that your heart rate is up. You might try keeping going but backing down on intensity, and maybe getting a heart rate monitor to make sure that you stay safe.

RHachicho

When I started working out 3 months ago after basically a whole life of negligence regarding exercise I got this. I am not saying that you are the same as me but perhaps you are experiencing the same physical symptoms as me. Basically your body is now a lot slower to respond to the demands of your heart. What worked for me is to ramp up and down the intensity of my exercise very slowly. Allow your body time for all the blood vessels to open up. Basically extend your warmup and your cool down to about 10 - 20 minutes rather than just 5. And make sure your last meal had a decent chunk of carbs in it so your body is all fueled up and ready to go. Basically because your system isn't running well at the moment you have to pay the kind of attention to it that pro athletes do to get top performance just to get a decent workout out of it. Make sure you have a nice carb and protein rich post workout snack. A tall glass of whole or semi skimmed milk works wonders. Also when you are in the shower after you workout first use the shower as cold as you can stand it then wash yourself again this time with the water nice and warm. This will help you to cool down without feeling woozy and nauseous.

I hope this helps you.

JessieSky

So I don't know how true this is, but in my Les Mills Combat video, one of the trainers talks about that feeling and indicates that it means that your heart rate is up. You might try keeping going but backing down on intensity, and maybe getting a heart rate monitor to make sure that you stay safe.

Hm, that's interesting...I had a lot of thoughts about what it could be, but heart rate wasn't one that came to mind. Thanks for sharing that with me. I'm planning on getting a HRM, probably a polar, soon...so I'll see if that might be contributing to it.

JessieSky

When I started working out 3 months ago after basically a whole life of negligence regarding exercise I got this. I am not saying that you are the same as me but perhaps you are experiencing the same physical symptoms as me. Basically your body is now a lot slower to respond to the demands of your heart. What worked for me is to ramp up and down the intensity of my exercise very slowly. Allow your body time for all the blood vessels to open up. Basically extend your warmup and your cool down to about 10 - 20 minutes rather than just 5. And make sure your last meal had a decent chunk of carbs in it so your body is all fueled up and ready to go. Basically because your system isn't running well at the moment you have to pay the kind of attention to it that pro athletes do to get top performance just to get a decent workout out of it. Make sure you have a nice carb and protein rich post workout snack. A tall glass of whole or semi skimmed milk works wonders. Also when you are in the shower after you workout first use the shower as cold as you can stand it then wash yourself again this time with the water nice and warm. This will help you to cool down without feeling woozy and nauseous.

I hope this helps you.

It sounds like I might be similar to where you were a few months back...when you started doing those things, did it take long to improve? I'm guessing now that you've been working out for a bit longer you're not having as much of a problem? I haven't tried much of that, especially the extra consideration to warming up and cooling down, so I'll definitely give your tips a shot. Thanks so much .

Strokingdiction

To this day I puke when I go all out on a 200m sprint. That could be because I never train for it and my body isn't used to that level of intensity.

It sounds like, due to your extended leave from exercise, that you're body isn't used to the intensity. Keep working at it.

Note: I am not a doctor so maybe you should ask one of those or some sort of medical professional.

chani8

I think you're doing too much yet. I started off my exercise routine doing only 5 minutes at first and built myself up over time. If you're really out of shape, you may need to just walk instead of anything more exciting. Walking is good. I walk after I eat, and I do more intense exercise before eating.

JessieSky

To this day I puke when I go all out on a 200m sprint. That could be because I never train for it and my body isn't used to that level of intensity.

It sounds like, due to your extended leave from exercise, that you're body isn't used to the intensity. Keep working at it.

Note: I am not a doctor so maybe you should ask one of those or some sort of medical professional.

Yeah, I think you may be right. My body might need a little more time to get accustomed to doing so much more. Sorry to hear about your troubles with sprinting. & I have an appointment with my doctor for annual check up kind of stuff, so I'm going to talk with her about it in about a week and a half, but it not being too urgent by any means I just thought I'd see if other people went through something similar in the meantime.

JessieSky

I think you're doing too much yet. I started off my exercise routine doing only 5 minutes at first and built myself up over time. If you're really out of shape, you may need to just walk instead of anything more exciting. Walking is good. I walk after I eat, and I do more intense exercise before eating.

Thanks. I don't think I need to cut it down *that* much...but I jumped right into doing 30 min-1 hr at a time, HIIT some days, lower impact on others; so I might just need to work up to the specific intensities and times I'm hoping for. I do walk a lot, too, but that's never a problem for me.

RHachicho

When I started working out 3 months ago after basically a whole life of negligence regarding exercise I got this. I am not saying that you are the same as me but perhaps you are experiencing the same physical symptoms as me. Basically your body is now a lot slower to respond to the demands of your heart. What worked for me is to ramp up and down the intensity of my exercise very slowly. Allow your body time for all the blood vessels to open up. Basically extend your warmup and your cool down to about 10 - 20 minutes rather than just 5. And make sure your last meal had a decent chunk of carbs in it so your body is all fueled up and ready to go. Basically because your system isn't running well at the moment you have to pay the kind of attention to it that pro athletes do to get top performance just to get a decent workout out of it. Make sure you have a nice carb and protein rich post workout snack. A tall glass of whole or semi skimmed milk works wonders. Also when you are in the shower after you workout first use the shower as cold as you can stand it then wash yourself again this time with the water nice and warm. This will help you to cool down without feeling woozy and nauseous.

I hope this helps you.

It sounds like I might be similar to where you were a few months back...when you started doing those things, did it take long to improve? I'm guessing now that you've been working out for a bit longer you're not having as much of a problem? I haven't tried much of that, especially the extra consideration to warming up and cooling down, so I'll definitely give your tips a shot. Thanks so much .

I improved very quickly it took me just under a month to lose the nausea and dizziness. With notable improvement being seen after even a week. Since your symptoms are caused by health issues though I fear you may see slower improvement The key as others have said is to ramp things up slowly so your body gets used to it.

neandermagnon

ignore the "so long as you don't puke faint or die keep going" - you don't have to exercise to 100% intensity to get the health or fat loss benefits of exercise. There's a difference between training for competitive sports and working out for general health. Yes if you want to win at high levels in athletics you do have to push yourself to the limits. But if that's not your goal, then you don't have to.

You say you've been sedentary for a long time and have just got back into exercise.... it's to be expected that you'll find it tough at first, and that you can't manage to keep going for long. This is normal. What's most important if you want to improve at this is to stick at it, and keep exercising regularly. The more you do this (and it doesn't have to be at "I'm going to puke" intensity) the fitter you'll get and the longer you'll be able to exercise each time. So long as you're getting out of breath and your heart is pumping harder, then you're exerting yourself enough to improve your fitness and you'll be burning calories. Including strength training gives you a different kind of workout, i.e. strengthening your bones and muscles, and some kinds of strength training (e.g. the major compound lifts like squats) will improve your cardiovascular system as they get your heart pumping not just your muscles. Anyway, with *any* kind of exercise, you start small and build up over time... just as with weight lifting you may start out only being able to bench 30lb but with regular training you could end up benching 100lb... with cardio you start out being able to last maybe only a couple of minutes, but with regular practice you can end up running marathons or doing long distance cycle rides (if that's your goal, you don't have to do those things if you don't want to.... stick with what you enjoy and what motivates you to stick with the exercise long term).... everyone starts somewhere.

One thing to be careful of - if you eat too soon before working out, that can make you want to puke, even for a highly trained athlete. Usually it's recommended to eat 1-2 hrs before training although it varies from person to person and some foods will be worse than others in terms of causing nausea while exercising.

PJPrimrose

Working out until you puke is bizarre IMHO. I agree with the poster that mentioned eating. My body can do ONE thing at a time. I can digest food or I can work out/train. I cannot eat within 2 hours of working out at all without feeling sick as all get-out.

Kalici

Working out until you puke is bizarre IMHO. I agree with the poster that mentioned eating. My body can do ONE thing at a time. I can digest food or I can work out/train. I cannot eat within 2 hours of working out at all without feeling sick as all get-out.

Same as me! It kind of feels like motion sickness and usually doesn't go away unless I throw up. :grumble:

whitebalance

Re food before exercise, definitely something that has to be managed. I once ate a sandwich an hour before my Krav Maga class and felt terrible the whole time. At the end, I actually did puke a little bit. Eating heavy right before lifting heavy works fine for me, but if it's hard cardio I can only have a light fiber-rich carby snack a couple hours beforehand. YMMV.

What you're experiencing though, OP, sounds more like an elevated heart rate. One way to help that is by hydrating before you start and staying well hydrated throughout your workout. That makes your blood easier to pump, which means your heart doesn't have to work quite as hard.

Senneth12

It's possible you added too much too quickly.

A general guideline I've heard from multiple doctors and physical therapists is to add no more than 10% activity a week, and if you don't tolerate that well try dropping to 5%.

If you've been sedentary due to illness for a while, it may take a long time to get back to normal exercise levels. But pushing too fast is asking for trouble.

Have you discussed this with a doctor or physical therapist? Physical therapists are usually for after an injury, but they can also help you get back to a decent level of fitness after a period of illness.

JessieSky

Thanks for the thoughts everyone! I think some of you may have been fairly accurate. I'm still experimenting with what times work best regarding eating (and what to eat) in relation to when I exercise. I was also unaware that I wasn't drinking as much as I should have been, so I'm upping that and seeing some improvement.

Neandermagnon: I don't agree with that 'philosophy', I just know there is a prevalent attitude of working yourself to the point of exhaustion/feeling a lot of pain, so I was wondering what other people experienced. I think you're quite right in regards to working up to things, though. I've been doing mostly cardio so far but I'm adding in some Weights and that seems fair advice for both. Thanks .

PJPrimrose: I agree that having that in mind is bizarre...like, actually intending to work out to that intensity. For me it's just been happening faster than I would have thought it would. Maybe I'll have to spread out my eating vs. working out time better.

WhiteBalance: Thank you...I think that could be a big part of it. I didn't realize how badly I was under-hydrating, and drinking more water has helped significantly already.

Senneth: Perhaps, I do tend to push myself a lot. I haven't received anything too helpful from my doctor thusfar..."You'll know if you over do it" Well....sort of. Sometimes I can't tell if it's the right amount of 'burn' vs. too much entirely. I haven't seen a physical therapist, though.