Feel Sick Post Workout

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

Dont know whats wrong with me but its starting to get annoying.

Doing total Body Training, and Im only in my first week. Towards the end I start feeling sick, cant even guts down my post workout shake - have to sip it down slow.

Eat 3/4 cup of oatmeal 1 hour before workout, protein shake half hour before workout, sip a glucose drink during, and protein and glucose post workout.

I dont think it’s related intirely to TBT, it used to happen before - mainly on barbell curls, squats, lunges.

Any ideas?

2

Start out by being more specific about your PWO shake. Some cheap wheys have upset my stomache in the past. Sorry, can’t site scientific reasons right off but other members might be able to elaborate.

Also, why eat oatmeal before your workout? I go with a P+F meal about an hour before training, at about 5:30 AM. The best fit would be to eat the oatmeal (plus protein) about an hour after training.

BTW, judging from your post, you probably need to do a lot more research. The archives have tons and tons of applicable info.

3

The protein is a good quality whey isolate, made by MAX (australian) They are known as a quality supplement manufacturer.

I eat the oatmeal on training days as soon as I get up, so I guess its breakfast, and it packs in a lot of calories.

Been trying to follow massive eating and the science of nutrient timing, which is where I got the pre, during ond post nutrient requirements.

thanks

4

Whenver I radically change up programs or start training after a week or two layoff the same thing happens to me - I get very nasious after the first couple of workouts. I’m 32 and it’s happened for as long as I can remember.

For me it’s not just related to weight training. Whenever I start back jogging or bike riding the same thing happens for a time or two. At least one other guy that I work with experiences the same thing. Sorry I can’t shed some light on why this happenss - I just know that it does and at least for me doesn’t last very long.

5

[quote]pustanio wrote:
The protein is a good quality whey isolate, made by MAX (australian) They are known as a quality supplement manufacturer.

I eat the oatmeal on training days as soon as I get up, so I guess its breakfast, and it packs in a lot of calories.

Been trying to follow massive eating and the science of nutrient timing, which is where I got the pre, during ond post nutrient requirements.

thanks[/quote]

Since everyone’s biochemistry/physiology is unique and there being numerous variables to consider, the manipulation of any item or items would give different results to each individual. So, the following are just a few thoughts for consideration.

I would stick with the low-fat (P+C) meal about an hour prior to your workout. However, the protein shake 30 min prior and your mid-workout meal might be the problem in your case. I would consume both your oats and whey an hour pre-workout. Then, the next meal would be a shake PWO, but no mid-workout shake. Reason being is if your workouts are rigorous enough, blood will be restricted from going to/fro the GI tract. Your stomach may be getting upset due to the lack of blood flow that is needed for proper digestion if too much food or liquid is present during exercise.

Further advice is this: since everyone is different you have to find what works for you. By all means apply as many principles as possible to your training and nutrition found here on T-Nation as well as other quality resources. HOWEVER, not everything is applicable to everyone!!! You need to “chew your food before you swallow it - spitting out what doesn’t taste right”. Meaning, you can’t just blindly institute every expert piece of advice you come across!

For example, I cannot tolerate eating just prior to, nor during my lifting, because I get nauseous just like you are describing. But, I rest assured knowing that I’m still able to get proper recovery nutrition by not eating any sooner than 1 hour pre-exercise and then immediately after. Even then, my PWO shake is only ingested after 5-10 minutes of cool down (letting my heart rate get back to 40-50% of max), slowly sipped over 10-15 minutes. Since glycogen resynthesis is not instantaneous, chugging a high-GI shake can overwhelm the stomach.

I know I can afford to avoid a shake pre and mid-workout because I’m still achieving very good results. FYI, most of the fuel used during resistance or anaerobic exercise comes from within the cell. The mid-workout shake is only to help kick-start recovery, not to assist the current workout bout. Since your workouts should be 45 minutes or less (60 min is absolute max!), you will have plenty of glycogen, both intramuscular and in the liver, from proper nutrition in the hours and days previous to your workout. Therefore, consuming a pre and mid-workout shake may not be necessary in all cases.

There have been very successful “old-school” fitness athletes that have built very impressive physiques without sipping shakes constantly around the workout time. Heck, many of them didn’t even use any form of protein shake - sticking to 100% whole food and they STILL made great gains! Point being that I whole-heartedly believe in, and therefore incorporate as much of Berardi’s suggestions as possible, but not everything is practical for every individual (that goes for all authors of all resources no matter how qualified!).

TopSirloin

6

Whenever I am out of the gym for over a week, and I have not had any exercise at all, I get out of shape. If I try to go straight back to working at the same intensity/volume, I am sweating my balls off, and sometimes feel nauseous. So my guess would be that it could be your stomach full, as TopSirloin described, or you are just out of shape, because TBT is a pretty tough workout.

7

You may want to consider consuming both the oatmeal and protein powder an hour before the workout.

Also, if you consider yourself to be in poor cardiovascular shape, start running/jogging on your non-training days. Having solid cardiovascualr endurance translates into better performance in the gym IMO.

One last thing, order Power Drive and down one scoop 45 min before workout time. It’s a great energy/focus boost that you won’t be able to do without if you give it a shot.

8

[quote]TravisCS84 wrote:
Whenever I am out of the gym for over a week, and I have not had any exercise at all, I get out of shape. If I try to go straight back to working at the same intensity/volume, I am sweating my balls off, and sometimes feel nauseous. So my guess would be that it could be your stomach full, as TopSirloin described, or you are just out of shape, because TBT is a pretty tough workout.[/quote]

Wow, taking 7 days off affects you that much?! Your conditioning shouldn’t diminish quite that fast, maybe 5% reduced aerobic capacity, but anaerobic systems should be the same, if not enhanced after a brief lay-off.

You’re at least the second person to mention the nausea when coming back from a lay-off on this thread. This is a bit unusual, unless you guys are running NFL type wind-sprints or something extremely taxing like 20 rep squats.

As more of an exception, rather than a rule, I think those of you that get these symptoms might have a blood glucose/insulin issue. I’m not saying you are pre-diabetic/hypoglycemic, but I believe something is going on here.

Since we know exercise generally makes the body more glucose and subsequently more insulin sensitive, you might be experiencing a rapid drop in blood glucose. Maybe during the lay-off your body is becoming slightly more insulin resistant and then the sudden on-set of heavy exercise put’s you into a semi-hypoglycemic state (blood sugar dipping below normal can cause weakness, nausea, excessive sweating, fatigue-like feelings, mood swings, etc).

I have hypoglycemia to some degree and pushing myself too far on fasted-state cardio or lifting heavy without having a meal within the previous 2 hours will give me all the previously listed symptoms. Come to think of it, if I don’t eat every 4-5 hours, I feel like crap, exercising or not!

Just some thoughts to ponder.

TopSirloin

9

This is a sign you’ve reached high intensity in your workout.

It’s normal if you exert yourself to true failure. The nausea you experience is your body’s way of protecting itself from further physical assault.

10

I do Total Body Workouts and I have to eat about 1 hour and a half to 2 hours before workout without feeling a little nauseous. However, each person is a little different, so as others have suggested it may be what you are eating before your workout. All I know is that I want all the blood I can get pumped into my muscles and not in my stomach digesting food during my workout.

Also, my first month on a full/total body workout really made me feel nauseous if I went all out. Therefore, your intensity may have something to do with it. Usually this over-intensity is not a problem for most people, but I know that for me I am not that afraid to puke during a workout as long as I can make it to the bathroom. hahaha.

Hope that helps.

11

[quote]caca wrote:
This is a sign you’ve reached high intensity in your workout.

It’s normal if you exert yourself to true failure. The nausea you experience is your body’s way of protecting itself from further physical assault.[/quote]

Surely prolonged high intensity exercise can lead to nausea, such as the 400m sprint or marathon. But, if you have a metabolic condition such as insulin resistance or hypoglycemia you can get these symptoms at sub-high intensities. Further, how is it normal to go to “true failure” when it should not be a common practice and is generally unnecessary, unless it’s specific to your sport/event?! Not to mention, what type of failure are you referring to? Doing singles in the bench press or repping 80% of your 1RM to failure in the deadlift or squat??? Not all failure scenarios will lead to the same symptoms.

TS

12

[quote]TopSirloin wrote:
caca wrote:
This is a sign you’ve reached high intensity in your workout.

It’s normal if you exert yourself to true failure. The nausea you experience is your body’s way of protecting itself from further physical assault.

Surely prolonged high intensity exercise can lead to nausea, such as the 400m sprint or marathon. But, if you have a metabolic condition such as insulin resistance or hypoglycemia you can get these symptoms at sub-high intensities. Further, how is it normal to go to “true failure” when it should not be a common practice and is generally unnecessary, unless it’s specific to your sport/event?! Not to mention, what type of failure are you referring to? Doing singles in the bench press or repping 80% of your 1RM to failure in the deadlift or squat??? Not all failure scenarios will lead to the same symptoms.

TS[/quote]

i did not refer to volume, time under tension or tempo.

very few people know what TRUE FAILURE is. TRUE FAILURE is if someone held a gun to your head and threatened to blow your head if you did not perform one more rep. It’s near this intensity that nausea, for me anyways, sets in.

many people think they reach failure, but they really haven’t.

Thats my opinion.

13

I appreciate the help you have all offered here with no sarcasm!

Will have to try the protein shake with the oats, Im sure that will make a difference,

Another thing I should mention is that I would sip probably 1 litre of water in the hour workout, which fills me up pretty good.

Im not that fit, have never really been interested in running or other cardio type excersizes which would probably have a bit to do with it aswell.

14

If I have a protein shake 1/2 hour before a workout, it will make me puke. Every time. How are you supposed to digest that before you train? Answer: you can’t. I would take the protein 1 1/2 hours before, and a very small carb meal 1/2 hour before. Work out like a mad-man, don’t feel sick, and then hit the protein immediately after - isolate protein not concentrate. But hey, that’s just me.

15

Filling up and maintaining fullness of liquids might be part of the problem, but something that has been neglected is breathing. How is your breathing? If it is too heavy(chest heaving), or not deep and controled enough, that could be causing you to puke. Try deep diaphragmatic breathing through the nose between sets and try to keep the pace of breaths constant.Otherwise, full of fliuds and whatever else you are filling up with, your diaphragm won’t have much room to move with out pushing your food out of the way.
Also, look up some stuff in the archives about pre workout feeding.I am not sure of the details, but I know you aren’t supposed to be full.Some small amount is good to have as a pre-emptor to the post work-out, but full is not good.

16

[quote]mindeffer01 wrote:
Filling up and maintaining fullness of liquids might be part of the problem, but something that has been neglected is breathing. How is your breathing? If it is too heavy(chest heaving), or not deep and controled enough, that could be causing you to puke. Try deep diaphragmatic breathing through the nose between sets and try to keep the pace of breaths constant.Otherwise, full of fliuds and whatever else you are filling up with, your diaphragm won’t have much room to move with out pushing your food out of the way.
Also, look up some stuff in the archives about pre workout feeding.I am not sure of the details, but I know you aren’t supposed to be full.Some small amount is good to have as a pre-emptor to the post work-out, but full is not good.
[/quote]

The breathing aspect might indeed be something to look into. Good idea.

And, I’m not trying to pick at fight or be negative, but I think the “archive” reference isn’t very helpful in the least. If a newbie posts a very uneducated question and could stand to read several articles, then sure, they should be directed toward the phenomenal library of information here. However, its obvious the archives/old articles don’t fit everyone like a glove if they are still having a problem and posting a specific question. If you have been in the iron game for a while and really want to help someone, try posting some creative, intuitive, and personal anecdotal experiences to help others, rather than taking the easy way out and referring them to more of the same information.

TopSirloin