The effects of heavy cardio?

October 24, 2006 9:12 PM

FitnessFilter: Heavy-duty cardio workout; is my heart going to explode?

So I recently upped my frequency of cardio to accelerate my weight-loss program. Basically I do 30 minutes of cardio (500kcal per workout, heartrate of 60-90% of max) per day followed by 20 minutes of weight training targeting a different muscle group every day, 6 days a week. I've been doing this for the past 3 weeks, and I've noticed some side-effects:

Increased resting heart rate (formerly 65BPM to 75BPM)

Various aches in my chest (like chest congestion from a cold)

Sleeping ~9hours/day where I used to sleep 7.5/day without using an alarm clock.

Occassional racing heart, but this seems to be related to a new-found sensitivity to caffienated drinks.

My question is, are these side-effects temporary, and just symptoms of my body adjusting, or serious medical issues that indicate other problems?

Note: I'm considering seeing a doctor for a physical but would like a bit more information.

posted by blue_beetle to health & fitness (13 comments total)

You should always see a doctor before embarking on any major change in your exercise plan, and an increase in resting heart rate is rarely a positive. Nobody here will be able to answer your question adequately. See a doctor.
posted by solid-one-love at 9:20 PM on October 24, 2006

Increased resting heart rate is often cited as a warning sign of the dreaded "Overtraining".

By all means see the doctor. But perhaps you should take a break for a week and then scale up slowly to your current levels.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 10:04 PM on October 24, 2006

I agree with s-o-l. See a doctor.

One needs:
Exercise
Rest
Proper food.

Skimp on any one of these and you will not achieve your fitness goals. By the way, it's not clear you have real goals, based on that program. If the doctor does not find anything, then be advised that you are exhibiting classic signs of overtraining--and your workout schedule is poorly designed.

A lot of people who try to get fit too quickly decide that because they were idle before, or they perceive themselves as lazy, or they dislike their bodies, they can ignore the need for rest. This is not the case. The body does not change as quickly as we would like.

By the way, once you have experienced the tremendous performance gains you can get after taking a few days off, you'll never forget to rest again.

You might consider cutting back on caffeine and never ever touching this crap.
posted by Phred182 at 10:04 PM on October 24, 2006

When I excercise, I mouth breathe, which lets cold air and/or allergens directly into my lungs without the warming and filtering effects of the nasal passages. This invariably leads to lung congestion of some sort.

Perhaps you're seeing a simliar effect.
posted by IvyMike at 10:26 PM on October 24, 2006

Everything you are describing sounds like typical symptoms of overtraining with the exception of:

-Various aches in my chest (like chest congestion from a cold)
-Occassional racing heart, but this seems to be related to a new-found sensitivity to caffienated drinks.

This sounds a lot like mild Mitral Valve Prolapse, which is a common condition (~10% of population) occuring in people of west european descent. Have you ever been diagnosed with a heart murmur?

For me these symptoms are aggravated by overtraining and caffeine. For me, the condition is controlled by cutting way back on the caffeine (now only an occasional indulgence) and never exercising after caffeine consumption.

Whether MVP is a concern or not, I recommend cutting way back on the frequency of your workouts. Sounds like you have a heart rate monitor (if you don't, get one) and use your resting heart rate as a guide to how many days to rest between workouts. Rest until it returns to normal. You will benefit more from your workouts and reduce susceptibility to overuse injuries, something that people with MVP are prone to.

The chest pain could also be simple strains of your chest cartilage.
posted by Manjusri at 1:02 AM on October 25, 2006

I also agree about the overtraining and the need to see a doctor. You might try to cut back on the intensity in the interim. The problem with overtraining, of course, is that it's the precursor to injury, and then your ex intensity will be close to zero.
posted by OmieWise at 4:37 AM on October 25, 2006

Also consider that when talking about overtraining, did you gradually increase the intensity or gradually make the shift? When I ran Cross Country, we didn't go from running 5 miles my first day of practice to 13 the next day. We incrementally increased our workload to meet our goal.
posted by jmd82 at 5:42 AM on October 25, 2006

I nth the overtraining and doctor comments. However, if it makes you feel better, sometimes my heart races and there is nothing wrong with me; plus, I've definitely gotten more sensitive to caffeine as I've gotten older and others I know have expericed the same thing. Further, increasing need for sleep just goes with the territory of tough workouts. Your body does a lot of repair work when you sleep and the more there is to repair, the more sleep you need.
posted by dame at 6:01 AM on October 25, 2006

It is really impossible to answer your question without knowing more about your medical history; I don't even see your age in your profile, much less information on other risk factors for heart disease such as smoking, hypertension, family history, and so forth. I do see you are male, which puts you at some increased risk for heart disease but that is still nowhere near enough information to answer your question. I also see you are in a country where health insurance is not a barrier to seeing a doctor. So, if you are concerned about your heart, get checked out.
posted by TedW at 6:02 AM on October 25, 2006

Again, you sound like you're overtraining. Why do this six days a week? Like Phred182 said, once you realise that it's the working out AND the rest period that gets you in shape you won't be doing this. Why are you doing so much cardio before lifting? Have you been told to do this? Why don't you try a quick cardio warm-up before lifting and then do your 1/2 hour of cardio at the end. It'll make the whole workout more effective, imho.

Oh yes, you should see a doctor. And get a new workout routine. You should just go 3 days a week (with an off day in between each session) and see where that gets you. Finally please remember that no one sees gains overnight or even in a few weeks so stop beating yourself up in the gym.
posted by ob at 7:56 AM on October 25, 2006

I read what you said again and I see that you're trying to loose weight. If so then you should really think about doing cardio after lifting, it works so much better in terms of calorie burning, from my experience.
posted by ob at 7:58 AM on October 25, 2006

In my experience the "overtraining" thing is way overblown. I have always had a higher resting heartrate for several days after a vigorous workout. That's just a sign your body is working to recover.

50 min a day is not excessive, but it is pretty relentless if you are doing it every day. Taking one day off a week may be good for you. You can phase the rest day out once you are further down the road to fitness.

The longer sleep is normal. This is just your body recovering, once again. Sleep is very important to growth (and I mean growth here in a "growth of athletic capability" way).

I don't know about the chest pains.

My qualifications: Exercise fanatic; former NCAA XC/T&F long distance runner.

I'm a firm believer in the precept that all good change is accompanied by pain, and bad change is more often easy. Learn to savor the soreness, learn to savor the fatigue, as signs that your body is changing. You won't see the benefits unless you stick with it.
posted by zhivota at 3:44 PM on October 25, 2006

Aches in the chest accompanied with an increased resting heart rate attributed to exercise could be bad. These symptoms taken together could indicate cardiac ischemia or a heart attack. You should see a doctor to make sure that's not the case.

I would like to be able to say that this isn't very likely, but since you don't give your age or any other information about yourself, there's no way to establish your risk. If, for example, you are a 60 year old man with lifelong high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol, it becomes very likely that you're experiencing cardiac ischemia.

If this happened to a young, healthy person, and who was not in fact overstraining her heart, the symptoms described could represent overtraining/deconditioning. In that case a person might infer that she is overdoing it, and could back off a little.

This is not medical advice and must not be construed to apply to any particular situation. If you have a medical question, see a doctor.
posted by ikkyu2 at 5:14 PM on October 25, 2006