Sometimes it can be difficult to motivate yourself to head to the gym and this is something my Karate teacher used to talk about a lot. ‘The hardest part of training’ he’d say, ‘is getting yourself out of the door’.
This is all very wise and all, but in truth once you get in there things can sometimes become more difficult still. Heading to the gym is tough, but let’s not underestimate the challenge of motivating yourself through an intense workout for a whole hour…
The last thing you need then when you’re already struggling to keep up your energy, is to find yourself feeling sick with each movement as though you’re actually going to be sick, or potentially pass out from the nausea…
It’s a common problem and it’s often responsible for people finishing their workouts early.
What’s Happening?
So you feel ill at the gym, you know this isn’t quite right, and it’s interfering with your workouts… What’s going on and what can you do to start feeling better again?
Unfortunately I don’t have a completely clear cut answer for you: feeling sick in the gym is quite common, but there are a number of different reasons it happens. Read on to look at the various factors that may be causing your workout nausea and how you can fix each one…
Problem 1: Breathing
A common issue that can make you feel sick in the gym is failing to breathe correctly. While you might not expect this to make you feel sick as such, that’s often how it can feel – especially if you’re unconsciously tensing your abs hard while you train.
A solution to this problem is to focus more on the muscles you’re trying to use and to try and relax the rest of your body at the same time so that you can breathe properly and so that your body can supply you with the oxygen and nutrients you need.
At the same time it’s also important to pay conscious attention to the way that you’re breathing while you exercise.
So what’s the answer? How do you breathe correctly? According to research there’s actually not a ton of difference regardless of the way you breathe. Some people will tell you to inhale when you lift and exhale when you release and vice versa, but in fact there’s no evidence to back up those claims anyway. The best thing to do during a regular exercise is just to try and relax yourself a little and breathe as normally as possible.
Things change a little though when you start lifting heavy. If you’ve noticed that you’re feeling sick while performing the most challenging exercises like deadlifts and squats, then that’s probably because you are holding your breath and tensing your stomach during those movements – it’s almost impossible not to.
The trick then isn’t to try and fight your natural inclination, but rather to just make sure you take a deep breath in before you perform the rep. You’ll notice that this is what any Olympic lifter or bodybuilder will do prior to attempting a particularly heavy weight and it’s important to prevent you from running out of breathe – and getting rather peaky – right at the apex of your exercise. Then, once you reach the end of that repetition, you can breathe out ready to go again.
So try to breathe as normally as possible and relax. But when this isn’t an option, be sure to take in a deep breath first to see you through.
Problem 2: You Just Ate
Another reason people will often feel sick in the gym is that they have a ton of food sloshing around in their gut. This was a big problem for me for a long time when I would have a sandwich, three eggs and two cups of tea right before working out. Some trainers will even recommend eating protein/energy supplements directly before working out which then means you’ll be filling up.
But if you’re going to do this then be sensible. Give your food time to go down at least, and the more you eat, the longer you should wait before hitting the gym. If you’re not sure if you’re ready, try jumping up and down and feel how your food sits in your stomach. You’ll know if you’re good to go or not…
Problem 3: You Haven’t Eaten
While eating too much right before a workout can understandably cause problems, so too can doing the opposite – hitting the gym on an empty stomach.
While you lift weights you see, your body will want to supply you with oxygen and nutrients to ensure you can keep going. In particular you’re going to use up a lot of glucose, and once you run out of blood sugar you’ll start to feel faint as sick – as though you’re about to pass out even. Again this can be particularly acute during compound exercises like the squat or deadlift as those are the ones that require the most energy.
If you’re waking up first thing in the morning then and heading straight to the gym, it might just be that your blood sugar is running too low. Eat some source of carbs an hour before you go and you should find you feel a lot better.
Problem 4: You Are Sick
Lastly, if you’re feeling under the weather with the start of a cold or any other problem, then this too might be making you feel rough when you exert yourself. You might feel fine the rest of the time even, but when you push yourself at the gym you will increase your heart rate and you’ll suppress your immune system speeding up the progression of the illness and making the mild symptoms seem more acute.
If you notice you’re feeling rough at the gym and you’ve addressed all the above culprits, then it may be the start of a cold or an infection. Be sensible and take a couple of days off, and that way when you return to the weights you’ll find you have much more energy and much better workouts going ahead as a result.