Almost every athlete, regardless of experience and gender, has experienced sudden nausea after exercise. This unpleasant condition can occur when performing various exercises, but most often nausea occurs after running, especially over long distances or with high acceleration. It's worth learning how to avoid or get rid of this side effect of heavy exercise.
Binge eating
The very first cause of nausea after training can be banal overeating. Why do you feel sick after running in this case? The explanation is quite simple: during sports activity, the body directs all its energy to maintaining stable muscle function, and there is practically no energy left for digesting food.
Therefore, doctors advise eating at least two hours before the start of training, so that the gastrointestinal tract has time to cope with all digestive processes and synthesize the food received into the energy necessary to withstand the load.
You need to eat in moderation, since overeating and incomplete digestive process during training will allow toxins and allergens to enter the body, which were not stopped by the protective systems of the stomach and intestines. In a calm state and with moderate meals, the body copes with such harmful substances much faster, without signaling internal problems by the fact that a person feels sick after running.
How the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract changes when running
During the training process, the intestines are responsible for the “delivery” of water and nutrients. The normal functioning of the gastrointestinal tract changes greatly during running. During heavy physical exertion, the blood vessels of the internal organs narrow and the vessels of the “working” organs and parts of the body - the heart, lungs, active muscles - dilate.
Internal blood flow is reduced by up to 80% to ensure blood flow to the muscles actively working during running. This can lead to intestinal ischemia and increased permeability of its mucous membrane, and this is what causes discomfort.
Performance suffers, results and enjoyment of sports decrease. During the race you have to leave the race or make a “sanitary stop”, losing precious minutes. After one race with such a surprise, there will be temporary discomfort, weakness, and malaise, but regular stomach problems while running lead to serious health problems.
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High running speed
Too much load and high speed also lead to the athlete feeling sick after running. The reason here lies in a decrease in blood sugar levels, a disease such as glycemia develops. Glycogens are substances that store glucose, which the body needs to obtain energy. Therefore, experienced athletes control their blood sugar levels very simply - they always eat a small chocolate bar or a piece of sugar before and after training.
As the speed increases and, accordingly, the load of glycogen increases, the amount of glycogen becomes smaller, an acute shortage is felt, and as a result, nausea and dizziness occur. In severe cases, sudden increases in running speed can cause muscle wasting and even cramps.
With a weak warm-up
If a person warmed up weakly, did not do warm-up exercises, and then ran, he will have weak blood flow, which will change to intense during jogging.
The internal organs will fill with blood and stretch, causing pain in the side. When a person is calm, only 30-35% of his blood flow passes through the internal organs.
But as soon as you give yourself an increased load, the blood suddenly moves to the liver, spleen, and kidneys, circulating through them. The capsules of these organs contain many nerve endings that react strongly to blood pressure.
This is one of the most common causes of pain when running.
Risk groups: inexperienced athletes (beginners), teenagers, untrained people, and such pain in the side is typical even for those who do not suffer from diseases and do not smoke.
Training, warming up the body before running (gradually), from this the muscle tissue of the organs will also warm up and will not hurt when stretched, there is no need to start running with sudden movements - and the pain in the side will be gone.
Lack of sleep
Nausea after running, as a rule, is a one-time occurrence if a person does not get enough sleep. The body has used up all its resources even before the start of the workout. Remember: sport should be beneficial. Exercise gives a healthy body a feeling of pleasant fatigue and lightness, enriching it with oxygen and helping muscles grow and develop.
In the case of a specific lack of sleep, for example, if you slept less than 7 hours or were under stress, suffered from insomnia, etc., the exhausted body will fight with all its might. In addition, an appropriate signal will be given - you will start to feel sick after running. Such training will not lead to progress; it will only aggravate the critical condition and may result in health problems in the future.
Reason: physiological disorders
Physical exercise helps keep your body in good shape. Constant muscle work does not allow the heart to relax. It is created for the uninterrupted movement of blood through the vessels. Daily workouts can be done at home using treadmills. But some people feel dizzy and nauseous after running on a treadmill.
When you feel dizzy after running, the development of this condition is influenced by two types of reasons, which are divided between behavioral and physiological.
The natural process of blood flow regulation is interconnected with changes in body position when stress occurs; it occurs at a reflex level, replenishing the deficiency and regulating the excess. In a healthy state, all these mechanisms proceed unnoticed, with virtually no effect on the level of blood pulsation in the vessels.
With existing pathologies in the heart system and vascular network, sharp fluctuations in the number of heart beats and the level of blood flow pressure occur. Moreover, a significant contribution to the occurrence of dizziness is made by the existing disturbance in the tone of the vascular network of the vegetative type, when with additional stress in the form of running, a state almost close to fainting may appear.
If after running you feel dizzy and your vision becomes dark, as a result of a sharply changing level of physical activity, a state of oxygen deficiency in the brain tissue or hypoxia occurs. In this case, the body does not have time to rebuild itself, resulting in the appearance of unpleasant sensations. The same condition can occur at the beginning of running if a person does not have sufficient preparation for increasing the level of stress on the body.
Dehydration
Another serious factor can be dehydration, which begins after heavy sweating and increased body temperature. Why do you feel nauseous and dizzy after running?
Our body consists of 80% water, so any reason that reduces this amount of fluid leads to a person feeling sick after running or playing other sports. Sweat, which occurs due to increased body temperature, carries with it not only toxins and other harmful substances, but also valuable moisture for the body.
Therefore, during serious competitions, Olympics and training with heavy loads, experienced athletes always drink water or a special saline solution that helps maintain the required fluid level. Otherwise, overload will not only make you feel sick, but your blood pressure will also increase.
The activity of removing water from the body depends on many factors:
- athlete's body temperature;
- the clothes he wears to train;
- ambient temperature;
- degree of load, as well as type of training.
It is important not to bring yourself to a state of dehydration, since in this case the athlete, in addition to feeling sick after running, loses coordination of movements, experiences a serious loss of strength and even loss of consciousness.
Why you may feel sick after running and how to avoid it
Some beginners, and sometimes even experienced fans of running sports, complain of nausea after completing a workout. This is typical for both men and women. Nausea can occur during both aerobic and anaerobic exercise. There are a number of reasons for this phenomenon, and various ways to avoid it are available. Feelings of nausea and dizziness do not need to be feared. Almost all runners who push themselves too hard have experienced this. Although this phenomenon cannot be called normal, there are very common reasons that cause nausea.
The first factor that provokes unpleasant symptoms is excess eating before training . If you eat an hour (or less) before going on the treadmill, and do it in large quantities, nausea will certainly visit such an athlete. This fact is explained by the fact that the body throws energy into the muscles, but does not have enough energy for digestion. This diet causes significant harm to the gastrointestinal tract.
As a result, toxins and allergens can enter the bloodstream along with nutrients from food, since the protective properties of the stomach and intestines are reduced during dynamic training.
The second reason is low blood sugar. A strict diet, insufficient nutrition or, in general, the absence of it 3-4 hours before cardio exercise leads to a response - nausea, weakness, headache.
The third possible cause is low blood pressure. If it is not possible to measure it, you need to pay attention to your own well-being. Do you feel dizzy after standing up suddenly, or is there any discomfort if you get up after sitting for a long time? The presence of such symptoms indicates problems with blood pressure. This is likely due to stress, lack of sleep or poor nutrition.
Another factor is dehydration of the body, which becomes possible due to increased temperature and intense sweating. Dehydration causes a person to feel sick while running. In addition, during active training a person releases much more thermal energy than at rest. This leads to an increase in body temperature of about 1 degree every few minutes. The activity of this process depends on the intensity of the workout and the ambient temperature. Sometimes this can trigger heatstroke. Its symptoms are confusion, loss of strength, nausea, loss of consciousness and an increase in body temperature to 40°C.
Glycemia is also one of the possible explanations for why nausea may occur. The standard glycogen requirement for a non-athletic person is less than that of an athlete. When running, the body's sugar intake increases significantly, and a lack of this element can cause muscle wasting, nausea and cramps.
Also, if you come to training with poor health, a headache, or after lack of sleep, physical activity can worsen the condition and cause nausea. But this state does not repeat every training session, but happens “one-time”.
By identifying why you feel sick after a run, you can easily solve the problem. There is no need to train to the point of exhaustion. Small lifestyle adjustments will help you get rid of unpleasant symptoms. By following reasonable and very simple rules, you can support your body and get rid of nausea:
- Sleep should take 7-8 hours a day. In less time, the body cannot relieve the stress received during the day, which can lead to overexertion for a person.
- On running days, avoid large meals and foods that take too long to digest.
- Have a snack 1.5-2 hours before the start of your workout.
- If dizziness is added to the feeling of nausea, doctors recommend eating a small piece of chocolate before the race, which will quickly saturate the body with carbohydrates.
- After completing your workout (after 15-30 minutes), you can drink a protein shake or something milky. This usually makes the nausea go away.
- It is necessary to remember about warming up before the race and mandatory stretching after it is over - this way the body will prepare for the load and tolerate it more easily.
- If you experience nausea (dizziness, profuse sweating, blurred vision), you should take a break and sit or squat. You can continue your workout later.
By normalizing the regimen, you can get rid of dizziness and nausea after running, plus ensure good health and good health. Then you won't have to wonder why you're feeling sick. Within the framework of a well-designed daily schedule, the body functions much better.
However, if a person follows all the recommendations regarding nutrition and lifestyle, consistently and competently increases the load, and nausea does not disappear, there may be serious health problems and a medical examination is necessary.
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Beginning of a viral infection
When pathogenic bacteria appear in our body, the immune system tries with all its might to defeat them and prevent the virus from spreading. However, the immune system cannot always cope on its own, so the onset of a viral infection can also lead to the athlete feeling sick after running.
Here, as in the case of overeating, the body throws all its defenses at fighting the problem, not taking into account that the athlete is training, and his muscles also need a large amount of energy.
Opinions on whether to continue training in this state are mixed. Many athletes believe that this way they will be able to defeat the disease faster, since not only toxins, but also all microbes come out with sweat. And some, on the contrary, are sure that by training hard, you can only aggravate your condition and prolong the course of the disease, turning a common cold into a severe flu with serious consequences, for example, pneumonia.
In any case, you need to listen to yourself, and if you feel nauseous after running, dizziness and a complete loss of strength accompanying ARVI appear, then you should not train “to the point of exhaustion.” Sports records are here to stay, and they need to be set in a healthy state.
Stomach neurosis
If a person has impaired functioning of internal organs, for example, the stomach, liver, spleen, pancreas, then when running they will experience additional stress and get very sick. Pain when running is usually localized in the right or left side or in the middle of the abdomen.
Content
Most of us have no time to take care of our health. For some reason, it seems to us that diseases cannot touch us.
At the slightest manifestation of the symptoms described above, we should consult a doctor, because we cannot determine what exactly we are sick with, just as we cannot be sure which medicine will help us. Self-medication not only does not heal, but can also cause quite a lot of harm.
This disease is popularly called gastric neurosis; doctors classify it as functional dyspepsia. It can be acquired due to recent stress, nervous or mental strain, mental trauma, or poor nutrition. Sometimes a cup of strong coffee, a cigarette smoked on an empty stomach, or a glass of alcohol can provoke dyspepsia.
The concept of psychosomatic disorder has long been known to doctors. It refers to a situation where mental trauma caused by stress does not manifest itself in the behavior and thinking of the patient, but takes on the form of certain diseases. Hence - strokes, heart attacks and stomach ulcers.
At the moment of stress, in a certain category of people, a special enzyme begins to be produced in the stomach, acidity accumulates, and if the situation is not resolved, the tension does not subside, the stomach seems to process itself. This is how an ulcer appears.
Stomach ulcers under stress are acquired by people prone to self-criticism, nervous about any reason, explosive and unbalanced. It has been proven that the functioning of the stomach directly depends on the emotional state of a person. Aggression and malice speed up the processing of food, and feelings of fear and negative thoughts, on the contrary, slow down the functioning of the stomach, manifesting itself in spasms.
An ulcer, like gastritis, can be common and nervous. With a common ulcer, a person leads himself to it through excessive consumption of coffee, cigarettes, alcohol, and poor diet. When turning to a doctor, he can specifically say what, how and where he hurts. The pain goes away after taking the course of treatment prescribed by the doctor.
Actually, the correct choice of time to eat food and its qualitative composition affect the state of the body after physical activity. Liquid food, small in volume, isotonic in composition (that is, having an osmotic pressure similar to that of blood plasma), with a low content of proteins, fats and dietary fiber is considered preferable.
After the last meal before the start of physical activity, as a rule, 3-4 hours should pass. If you were unable to eat on time, you can have a light carbohydrate snack before training - sweet yogurt, banana, apple, dried fruit, or, as a last resort, drink tea with sugar or juice. Eating solid foods such as crackers should be done at the same time as drinking liquids.
In addition, a person who is not accustomed to intense physical activity develops myocardial ischemia during it. Tightening of the cheekbones when running and pain in the pit of the stomach are its manifestations. As a result, vasodilation begins, which leads to the expansion of the lumen of blood vessels and an increase in blood flow to the heart muscle.
If the ischemia lasted quite a long time (10 minutes), the release of cardiac enzymes began. Dizziness, nausea and vomiting are the result of increased release of cardiac enzymes, as well as a decrease in pressure due to a slow pulse with dilated blood vessels when the load has stopped. It is for this reason that it is recommended not to stop abruptly after running, but to gradually reduce the pace.
Behavioral basis for the development of the condition
It includes the natural reactions of the body associated with its structure of behavior and orientation in the surrounding space. When they are violated, a state of benign positional vertigo occurs. The mechanism of its development is associated with the vestibular apparatus of the body, which includes the structures of the inner ear, visual apparatus, surface receptors and the muscular-tendon system.
The process is carried out through the conduction of a nerve impulse from the receptors on the skin of the foot, taking into account the characteristics of the mechanical pressure on it during running, with the receipt of data in the brain and the assessment of visual perception about the change in the dynamics of the body position at this moment. For many reasons, a break in the chain of impulse transmission can occur and then the body will react non-standardly, with the appearance of dizziness and nausea.
A short-term imbalance in conditions of changing load on the body indicates a physiological reaction. Under normal conditions, oxygen is transported through the bloodstream from the lungs, and carbon dioxide comes back from the tissues. Under conditions of prolonged excess oxygen, it binds to hemoglobin.
There is no longer enough free hemoglobin to remove carbon dioxide, which leads to tissue poisoning with carbon dioxide. But in conditions of insufficient oxygen supply to organs, hypoxia occurs. For an untrained person, these factors can lead to dizziness, nausea and even loss of consciousness.
Important!
With consistent training, many physiological negative effects will decrease over time.
A short-term imbalance in the absence of dynamics (static state of the body) during physical activity indicates a behavioral reaction of the body. This indirectly indicates the imperfection of the vestibular apparatus. Exercise and running help train the vestibular system, minimizing the negative effects.
In most cases, there is no need to see a doctor. The physiological and behavioral reaction of the body that causes dizziness is short-term in nature.
Standard Treadmill Modes
You should not start training immediately with heavy loads. The best option for beginners is a gradual approach, which will help avoid nausea and dizziness.
The treadmill has the following modes:
- Walking. Obese people should train in this mode to prepare the heart for heavy loads. Belt speed 1-2 m/s.
- Slow running. In this case, the track is located horizontally, the tape moves at a speed of 4-6 m/s. This is how the calf and thigh muscles are trained.
- Fast running is intended for athletes and physically fit people. All muscle groups in the legs and torso are included in the work. Movement speed 8-15 m/s.
- Walking and running uphill. The path is set at different angles, depending on the preparation. Walking is suitable for older people, and running is for younger people who need to build up their lower leg muscles.
Often dizziness and nausea during training are caused by insufficient preparation for physical activity. Why this happens and how to deal with such conditions – the trainer will tell you.
Every workout, even at home, should be coordinated with a personal trainer to avoid negative consequences for the heart, muscles and joints.
