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The importance of listening to your body during exercise
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Injured tennis player
It is not uncommon for people to experience minor discomfort while exercising; it may be shortness of breath during the first 10 minutes of running, or that muscle burn completing the last set of bicep curls.
The purpose of this article is remind active people to tune in to their bodies while exercising, and to learn the difference between minor discomfort associated with physical exertion versus a more serious matter.
What inspired this article is that Dave Massey recently had this experience:
"Running saved my life. Several weeks ago I started having heaviness in my arms and back while running. I thought it might have been due to the
extreme heat we have had and fatigue from exercising in it. I rested several
days and tried running again. This time I had the same thing happen and I
was feeling tired all the time. I knew something was not right so I went to
my doctor. Of course the first thing we did was rule out cancer. All the
tests came back perfect. That was a huge relief but we still didn't know
what was wrong.
My doctor did not think I had any heart problems because my
heart rate while running never got over 120. He sent me to a cardiologist
just to make sure. The cardiologist is also a runner. He agreed that my
problem did not seem to be coronary. My blood pressure and cholesterol were
almost perfect. He scheduled me for a CT scan just to be sure. The next day
he read the CT and called to tell me he wanted to do an angiogram the next
morning. When he went in with the scope he found three arteries partially
blocked. The worst was 95% blocked. He installed six stints. The good news
is that my heart was in great shape with no damage. He said I probably would
of had a massive heart attack with that much blockage if I was not in such
great condition. I am recovering well and have already started running
again. He doesn't know why I had so much blockage. Most likely it is
hereditary. Once again I dodged the bullet and feel extremely fortunate.
I always try to find the positive in what seems to be an obstacle. I want to let everyone know to listen to their body when something doesn't seem right. I could have easily shrugged it off as a
muscle strain and not done anything about it until I had a massive heart
attack."
Kudos to Dave for listening to his intuition and investigating the cause of his discomfort. We hope that checking-in with how your body feels will keep you on the path of good health!
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