Nausea and headache from HIIT cardio

bentatro
bentatro Posts: 3
edited November 2024 in Fitness and Exercise
I’m getting nausea and & headache from HIIT cardio. This is more often when I’m getting back into things. My job makes it easy to not exercise for a week or two. However, sometimes I still feel sick from exercising when I’m already in good shape.

I almost exclusively exercise on a stationary bike or hill sprints, and I go until I’m totally out of breath, then keep going while out of breath for another 15 seconds to a min.

Sometimes this makes me feel sick as a dog. I’m aware there are ideas out there about how to reduce this, but my main question would be, is this dangerous? I don’t know if my body senses a problem that will cause harm, or, maybe this is just a physical reaction that can be ignored.

If it is dangerous, then by all means tell me more about how to prevent it. If not, I can motivate myself to keep going and block it out of my mind.

Thank you

Replies

  • dave4d
    dave4d Posts: 1,155 Member
    Are you working out on an empty stomach?
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    Simple answer: If it's beating you up that much, then just stop doing it. There's nothing that magical about HIIT that you should keep subjecting yourself to this. Not really sure why you need to have this pointed out by someone else.

    Switch to less intense intervals. You can still work at a higher level, but you should be doing exercise that is better matched to your current abilities and fitness level.
  • bentatro
    bentatro Posts: 3
    Dave4d, I usually have a near empty stomach. I’m aware that to too long with out food, or too soon since one ate, can cause nausea during exercise. I’ve been avoiding both and the problem still happens sometimes.

    Azdak, perhaps you were a little too simple. My question was, “is this dangerous?” You did not pick up on that, and answered a different question, which was not asked. Not really sure why someone needs to point this out to you. But if you have an answer to what I did actually ask, I’m all ear.
  • tomatoey
    tomatoey Posts: 5,446 Member
    You have to fuel your activity, at least a little!
  • tomatoey
    tomatoey Posts: 5,446 Member
    Yes it's dangerous, you could pass out and give yourself a concussion. Among other things
  • Springfield1970
    Springfield1970 Posts: 1,945 Member
    edited February 2015
    bentatro wrote: »
    I’m getting nausea and & headache from HIIT cardio. This is more often when I’m getting back into things. My job makes it easy to not exercise for a week or two. However, sometimes I still feel sick from exercising when I’m already in good shape.

    I almost exclusively exercise on a stationary bike or hill sprints, and I go until I’m totally out of breath, then keep going while out of breath for another 15 seconds to a min.

    Sometimes this makes me feel sick as a dog. I’m aware there are ideas out there about how to reduce this, but my main question would be, is this dangerous? I don’t know if my body senses a problem that will cause harm, or, maybe this is just a physical reaction that can be ignored.

    If it is dangerous, then by all means tell me more about how to prevent it. If not, I can motivate myself to keep going and block it out of my mind.

    Thank you

    You should build up your fitness at lower intensities. Get a heart rate monitor and look into training in heart rate zones.

    Get a goal, like a 10k race and follow a proper programme to train. You're over exerting yourself, it sounds like, try and run regularly, twice a week at least.

    I was advised not to do hill sprints until I'd been running about a year or two.
  • Steph_135
    Steph_135 Posts: 3,280 Member
    I did cardio once first thing in the morning before breakfast and it was the only time I ever felt nauseous. When I run in the mornings, I try to at least have half a banana (cause I "can't" run with food in my belly). I also don't workout first thing in the morning because of that incident.

    If you feel ill after HIIT, just do regular cardio (as some others have mentioned). Go easy on yourself!
  • bentatro
    bentatro Posts: 3
    This is interesting. It came from a different forum where I asked the same question.

    “I can't tell you how dangerous what you're doing might be--that would depend on some individual factors you didn't provide any details about, like any health issues you might have, your overall conditioning level, how long those exercise sessions are, etc. Nausea can be "normal" after any maximum intensity exercise. But it's not necessary to exercise to the point of nausea to get the health, fitness and weight management benefits of HIIT exercise, unless you're in training for an event or activity that requires the ability to perform frequently at that maximum level. And it's not a good idea to do that kind of ultra-high intensity exercise on an intermittent basis, after a week or two with no exercise at all. You'll be better off working some HIIT intervals into an overall exercise plan that includes some regular, lower intensity work as well.”


  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,865 Member
    Dangerous is subject to lots of differen factors, but it's certainly pointless.

    You'll improve your conditioning more readily through a more strucured plan that involves more steady state endurance building to give yourself the capacity bto benefit from high intensity work in a few months.

    Despite the recurring mantra here, HIIT has limited value for the unconditioned. It's a performance improvement method for the already trained who have a solid base level of fitness.
  • redpandora56
    redpandora56 Posts: 289 Member
    bentatro wrote: »
    This is interesting. It came from a different forum where I asked the same question.

    “I can't tell you how dangerous what you're doing might be--that would depend on some individual factors you didn't provide any details about, like any health issues you might have, your overall conditioning level, how long those exercise sessions are, etc. Nausea can be "normal" after any maximum intensity exercise. But it's not necessary to exercise to the point of nausea to get the health, fitness and weight management benefits of HIIT exercise, unless you're in training for an event or activity that requires the ability to perform frequently at that maximum level. And it's not a good idea to do that kind of ultra-high intensity exercise on an intermittent basis, after a week or two with no exercise at all. You'll be better off working some HIIT intervals into an overall exercise plan that includes some regular, lower intensity work as well.”


    For what it's worth, I think that's a good answer. I'd try the suggestion of lower intensity workouts until you have a fitness base that might better support the HIIT workouts particularly if you do have the occasional week(s) off - can't hurt to try! Good luck.
  • albondfoster1965
    albondfoster1965 Posts: 1 Member
    As a chronic migraine sufferer, I had the same issue. My personal trainer would run me through an intense HIIT session (45 minutes to an hour) and notice that my face was actually red afterward (I am not fair skinned) and the headache almost started immediately afterward. After seeing my neurologist he advised me to discontinue the HIIT and opt for lower impact, less intense exercises as the HIIT was causing the vessels in my brain to restrict even more. He recommended yoga, tai chi, pilates. Looking at some of the comments above, I wonder if the problem was actually that I am a novice at exercising and was doing too much too fast as I do have a great deal of weight to lose.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
    bentatro wrote: »
    I’m getting nausea and & headache from HIIT cardio. This is more often when I’m getting back into things. My job makes it easy to not exercise for a week or two. However, sometimes I still feel sick from exercising when I’m already in good shape.

    I almost exclusively exercise on a stationary bike or hill sprints, and I go until I’m totally out of breath, then keep going while out of breath for another 15 seconds to a min.

    Sometimes this makes me feel sick as a dog. I’m aware there are ideas out there about how to reduce this, but my main question would be, is this dangerous?

    I don't know, ask your doctor. Relying on medical advice from strangers on the internet is for sure dangerous. I'll say that you're putting in a lot of effort and suffering for very small gains, so whether it's dangerous or not, it's not helping much. Other replies have already explained why and what you could be doing instead.
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