The eight warning signs that your body needs a rest
Increasing your physical fitness through vigorous exercise is one of the best things you can do for your health. But a successful exercise program also depends on knowing when to stop exercising.
People who try to push themselves extremely hard — or who fail to recognize subtle red flags that they’re overdoing it — risk experiencing muscle strain, serious injury or even death from a heart attack or stroke.
The eight most critical signs that you should ease up — or perhaps even take a break from your workout routine…
- Sudden dizziness, an irregular heartbeat, chest pain or unusual shortness of breath. These are signs that there’s not enough blood getting to your brain (resulting in dizziness)… to your heart (leading to irregular heartbeat or chest pain)… or to your body tissues in general (triggering unusual shortness of breath). Any of these scenarios could indicate a potentially serious cardiovascular problem, such as heart attack.
If you experience any of these symptoms, stop exercising and immediately seek medical help in a hospital emergency department. Your doctor will perform tests to diagnose whether your symptoms are caused by a serious medical condition or are harmless. (In some cases, healthy people can experience temporary irregular heartbeats, chest pains caused by a muscle cramp, or shortness of breath caused by sudden pain.)
- Wheezing or a feeling that your lungs are so full that you can’t get more air into them while exercising. These can be signs of asthma, but shortness of breath also can be caused by the inability of your heart to pump enough blood to your muscles. If you have these symptoms, consult your doctor. Though asthma attacks while working out are often due to “exercise-induced asthma,” the attack is caused not by exercise itself, but by breathing cold, dry air.
The problem often can be avoided by exercising in a room with an air humidifier during the winter or by tying a kerchief around your head to cover your mouth while working out in cool, dry conditions — this lets you rebreathe some of the moist air that you exhale. If the problem persists, you may need a prescription bronchodilator medication (an inhaled substance that dilates the bronchial airways to facilitate airflow) before cold-weather workouts.
- Chills, headache, severe muscle burning or aching, dizziness or blurred vision. If these occur in hot weather or inside a hot building, stop exercising immediately. You could be having a heat stroke — a potentially fatal condition. If you don’t feel better right after stopping your workout, get medical help immediately in a hospital emergency department. Your body temperature could be so high that you will need to be cooled right away to prevent brain damage.
- “Feeling the burn” as you exercise. This means that lactic acid (a compound that is produced when the body breaks down carbohydrates to use for energy) is making your muscles acidic, which is necessary to increase muscle strength and endurance. However, the longer you stay in the burn, the longer it will take for your muscles to recover for your next workout.
As soon as you feel the burning sensation, begin exercising at a very low intensity until the burn disappears, then gradually increase the intensity again. Repeat this process throughout your workout.
- Sore, stiff muscles the day after a workout session. This syndrome, known as delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS), typically occurs eight to 24 hours after intense exercise that puts too much force on your muscles.
If this happens, exercise at an easy level for as many days as it takes the soreness to disappear, then resume your harder workouts. Just be sure to follow the “backing off the burn” method described above.
Important: Easy exercise, such as slow walking or cycling, is better than full rest when recovering from muscle soreness because it makes your muscles fibrous and tougher. In contrast, complete rest does not make your muscles as strong or your body as healthy as daily exercise does.
- Pain or tenderness that doesn’t go away. If you feel even the slightest pain or tenderness in a specific spot while exercising, stop for the day to protect yourself from getting an overuse injury to a bone, tendon or ligament. Such injuries are always preceded by localized tenderness on one side of the body — unlike DOMS, which usually is felt on both sides of the body and does not worsen with easy exercise. Don’t resume exercising until the pain or tenderness is completely gone.
If the problem persists, see a podiatrist (for foot pain) or an orthopedist trained in sports medicine — you may have inflamed tissue or a biomechanical problem that’s overstressing a certain part of your body.
- An elevated heart rate upon awakening. A good way to check your fitness level is to take your resting heart rate (the number of times your heart beats per minute while you’re sitting or lying still) immediately after waking up in the morning. Your resting heart rate generally should be under 75 beats per minute. As your fitness level improves, this rate will gradually drop — a sign that your heart and muscles are working more efficiently.
If your resting heart rate suddenly increases by 10 beats or more per minute, you may have been pushing yourself too hard — a syndrome known as overtraining — or you could be coming down with a cold or other type of infection, which causes your heart to beat faster as your body tries to fight off an infection. In either case, you should avoid intense workouts in favor of easy daily exercise sessions until your heart rate returns to normal.
- Tired, cramping muscles. If you’ve been exercising regularly (in warm or cold weather) and your muscles start cramping or feeling unusually tired, you may have perspired so much that your body is dehydrated or has low sodium levels. If this occurs, stop exercising for a few days. Drink at least a full glass of water with every meal, add extra salt to your food and eat some salted foods, such as nuts or canned soup. If you have high blood pressure, discuss this approach first with your doctor.
Note: While exercising, sip small amounts of water often — drinking up to a cup of water hourly.
