You Don’t Have to Suffer!

When you’re working out, you wanna get your heart rate up, you wanna sweat, you wanna push it… but you DON’T want to feel sick or miserable while you’re doing it. And, recently, Purti (a Studio SWEAT member) was feeling exactly that during her workouts – miserable. Today, she’s joining Cat Kom to share the (easy) solution.

Purti was feeling out of breath, a bit nauseous, and all-around horrible. She was almost in a fog most often, barely hearing the trainer’s instructions. Purti works out regularly and had a recent checkup with her doctor who verified she is healthy and fit. She noticed others in the class were keeping up, and doing fine, so she wondered why she was struggling so much. 

Why did she feel like this?

Purti, very wisely, went to Cat for advice. Cat’s first thought was that she was overheating. When you overheat, it causes your already elevated heart rate to increase even more because it’s trying hard to cool down your body. If your heart is working too hard, you will feel awful and it’s hard to recover.

How can you control overheating?

Since Purti already knew she was healthy, Cat walked her through other likely causes:

1. Dress for success – it’s important to wear breathable clothing when exercising so sweat wicks away from your body. Purti was wearing appropriate clothing.
2. Make sure you’re hydrated – Cat recommends drinking (sip, don’t gulp) 16 ounces of water the hour before your workout. Purti follows this guidance.
3. Make sure there is plenty of airflow for YOU – does your workout space provide YOU enough airflow from a source like a fan, an open window, or all over fresh air? Notice how “YOU” is uppercased there? That’s because how much each person needs or wants can totally vary. Though she was right near wide-open doors, Purti still didn’t have the airflow near her bike that she needed for success and was hesitant to turn on a fan because she didn’t want to disturb others near her. 

Not all trainers or athletes seem to know how important airflow is during a workout, but it is key to training safely. Why? Well, when you exercise, your heart works hard to supply blood to your muscles. But also, it’s working hard to send blood to your skin to cool your body’s core temperature. So if your body isn’t sweating as much as it needs to or cooling properly, then your heart is going to go into beast mode to keep trying to cool you down. And when that happens and your heart rate goes bananas for too long, it can make you feel all kinds of awful! One of the best ways to minimize that from happening is to get that air goin’ and flowin’ right where you are.

So turn on the fan or open the doors near you, and don’t feel bad about it. Purti gave this a try at her next Spin class, and she reported that she felt stronger than ever, over and over. She was able to work hard and sweat, and was both physically and mentally present in the class, with an effort level on par with the rest of the group.

Don’t be shy, turn on the fan, and check out lots of amazing body-sculpting, fat-torching workouts at Studio SWEAT onDemand! Download the app, or if you happen to live in southern California, visit us in our San Diego studio.