Anxiety attacks at the Gym

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PAUSA

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I go to the gym and pretty much just hope that it doesn't bother me. I went this morning actually and was completely fine, but just on Monday I had to leave after my warm up, so I never really know. Once you get your tests done and they tell you what's going on, which I'm sure is nothing out of the norm, you will be able to reason with yourself somewhat that you're young and healthy and perfectly fine.

The other day I was at the gym with my husband and he was running next to me on the treadmill, but he sometimes does interval training so he was doing sprints and then regular running back and forth and his head was tomato red, he was covered in sweat and his pulse was almost 200 bpm and I was like oh my gosh you aren't supposed to have a heart rate that high (he's 28, I'm 25) and he was like yeah it's fine I was pushing myself to the max and it's ok to get it that high sometimes. If it had been me, I would've been freaking out!! I think more people than not experience the kinRAB of symptoms that we do at the gym, it's just that they understand that they are there to get out of breath and work up a sweat and while we get that too, it's hard to convince yourself especially when you start to get that twinge of anxiety creeping up.

Just take it easy when you go until you get your test results and if you start to get anxious, try to do some deep breathing and just walk around until you start to calm down. Sometimes that helps me and sometimes it doesn't. Also if you have someone to go to the gym with or you know people there that you can talk to so you aren't so focused on yourself and your feelings while you're there, that can help a lot. Hang in there;)
 
Hi All,

Recently over the last few weeks at the gym I've experienced a few anxiety attacks.

Basically what happened is, I was doing some cardio and as my heart started to work harder and faster all of sudden it just started fraking me out and my heart just started racing like crazy. Everytime it happened I did manage to snap out of the attack after a few minutes, but one time I really felt like my heart was going to explode and I was almost ready to have the gym call 911.

Anyways now anytime I do cardio and get my heart over say 125 BPM which is not the fast i'm afraid of getting another anxiety attack. Before I was easily able to handle keeping my heart rate in the upper 130's to low 140's.

The thing is I recently started working out again and I'm not in the best of shape cardio wise, I;m in ok shape, but my heart probably has to work a little harder than the average cat on account of smoking and just almost not doing any cardio work for many years until about 5 months ago. (its been about 5 months now I should be getting alot stronger cardio wise and I have it's just this anxiety thing that all of sudden hit me.

Does anybody have any ideas or have experience with the same thing while working out, how can I start working out again and getting in good shape if I'm constantly worried about having an anxiety attack anytime I elevate my heart rate? I;m only 30 year old and I should be able to get my heart rate in the 150's - 160's without to much concern.

Any advice is appreciated, thanks!!:wave:
 
My suggestion would be to go to the doctor and get a good checkup. When the doctor tells you all is well and anxiety pops up while you're working out, you'll know that's exactly what it is. ;)
 
PUASA,

do you constantly check you rheart rate when your doing youyr cardio.

I lift alot of weights as well, but when i do cardio on the bike or elliptical I'm constantly checking my heary rate.

I have this thing and I'm not sure if it's in my head but everytime my heart rate goes to about 145 all of sudden I get this really scary Palp or Premature Beat, where it feel like my heart is going to explode or something.

I first started noticing the Palps a few months ago and would only get them at the gym while doing something that brough my heart rate up. I was reading that more people seem to get them at rest and they go away as there heart rate goes up. Now I;m getting them both at rest and when working out.

Some of my palps are pretty forceful, I don't pass out or get dizzy maybe a little disoriented depending on how scared I get.

I wonder if I always had them and just never noticed before or if they really are new to me and just started occuring out of no where.

I firsted started getting worried about my heart when these Palp's started a few months ago, but they where only palp's and even if I got them and it scared me the second i got off the cardio machine my heart would slow dowm and I could relax. This heart racing thing is newer to me and is even scarier than the Palps feeling your heart just go out of control like that is so scary to me.

Also another funny thing yesterday i went to the gym and my cardio routine was not that hard but it was still hard enough to where I know my heart rate should at least have been in the 120's to 130's and no matter how hard I peddled I could not get my heart rate passed the low 100's.

Funny yesterday I got worried because I could not get my heart rate up and the day before because it went to far up.
AM I WEIRD OR WHAT:dizzy:

Anyways do you think that should be concerning to me not being able to make my heart rate go up while exercising.

What kind of Palps do you get or how do they feel I mean. Does it hurt a little ever is it foreful or just a light thud thud in your chest? Oh and when do you get your when your at rest or exercising?

Anybody who gets Palps please buzz in on your experiences or any ideas to how to improve how I'm feeling?

I mean honestly I know most of what I have is just in my head and likely I'm just freaking myself out a little. Its just that i would love to go the gym give it my all and workout like a 30 year old should be and not constantly worried about droping dead from some odd ball heart anomaly. (I hate feeling this way and honestly my anxiety is not even that bad, I had some very bad attacks in my teen age years and have been free of them till recently so I know what bad anxiety is but still its bad enough that it interfere's with my life a little)

_ food for thought what came first the anxiety and the palps or the palps and then anxiety, and is the Palps really what caused the anxiety since we now know that anxiety is likely a brain chemical issue, "at least thats what the scientist's say"

Sorry for the long post
 
You sound like you're having a rough time but well done for getting back to the gym and keeping on trying. Some people faced with that sort of anxiety would just avoid the situation for fear of it happening again.

I have palpitations. I have both the PVCs and sometimes my heart starts racing for no reason and I never know whether it's my anxiety that makes that happen or it's something in my physiology. I don't get the PVCs now as much as I used to 10 or so years ago. I don't know whether it's because I take a regular multivitamin and calcium/magnesium supplements or I don't notice them as much.

But last year when I got in the car after a walk with my friend (a hard walk not just a country stroll) my heart just started racing. We were meeting somewhere for a coffee and so I met her, had the coffee, forced down a cake - panicking all the while - and then left saying I wasn't feeling well. I started to drive home then changed my mind and drove to the dr's. They put me straight on the ECG machine and my heart rate was at 150. I think it was a panic attack. They offered me beta blockers but I said no.

But now I find because I got one after exercising once it's easy to 'bring them on' again in the same situation. It's called cued panic attacks. It's like if you have a PA at a certain red light on your way to work, every morning you'll be wondering if you're going to have one at that red light and you can bring it on. That's what happens to me, anyway. But I also sometimes wake up in the middle of the night and my heart will start racing for no reason, and I'll start shaking as well and I just have to get up and try and distract myself until it stops. But that's another cued thing now.

I hope this makes sense. It's worthwhile you having all the tests done for your peace of mind.

Do you still smoke? The nicotine probably exacerbates the PVCs as well. I used to smoke.
 
I also get anxiety attacks at the gym from time to time. I don't know why I'm perfectly fine going for a while and then other times I get there, start working out, feel weird in my head and my heart races or gets palpitations and I have to run out and go home. That actually just happened to me the other day. I hadn't been to the gym for about a week and the last time I went all I did was an hour of cardio so I walked in on Monday and started to do my warm up and by the end of my warm up I had to leave and I haven't gone back since. I get so mad at myself, but at the time I'm so uncomfortable I can't help it. Anyway, I'm sure you're fine physically, but I'm never against going to the doctor to have everything checked out just to be sure. I've had EKG's, Stress Echocardiograms, 24 hour holter monitors and everything has come out fine other than the fact that I have PAC's and PVC's on occasion which the cardiologist said that most people have anyway and they are fine. Good luck to you :-)
 
Leo... I know exactly what you mean about "hard" palps or almost feeling a little disoriented after you have one. That has happened to me a few times now and they are really scary. The other kind that I will get on occasion are the ones that just feel like your heart is fluttering in your chest and you can't get them to stop and then all of a sudden they do stop and your heart is racing like crazy. I get just regular palps sometimes too though. Sometimes I get just one and then other times I'll get a couple in a row. When I'm at the gym I usually get mine when I'm doing weights for my upper body. Especially the fly. I hardly do it anymore because I'm scared of the palps. I use like 10 pounRAB too so its not even like its that much weight. Don't laugh at the 10 pounRAB :) Anyway, they don't seem to bother me too much during cardio, but sometimes I do get them depending on how hard I push myself. Typically I don't check my pulse during cardio either, but I definitely do if I start to feel anxious or like I'm working really hard. That's when I jump off of whatever I'm on and run out of the gym.

Oh and you are NOT crazy for the slow heart rate either. It's so weird because when I had anxiety really bad in February I would be in a full blown panic attack and my heart rate would be 60 bpm. Then I was convinced there was something wrong, but my doctor said that even though it's a fairly uncommon symptom of anxiety, it can be a symptom. That's even worse than having a racing heart I think. I don't know, both are uncomfortable. My grandfather always has an extremely hard time getting his heart rate up though. He has to walk for forever when they have him do the stress echo tests. Sometimes I think that those of us with anxiety are so in tune to every little thing that goes on with our bodies that we drive ourselves crazy with it and that's what brings on the anxiety in the first place. I agree with Trixie though on the cued panic. That happens to me definitely, but I just try to get through it and usually if I go in with a positive attitude everything is fine.
 
Hey Leo, I'm actually 25 until the 20th of this month ;) Haha I try to hang onto it as much as I can!! Anyway, it's close enough to your age and yes I do agree that we have our entire lives ahead of us and why worry all the rest of the years away when we could be thoroughly enjoying them and living life to the fullest.

My anxiety started when I was around 15 I think. My mom said that I was a really anxious child and worried a lot and I remeraber having bad separation anxiety from her up until middle school. I started having actual panic attacks in high school and sometimes I'd just have to run out of class because I felt so terrible. The choices I chose to make during my teenage years didn't exactly help my anxiety either though. I wised up around 18 and didn't have much anxiety until I was about 22 and then it's been pretty much constant since then. Sometimes worse than others, but always present to some extent.

Do you notice that alcohol bothers your or anything? I used to be able to drink most people under the table and then one night my husband and I had another couple over and we had some champagne and my heart started racing like crazy and it was so scary!! I haven't drank much since then because I'm afraid it's going to happen again, but I really did enjoy having a drink or two when we would go out to dinner with frienRAB or sit around the pool. I think I'm so paranoid about it now that I probably cause the anxiety. I had half of a Mike's Hard Lime the other day and I had a panic attack. Was it the alcohol or me? The odRAB are in favor of it being me, but still it's so frustrating. I can't imagine that I'd develop an alcohol allergy or intolerance, but maybe I have. My Dr. said no, but I'm not convinced. Oh the joy of anxiety... NOT!!!

Thanks for your encouragement and positive worRAB though. I appreciate it :)

P.S. Sometimes when you get palps, if you cough a few times it takes them away.
 
YES PAUSA,

My palps are almost exacly like your, actually I get them when I'm lifting weights to and only certain exercise where my body is like in akward position and that position make it hard to breathe or something like that.

Yes usually I get the futtering like you and sometimes just like you they come in group of a few or just one time and thats it, they used to scare me so much and now not so much.

I recently started taking Testosterone treatment because i have Low T levels due to my needing to take chronic pain meRAB for certain pain conditions I have. I first thought my palps where realted to the meRAB I was taking now I;m convinced they are just normal and alot of people get them and just don't feel them as much, hence they don't know.

But ever since I started my T treatment my palps have become less as well as my overall anxiety, I have been worried a few times over certain feeling I get like a Palp or chest pain or something but not freaked out about it.

The only thing I really do slightly worry about is to get another racing heart panick attack,

But yes I know exactly what you are feeling and I know that I probably get almost the exact same things you get.

Anyways I;m just going with my new motto, If I feel anything like a heart flutter or a chest pain or whatever I;m just ignoring it or if I can't and I keep thinking about it for whatever reason, just tell myself "It's nothing and God is control and stop worrying about nothing and thats that"

It's nothing God is control and whatever happens happens and I'm just sick and tired of worrying it's time to enjoy life.

I think I read on one of your post you are about 30, same age as me. You have your whole life to look forward too and it sounRAB like you have a great family.

I really wish you all the best and thanks so much for your advice and remeraber you are "A strong Woman" and you can beat this crap and it's nothing.

by the Way PAusa if you said it or not I;m not sure, but when did all these anxiety attacks start for you.:wave:
 
Pausa,

Actually alcohol does make your heart work harder and will definitley make the beats fell that way.

What is a Palp really, the actual definition is an awarness of your heart beating. Most people don't feel or don't think about their heart beating on a regular basis. Becoming aware of your beat is a Palp.

And when you become aware of it sometimes it can cause you to get worried about it. Oh why did it skip like that, why is beating so fast or so slow, etc..etc.. And just the simple awarness of it causes it to sometimes beat faster and faster as you get concerned with it, there by making you feel worse.

So drinking alcohol does the same thing to me, it never used to (At least not that I can remeraber) and all of sudden just like you about a year ago I would notice that everytime I drink alcohol my heart starts beating harder and a little faster. And just like you I love to have a drink now and then but on account of that I have cut my drinking down alot.

Not anymore if i feel like having a drink or two I will and if I become aware of my heart beating because of it so what! its normal for the heart to beat a little harder while drinking and I think it's because alcohol constricts the blood vessels. Anways a good strongh heart beat is a healthy sign they say. (At least I think they say that):wave:
 
No have not got that far yet?

I hope to one day be able to wear one so a doctor can make sure my palpations are just normal palps and not some major issue.
 
Thanks everyone for your replies,

Yes PUASA, I know exaclty what you mean I get the Palps also. I probably have PAC's or PVC's but like you said they are normal. I went to the ER a couple of times for this, all EKG came normal and Ilm scedhuled for a Cardio stress test and holter monitor in the near future.

So do you have any ideas on how to corabat this or do you go the gym and basically hope you don't get an attack?
 
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