Feeling unwell after training – what to do?

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CrossFit is one of the most intense and difficult sports. The load during the training complex is several times higher than in any other discipline, be it bodybuilding, powerlifting, or classical fitness. This is why beginners often complain of feeling unwell after training. Is this normal? How to avoid this and what to do if you feel sick the day after training?

Types of training

To answer the question why an athlete feels bad after training, you need to plunge into the training process itself. Not all workouts are created equal. Among them, there are those that improve your health, and there are those that improve your athletic performance. In the second case, health may suffer.

1. Health training. As a rule, this is a set of light exercises that tone muscles and improve overall well-being. This can be light cardio or moderate strength training that does not stress the body. You won't feel sick after a workout if you exercise at a low intensity.
2. Warm-up workout. This is training before the competition. It is characterized by a high speed of performing exercises with a low intensity of the load itself. During such training, hypoxia often develops, and afterwards a headache.
3. Workout training. This is a workout using sports equipment that involves working with your own weight. It can overload your body, especially if you don't keep a workout log and push yourself to do more than you're capable of.
4. Aerobic training. This is serious cardio. How well you will feel depends on the intensity and timing. Aerobic training is often accompanied by dehydration and all the ensuing consequences.
5. Strength anaerobic training. This is a tough workout with heavy weights in the gym. If the body is not prepared for such stress, you will experience a full range of side effects, from nausea to loss of consciousness.
6. Drying workout. This is a relatively easy workout that can be both aerobic and anaerobic. However, keep in mind that during the drying itself, your body is already in a stressful situation and, as a result, cannot fully recover.

So, some types of exercise will definitely make you feel bad, while others will only make you feel better. However, first of all, how you feel after training is determined not by the load, but by your readiness for this load.

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Take Supplements Wisely

To increase his endurance, IFBB professional and bodybuilding competitor Craig Capurso turns to sports supplements for help. “As part of my training, I increase my endurance threshold by supplementing with caffeine and branched-chain amino acids, which have been shown to effectively reduce fatigue and help increase workout duration,” shares Capurso's advice.

Supplements with BCAA provide the body with essential amino acids, in particular leucine. They also prevent muscle breakdown and act as a source of fuel for muscle tissue. In addition, taking BCAAs during training helps combat general fatigue, which in turn helps maintain energy and increase the intensity of exercise during training.

Caffeine increases energy, alertness, has a stimulating effect and speeds up blood circulation. However, pay close attention to the dosage, as too much caffeine will not be good for you. Research suggests that the optimal dosage is 3.2-5.5 mg per kilogram of body weight, which means approximately 275-460 mg of caffeine for an 85-pound man or 215-365 mg for a 65-pound woman.

Additionally, don’t underestimate the power of pre-workout supplements. The right combination of ingredients can help you decisively challenge fatigue. “My favorite pre-workout supplement is C4 Ripped,” fitness model Jen Jewel shares her secrets to success. “It gives me an extra boost on strength training days and is also effective at promoting fat loss.”

General information

Why do athletes sometimes feel sick the day after training? There are three main reasons why this happens:

1. Overtraining.
2. Dietary errors.
3. Insufficient recovery.

“Overtrained”

The most common cause of poor health. As a rule, it occurs not in beginners, but in professional athletes. In an attempt to perform a WOD complex in less time, lift more weight, or master a new movement, our body experiences stress for which it was not initially prepared.

Stress leads to the effect of overtraining. And if for beginners this process occurs almost painlessly, since their body is still adjusting to the loads and has time to adapt to them, then for experienced athletes, overtraining is much more severe.

It is because of this that most of the unpleasant side effects occur:

• Nausea;
• Loss of consciousness;
• Muscle pain;
• Heartache;
• Headache;
• Insomnia.

In order not to suffer from overtraining, it is enough to train exclusively according to the plan. A trainer or a special diary with results will help you with this, which you need to focus on during each training session.

Nutrition

The second reason for feeling unwell after training can be poor nutrition.

There are several cases when dietary errors affect your well-being:

1. Poisoning or overload of the digestive system. In this case, the body does not have time to digest all the food before training, then under the influence of physical activity the food becomes toxic to the body and causes poisoning.
2. Insufficient consumption of certain nutrients. Thus, a lack of carbohydrates reduces blood sugar levels, which during the training process can lead to exhaustion and other consequences.
3. Incorrect, unbalanced diet. For example, with hyper-consumption of complex proteins, all systems are stressed, including the kidneys and liver. In this case, training will become a trigger that will trigger organ failure and other unpleasant consequences.

© bit245 — depositphotos.com. Balanced diet

Recovery

And the last reason is lack of recovery. The human body functions normally and grows in strength only if:

• a full 8 hours of sleep;
• break between critical loads of 36 hours.
• absence of nervous stress;
• proper balanced nutrition.

Violation of any of these factors leads to a deterioration in the body's regenerative ability. As a result, an insufficiently rested body receives irreparable stress that it is unable to cope with.

Causes of dizziness after exercise

1. Lack of oxygen. If a person runs at a fast pace for a long time or performs intense strength training, then dizziness may occur due to lack of air. Any load should be performed at a moderate pace.
2. Great physical activity. Often people begin to overdo it with sports, increase the load, and begin to train longer and longer. As a result, pressure drops and the body is no longer able to maintain the given intensity.
3. Dehydration. Dizziness can be caused by a sudden change in blood flow and a change in heart rate, so during training you need to select the optimal load that the body can perform. Dehydration occurs due to increased body temperature and profuse sweating. During training, you should always drink water, but under no circumstances not half a bottle at a time. You need to drink in small sips, alternating water intake with approaches to physical exercise.
4. Nutrition. When energy is depleted, dizziness occurs. Our body is like a car. It must be refueled with fuel, and for humans with food. To provide the body with sufficient energy, you need to eat shortly before training. It is recommended to have a snack two hours before training. Food should contain proteins and complex carbohydrates, such as chicken and buckwheat, rice and fish. A nutritious meal will help you get a good workout and replenish your strength. If you can’t eat a big meal, you need to have a light snack (fruits, nuts, dairy products).
5. Medications. Possible reasons include the use of drugs to treat blood pressure, the use of antibiotics or tranquilizers. In this case, it is better to wait until the medication is finished and give preference to walking at a calm pace.

Presence of diseases

What mechanisms occur in the body that contribute to dizziness?

• Hypertension. With this disease you need to do certain exercises. Strength training with axial loading is contraindicated. For safety, it is better to practice under the supervision of a trainer.
• Disorders of the vestibular apparatus. Avoid exercises that can cause motion sickness. Choose a load without sudden movements, perform physical exercises slowly and consciously.
• Increased intracranial pressure. After the training, you may experience headache, dizziness, and a sense of schedule in the parietal region. During exercise, monitor your heart rate; the load should be gentle with minimal weight.
• Atherosclerosis. In addition to dizziness, a person with this disease may experience severe pain in the frontal area. It is better to give preference to physical activities in which the body is fixed, without jumping or sudden changes in position.
• Osteochondrosis. If a person suffers from osteochondrosis of the cervical spine, then dizziness may occur due to spasms of the neck muscles. When doing strength exercises, people with this problem should not hold their breath or lift weights, which lead to excessive straining.
• Vegetovascular dystonia. The autonomic nervous system regulates the activity of internal organs. If the level of physical activity does not match, hand tremors and dizziness appear. It is necessary to exclude exercises in which you need to suddenly change body position. The load should be moderate. Exercises in which the head is lower than the chest and exercises upside down are contraindicated. If you start to feel dizzy, it is better to stop and wait until all the symptoms pass.

Read more about what symptoms of dizziness are here.

System overload and symptoms

First of all, do not forget that feeling unwell is just a symptom, which means an overload of certain systems in the body. Such overload can easily be treated symptomatically, but does not eliminate the root cause of the condition. For an athlete, this is a clear sign: it is necessary to change the training process, nutrition, or give the body more time to rest.

Nausea after running

During leg training, after sports they feel discomfort in the stomach, accompanied by nausea. The reason is the changed marathon program, breaks in exercise, alcohol consumption, and increased blood pressure.

Symptoms are felt when squatting with a barbell. The pressure drops due to the outflow of blood. The heart rate increases, tachycardia occurs, tinnitus, and spots in the eyes. The athlete sweats a lot. Those involved in sports make a mistake without suspecting anything - they breathe through their chest. You can reduce the urge by using abdominal breathing. The diaphragm must work. You shouldn’t force the body and exhaust it through nausea.

Nausea when running is caused by high running speed. Breathing becomes harsh and difficult, the temples pulsate, the legs become tangled, and the person loses coordination. It is advisable to gradually increase the load. Alternate between walking and running, then increasing the running and decreasing the walking. The athlete must be comfortable running, making arm movements, breathing, and talking. If you start to feel nauseous, take a brisk walk; if you feel better, increase your running.

Cardio and health

People often complain that they feel sick after a running workout. What is this connected with? First of all, because the body was not adapted to such a load. Even if you have well-developed legs, do not forget that cardio load primarily overloads the cardiovascular system, which cannot return to normal and continues to work intensively after running.

In addition, there is a whole range of symptoms that cause poor health after cardio training, even in experienced athletes:

1. Dehydration. When you run, you lose a lot of minerals and fluids. Since you don't drink enough fluid while running, the natural result is dehydration. This is a common reason for feeling unwell after a cardio workout.
2. Toxic breakdown of adipose tissue. Since cardio is often performed in the fat-burning zone, it is important to remember that the completed forms of the triglyceride molecule break down, releasing alkaloids that poison the liver and body. If the body is not sufficiently prepared for such stress, cardio simply causes fat poisoning, which goes away on its own within a few hours after the end of the workout.
3. Drop in blood sugar levels. During the load process, the body first uses all easily broken down energy - primarily glucose, which circulates throughout the body. If the intensity of cardio training does not allow the breakdown of new glycogen in time or it runs out, this leads to a sharp drop in blood sugar levels with consequences in the form of hypoglycemia.
4. Hypoxia of all tissues. A characteristic feature of high-intensity cardio training is precisely the lack of oxygen. They are trying to stop this problem with hypoxic masks and other tricks, but the fact remains a fact. While running, the body simply does not have enough oxygen to function normally.

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Limit your sugar intake... but only during certain periods of time

Sugar in general is extremely bad for your diet, but the only time it can even be beneficial is when consumed during exercise.

“If I feel like I'm starting to get sluggish and tired during my long two-hour workouts, I'll eat a couple of fat-free candies to give myself an extra boost of energy,” explains USAPL powerlifter Karina Baymiller. “Low-calorie candies are effective because they are quickly digested and provide a burst of energy.”

Keep in mind that only a small amount of sugar is needed for optimal effect. By consuming too many low-calorie sweets, with each workout you will, one way or another, deliberately increase your body fat reserves, thus hindering your own goals of losing excess weight and developing a slim and toned figure.

How to get rid of it?

Alas, if you feel sick after training, there is no universal treatment. All that can be done is to stop the symptoms that arise. If you are dehydrated, drink plenty of water. If you feel nauseated, stop exercising immediately. In any case, it is easier to avoid feeling unwell than to treat the consequences later. And for this you need to competently draw up a training plan and calculate your strength.

IMPORTANT: CrossFit is considered one of the most unpleasant sports, not only because the training loads are often beyond the strength of beginners, but also because of the grouping of trainees. In one group there may be people with different fitness levels, and if during one training session a person simply gets overtrained, then in the long term he may well develop athlete’s heart syndrome. Therefore, when doing CrossFit, at first, use individual training with an instructor or home complexes that will prepare you for the upcoming loads.

What to do if things get bad?

It is impossible to completely control everything, and even if a person follows all the rules, pain during training cannot be avoided. And if it becomes bad, then it is better to know exactly what needs to be done in this case and why the unpleasant sensations arose.

So, if you feel bad during training, you need to act as follows:

1. Stop exercising as soon as you feel nausea, dizziness, etc.
2. Then sit on a chair and drink some water in small sips.
3. As soon as it gets a little better, you should wash your face with cold water and sit for a little longer.
4. If the unpleasant sensations have passed, then you need to inform someone present in the hall about it and go home.
5. If it doesn't get better, you need to call an ambulance.

Almost every athlete felt ill, during or after training, and this is not uncommon. And in order to avoid them, you should always follow the rules and not be negligent about training and your health. We must remember that unpleasant sensations do not arise just like that, there is always a reason.

Nausea when performing abdominal pumping

Nausea that turns into vomiting during abdominal exercises is the result of eating food immediately before the start of the workout. It is important to always remember that you need to start doing physical exercises after a certain pause after eating.

You should also pay attention to the fact that too heavy, smoked food or poorly combined foods eaten shortly before training increase the likelihood of nausea, especially when it comes to doing abdominal exercises. Targeted stress on the abdominal muscles is appropriate only in cases where the stomach is sufficiently empty. When the main task of the body at the start of physical work is to digest food, a malfunction occurs and the person feels nauseated.