BURNING LEGS!!!! AGHHHH!!!

naughtoj

naughtoj

Cathlete
Ok, really weird question here, but everybody I know thinks I am a freak, so I wanted to pass this by y'all to see if it ever happens to you...


When I go up a flight of stairs, oftentimes by the time I get to the last 3 or 4 stairs, I am PUSHING to get up those last few and my legs are often BURNING, much like the burn you get when you weightlift. Sometimes, if I have been working out a lot and especially if I have lifted heavy lower body the day before, I am ready to die by the time I get to the top!!! And we are talking ONE FLIGHT here!!

At work they joke, because everybody knows that I am this fitness aficianado...I run for over an hour in the AM with some hiking intermixed and lift weights on my lunch and a few times a week go biking in the evening with my husband on some hilly terrain and usually run or rollerblade or hike on the weekends. The point is my lower body rarely gets whole days of rest. The girls at work are like.." OK, you can go out there and hike a mountain, but you can't get up these stairs?? What is wrong with you???!!" Many times, people ask me if I am OK, thinking there must be something wrong. It is actually kind of funny.

I do go up and down those stairs maybe 6 or 7 times a day, but I guess that shouldn't matter. I explained to my husband that I thought it had something to do with chronically tired legs and lower body, and that the "burn" is still lactic acid pooling, because to my tired legs, that flight of stairs was no different than ten lunges. Does this make sense?? He thinks that is a crock of you-know-what!!! But it is obvious that I am not out of shape and can usually handle the stairs after a long weekend off of NOTHING. Maybe my legs are just tired after running.

Anyway, I DESPERATELY want to find someone out there like this, maybe someone that has a lot of muscle mass in their legs like me that trains quite a bit and has this problem. I am also starting to think it might be because of the heavy muscle in my legs, but that is a stretch!! Please help!!
 
Finally! Someone else who is fit and suffers from the same thing that I do. Weird - I don't have loads of muscle mass or anything nor am I super fit but I sure do feel that if I can do Ciruit Max, a flight of stairs should not be a problem. I rush up and down stairs a lot during the day and normally its my quads that complain and they are actually the most well developed muscles on my legs. I think Liz Applegate talks about the very same thing in her book 'Eat Smart, Play Hard'. She does suggest eating carbs within 60 mins after a workout to prevent this. I don't remember why exactly - soemthing about the muscles being most receptive to replenishing their glycogen stores or something . Perhaps someone else who has read the book could chime in. I enjoyed your lactic acid pooling theory though. Wonder if anyone else has any more explanations.
 
I don't get the burning legs when going up stairs, but man do I get winded. I can do 45 minutes of tough cardio but make me walk 5 flights to my office & I'm huffing like I've been smoking a pack a day for the last 10 years! I've often wondered if anyone else experiences this?
 
I can so relate to this!! I lift weights, do cardio, run, hike, bike and rollerblade; I'm pretty fit! And yet everyday I struggle as I climb the flight of stairs up to my office. I totally get the major burn, and sometimes have to stop for a second half way up! Like you, I have always just assumed this is because my legs are chronically fatigued from all that I do! But I think part of it is because I workout in the morning. That first stair climb of the day is the worst for me. I'm usually up and down them several times a day, and it gets easier as the day goes on! :)
 
OMG!! Me too with the stair thing.
It's embarrassing to be so winded. I have thought in the past I was anemic, but I'm not. It's not like I try to run up the stairs. Just one flight upstairs in my house is bad. At work, I can do more, but only b/c people are looking :)

What is up w/this???

Michele
 
[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Apr-22-02 AT 06:12PM (Est)[/font][p]this totally happens to me too! I get teased all the time by my coworkers who know I'm in good shape. I sometimes think it is the sudden BURST of activity...you know you go from sitting in your chair for an hour or two to walking up some stairs. Also I tend to talk while I walk up stairs (if I'm not alone) and that makes it worse.
 
Why don't you guys do more stair climbing? Maybe run stadium steps or something? If you incorporate it into your workout, you may find it easier in your day-to-day life. It's one of the things I do for intensity training, and it helps me climb stairs comfortably the rest of the time. I think jillianh is right about the burst of activity -- my thought is that if you don't "practise" something, your body has difficulty handling it.
 
I know lack of stair climbing is not the problem as I hike a mountain in Phoenix that is constant steps and have no problem. I can also do the the Firms Standing Legs with heavy weight so I know it is not a muscular weakness or exercise unfamiliarity. You step on and off that stupid tall box 80 million times, plus I do so much hiking that it cannot be that. Anyway, I think the going from sitting theory is a good one, as they are always harder after the "tightness" has set in from my other workouts. Oh well....I guess the important thing is WE know we are OK...:):)
 
Someone else was discussing this just a week or so ago. Several people thought it might be a state of chronic fatigue caused by working out. It's a thought.
 
I think there is something very specific about climbing steps that makes it more difficult than steppers or doing step aerobics. Maybe it's that extra lifting of the body onto the next step that boosts the intensity. I pretty much am on the ground floor most of the time, but I've noticed fit, young, college-aged students who are winded by three flights of stairs.
 
ME TOO!!!

I've always thought I was weird too. I don't think it's chronic fatigue either, because I can have this happen after 2, 3, or 4 weeks of no exercise. Doesn't matter if I've exercised or not.

My pilates class is on the 6th floor of an old building and I HATE going up there. There's no elevator!

I get winded and my thighs kill me. I look like the least fit person on earth. It's pathetic.

To make matters worse, walking down 6 flights makes me dizzy. So maybe I am a weakling.:7
 
There have been some comments that Cathe seems somewhat "winded" in Boot Camp. I think this is because she goes from lying down for ab work and straight into intense cardio. That's really hard to do!

I know when I start any cardio work I am winded for a few minutes and then the legs kick in and do most of the work and I'm not panting for breath anymore.

And I join you guys in the stairs thing -- I'm a-huffin' and a-puffin' and there's fire in the thighs after only a couple of flights.

Patricia;-)
 
I would guess it's because you're not "warmed up" the way you are when working out. The synovial fluid hasn't been warmed and circulation and heart rate get a bit of a shock, too. I walk out my door to walk my hounds and immediately go up a steep grade out of my driveway and it nearly kills me, lung and leg. However, if I do the same thing right after working out, it's a piece of cake. I can guarantee none of you are wimpy if you're Cathe regulars.

--Ann
 
>There have been some comments that Cathe seems somewhat
>"winded" in Boot Camp. >


Another possibility: I posted a question about the filming of these videos on the "Ask Cathe" forum, and Boot Camp was the last routine filmed. I think I'd be pretty tuckered out by then!
 
WOW..who braught this one back from the dead!:eek:

Yeah, it was me talking about it a few weeks ago and it is official: chronically fatigued legs. Nancy and I were talking about it. Glad to see it has sparked so much thought!!:)
Janice
 
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