What does exhaustion feel like?

[Frankeh]

I'm trying to gauge if this is normal.
I've never done much cardio or anything but I recently joined a gym and last night I did some cardio.
Managed 3 fast miles on the cycling machine before tightness in my chest took over.

It's hard to explain. It's like my lungs feel dry and tight. Directly centre of chest and up my throat a bit too.

I also coughed on and off for about 20 minutes after exercise. Very annoying.

I've always thought that this was what all people felt when they were all puffed out, but when I mentioned it to someone they said that's not how they feel.

So what's the feeling you get when you just can't run/cycle/swim any more?

I'm going to do cardio all week and see if this feeling goes. It could just be the feeling of being an unfit bd :P

Edited by Frankeh on Tuesday 7th December 09:52

[Maxf]

Sounds pretty normal to me... you will be working your lungs harder than usual, and breathing heavier. I tend to feel it more in the winter when the air is colder/drier, rather than the summer though.

ETA: Exhaustion is falling off the bike, then having to hold onto things as you walk away from it as your legs are like jelly

Edited by Maxf on Tuesday 7th December 10:03

[Frankeh]

Maxf said:

ETA: Exhaustion is falling off the bike, then having to hold onto things as you walk away from it as your legs are like jelly

See, that's the thing. Yes my legs felt like jelly, but it wasn't that what stopped me. I could have gone on longer if my lungs/chest/throat wasn't hurting.

[ecain63]

As has been said above: Because your new to the CV thing your body wont be used to the heavy breathing, increased heart rate, etc. In my opinion you might have gone in too fast with the running. You need to warm up correctly and even when running you need to stretch your upper body (chest expansion etc). Bring your heart rate up steadily and dont get into a full stride until you are warm. If you can feel your heart beat thumping in your head then you are not warmed up properly and probably running to fast or out of rhythm. A typical sign that your not warm is also a sharp pain in the throat and increased saliva production.

Avoiud running in temps below 0C too, as this can cause water to form in the lungs also causing chest pains.

[Frankeh]

I was cycling, but I assume that the advice still applies. Going again tonight and I'm going to go a bit slower at first and work up the levels.

Might try rowing too as it seems like a better exercise.

Boy are gyms boring places though. Even listening to my own music I'm bored senseless haha.

Cycle powered xboxes... That's the future of gyms.

[ecain63]

Why not start circuit training? Its a big group session that incorporates all ability levels. That'll cure the boredom issue.

[996 sps]

Avoiud running in temps below 0C too, as this can cause water to form in the lungs also causing chest pains.
[/quote]

Where do I find the research on this? All the years i ve been running in cold climates and i ve never heard of this or suffered symptoms.

[King David]

If you are going to try the rowing machine make sure you get the technique right. Done right rowing is a brilliant way of losing weight and gaining fitness (I lost two stone in about 8 months of regular rowing), but if you get it wrong it will hurt your back and you won't be able to do it for long enough to see results.

Going by my experience I would say you don't just want to be churning out high intensity 'fast miles' that you can only maintain for a short period. You need to get on those machines and stay on for at least 30 minutes if not an hour, bloody boring but it will pay off! If you like that feeling of absolutely killing yourself then stick a sprint on at the end.

[10 Pence Short]

I would imagine your ability to take on and process oxygen is less than you are able to push your muscles.

When I used to run Cross Country in my teens, I could happily tear along all day without my muscles feeling fatigued, but only because I needed to work harder on my cardio vascular side to really be able to push them.

It's probably a good idea to work out a program that balances your need to putting fitness back into your muscles whilst matching what you need to to be able to feed them. I see little point in people working out to the point that you're over-stressing your heart and lungs without giving much benefit to the rest of you.

[Frankeh]

King David said:

If you are going to try the rowing machine make sure you get the technique right. Done right rowing is a brilliant way of losing weight and gaining fitness (I lost two stone in about 8 months of regular rowing), but if you get it wrong it will hurt your back and you won't be able to do it for long enough to see results.

Going by my experience I would say you don't just want to be churning out high intensity 'fast miles' that you can only maintain for a short period. You need to get on those machines and stay on for at least 30 minutes if not an hour, bloody boring but it will pay off! If you like that feeling of absolutely killing yourself then stick a sprint on at the end.

I think I got the technique down in my first session.
Slight jumping of the chain, but I think that was just me returning too fast.

I did 3600ish meters in 20 minutes, but I kept stopping in mid stride because I realised my technique was going to st.

The basics of it seems to be:
Legs extend, arms contract with slight lean back, arms detract, legs detract, repeat.

[I Love Lamp]

OP - have you considered HIIT training?

I found this to be very, very good at improving fitness.

[Frankeh]

I Love Lamp said:

OP - have you considered HIIT training?

I found this to be very, very good at improving fitness.

Yeah. I used to do that on a bike when I had one at home.
Absolutely kills you, Haha.

I might give it a go on the rower once I get the technique down.

[10 Pence Short]

I Love Lamp said:

HIIT training is about small very intensive bursts, 30 seconds of absolutely flat out sprinting for example, then walking for 30 seconds, repeating this 10-15 times.

Exactly what I used to do- full sprint up a (very) steep 200m hill, jog back down, repeat 10 times or so.

[Frankeh]

I Love Lamp said:

Frankeh said:

I Love Lamp said:

OP - have you considered HIIT training?

I found this to be very, very good at improving fitness.

Yeah. I used to do that on a bike when I had one at home.
Absolutely kills you, Haha.

I might give it a go on the rower once I get the technique down.

Not that I've tried, or carried out any research, but I'm not sure it would work on a rower.

HIIT training is about small very intensive bursts, 30 seconds of absolutely flat out sprinting for example, then walking for 30 seconds, repeating this 10-15 times.

I can imagine doing this on a rowing machine could cause injury, as it's more about the resistance and form as opposed to speed.

Good point.
I think I'm going to stick with the rower for now and just try to bring up my meters per 20 minutes.
I figures it's better to do a cardio I find fun (But maybe isn't as beneficial) than one I find tedious.
I might get disheartened.

[King David]

Frankeh said:

King David said:

If you are going to try the rowing machine make sure you get the technique right. Done right rowing is a brilliant way of losing weight and gaining fitness (I lost two stone in about 8 months of regular rowing), but if you get it wrong it will hurt your back and you won't be able to do it for long enough to see results.

Going by my experience I would say you don't just want to be churning out high intensity 'fast miles' that you can only maintain for a short period. You need to get on those machines and stay on for at least 30 minutes if not an hour, bloody boring but it will pay off! If you like that feeling of absolutely killing yourself then stick a sprint on at the end.

I think I got the technique down in my first session.
Slight jumping of the chain, but I think that was just me returning too fast.

I did 3600ish meters in 20 minutes, but I kept stopping in mid stride because I realised my technique was going to st.

The basics of it seems to be:
Legs extend, arms contract with slight lean back, arms detract, legs detract, repeat.

That is basically it, make sure you take the first part of the stroke entirely on you r legs and keep you upper body strong. Most people have ppor posture when rowing which makes breathing harder while also making your stroke less efficient and putting more strain on your back. Also don't fall into the usual trap of taking an over dose of Alpha-Male and putting the resistence on 10. Especially for longer pieces you will find 3 or 4 is what most rowers have it on as it is more realistic to rowing conditions.

With regards to the HIIT, I do that once a week on the ergo and love it (again with quite a low resistance). Before you do that though I would recomend you get used to being on the machine and maybe try sprinting a few 2k pieces.

Depending on what rowing machines you have you might be able to change the display to show a power graph of your stroke. If you can this is great to make sure your technique is right. While there are a few theories on the perfect shape for the graph a general rule is that you should see a very quick climb as you 'take the catch' then a smooth curve as the power drops off. If you see a second climb then you are pulling too much with your back or arms.

[Frankeh]

King David said:

Depending on what rowing machines you have you might be able to change the display to show a power graph of your stroke. If you can this is great to make sure your technique is right. While there are a few theories on the perfect shape for the graph a general rule is that you should see a very quick climb as you 'take the catch' then a smooth curve as the power drops off. If you see a second climb then you are pulling too much with your back or arms.

It's a concept 2 type D and I used setting 5 in my last workout and liked it.
Started with 3 but it didn't feel as good but I'll experiment with sprints on a lower setting.

Not sure if the concept 2 does power graphs, I'll look at the manual.
It sounds useful though.

Cheers for the advice!

[King David]

Frankeh said:

King David said:

Depending on what rowing machines you have you might be able to change the display to show a power graph of your stroke. If you can this is great to make sure your technique is right. While there are a few theories on the perfect shape for the graph a general rule is that you should see a very quick climb as you 'take the catch' then a smooth curve as the power drops off. If you see a second climb then you are pulling too much with your back or arms.

It's a concept 2 type D and I used setting 5 in my last workout and liked it.
Started with 3 but it didn't feel as good but I'll experiment with sprints on a lower setting.

Not sure if the concept 2 does power graphs, I'll look at the manual.
It sounds useful though.

Cheers for the advice!

Some concept 2s do so check it out. 5 is reasonable, the most important thing is that it feels comfortable.

To go back to what you were saying about being bored, I really struggle with this. Try to do it with someone else so that way you can't quit without them knowing about it. Also try to get outside when you can, I find I can go for twice as long when I'm not in the gym.

[Frankeh]

King David said:

Frankeh said:

King David said:

Depending on what rowing machines you have you might be able to change the display to show a power graph of your stroke. If you can this is great to make sure your technique is right. While there are a few theories on the perfect shape for the graph a general rule is that you should see a very quick climb as you 'take the catch' then a smooth curve as the power drops off. If you see a second climb then you are pulling too much with your back or arms.

It's a concept 2 type D and I used setting 5 in my last workout and liked it.
Started with 3 but it didn't feel as good but I'll experiment with sprints on a lower setting.

Not sure if the concept 2 does power graphs, I'll look at the manual.
It sounds useful though.

Cheers for the advice!

Some concept 2s do so check it out. 5 is reasonable, the most important thing is that it feels comfortable.

To go back to what you were saying about being bored, I really struggle with this. Try to do it with someone else so that way you can't quit without them knowing about it. Also try to get outside when you can, I find I can go for twice as long when I'm not in the gym.

I've found that with rowing my music (Dubstep) has just the right tempo for each stroke.
I think that's what's made the rowing less boring than the cycling.
I was thinking as I was rowing that racing someone would be really fun, but I don't know anyone at the gym yet and my flatmate wont join my gym (Lazy bd :P)

[bales]

I think that true exhaustion is something not very many people will reach very often in gyms. In my experience as a runner i would say i have reached it twice and both times have been physically ill for up to half an hour afterwards and it is very very unpleasant. You will find when your body starts to say your exhausted your probably still way off what your capable of, its just your mind always fails before your body does!

[King David]

I think you're right, normally your mind gives up before your body does. I have hit that point where your body goes a couple of times and it was horrible. It has happened when doing 2k sprints and, most recently, after a rowing cahllenge where we had to row for two and a half hours with a two and a half minute rest each hour with the resistance set to 10. At the end of that my body just didn't have anything left and I was in a lot of pain for a couple of hours after.

Regarding racing someone, when you set your distance or time you can put a pace boat up on the screen. You set the speed it goeas at and it has a graphic of your boat compared to it. Might give you that competitive edge.