I’ve never met another person like me who either didn’t have a chronic illness, or just wasn’t in a bad shape overall.
over the course of my life I have been overweight, fit, underweight, I did swimming, dancing, regular PE activities, and for the past five years I have been going to the gym. no matter how fit I was at the moment, how healthy/good I felt, every time we had to do a mandatory run at school I was ALWAYS THE WORST. some of my classmates were in worse shape than me and were genuinely surprised to see me do so bad.
whenever I run for more than 30 seconds I feel like my throat is on fire and my heart starts beating so hard I feel like I’m having a heart attack; my head starts pounding and I have an irresistible urge to just collapse on the ground. I remember that at moments I even started crying because the teachers forced us to keep running and I just couldn’t (it wasn’t a long run because no other kid had ever collapsed before me). I lose a lot of energy on running and I sometimes need several hours of rest in order to feel functional again: just from a one minute run.
I can walk for miles, I use several cardio machines at the gym, but running has always been my worst nightmare. I’d genuinely rather swim across atlantic ocean than run a few miles. I don’t have asthma or any allergies, I can breathe normally, but I do have scoliosis and a mild case of pectus excavatum. I’ve even visited a cardiologist and she didn’t say anything particular about my running thing. people around me my entire life have been telling me that it’s not normal to feel like that while running, but I can’t seem to find out why.
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Yeah I have this same problem. Never been overweight or out of shape in my life but running has always sucked for me. Not sure why.
Have you ever been checked out for asthma? That was my problem. But since I didn’t have the classic symptom of wheezing like you see in movies it wasn’t diagnosed until I was an adult.
You can train to breathe better. I am sorry I don’t know how to do so, but I have read about this so maybe you can find some guides online to help with this.
I did learn to breathe differently as a musician (used to play a wind instrument) so I know it is possible, I just don’t know how to do it for sports.
Vo2 or something training would fix this, with a kettle bell is what I used until I didn’t feel like a fatass after lifting shit at work
If I had to take a guess I would say it could be HOW you’re breathing. As I have been working on my running stamina I have come to discover keeping a steady rhythm is the make or break for me, and just the normal in-and-out you would do while walking (mouth open or closed) causes my heart rate to soar. I would suggest looking it up (as my breathing experience comes mainly from my music/instrument background), but what works for me is inhale-slight pause-sip air then immediate exhale-slight pause-mini air push then immediate inhale-etc.
I find the sip and air push helps to fully fill and fully deplete the air in my lungs while the pauses keep my heart rate more steady.
Last thought: the first 5 minutes of my run ALWAYS SUCK! “Why the fuck am I doing this?? I hate this! Being fat isn’t worse than this!” It takes time until I finally click into that “runners high”.
I have asthma but not exercise induced (allergen induced). This does sound like asthma symptoms. It can be very hard to diagnose it though because you may only experience a flare if you are exposed/doing the activity that triggers it. My numbers look excellent when I’m not exposed to my trigger, I’ve even increase my vO2 max and I’m in top 15% for my age. It can be tricky. During a flare I have audible wheezing and using an inhaler improves by breathing capacity
Just watch videos on how to breath with rhythm and running. I’m overweight and have asthma and I can run a 5k without getting too out of breath at a 10:30 pace
My husband has exercise induced asthma too. Has trouble with breathing and heart rate despite being super fit.
This sounds like asthma. Some people only get it when exercising. I would talk to a doctor about an inhaler to use before you exercise.