Side pain during Cardio

[cybersis]

Just a quick question I have about cramping during cardio.

Sometimes when I am doing one of the more intense cardio
sections of one of Cathes videos I get a side cramp, the kind I remember getting after running and getting winded. It does not happen all the time just sometimes. But of course it does slow me down until the cramp subsides and I am losing the intensity.

Does anyone know what causes it. Is it too much water before a workout or maybe too little. I keep a full glass of water beside me during workouts and sip it slowly.

Any suggestions would be really appreciated as I feel I am losing out on my cardio by repeatedly stopping to bend over and relief the cramping pain.

Thanks everyone.

Cybersis

 

[Lex411]

My experience has been that with cardio of any kind, some people are more prone to get a stitch or cramp in their sides from even sipping water. I'm one of those people. So what I do is drink about half a liter or a full liter about half an hour before I work out to fully hydrate myself. I don't drink any water during the workout, then after I drink as much as I want.

Like clockwork, anytime I do try sipping some during the workout, I get the side cramp.

Just a suggestion, it worked great for me.

 

[betsyl]

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Jan-12-01 AT 10:56PM (Est)[/font][p]Sorry about this messed up post. Don't know how I managed to do that.


[font color=green]BETSY[/font]

 

[betsyl]

I used to get side stitches occasionally during cardio but I think they were more related to my breathing than water consumption. I found that when I started to get one I had to really concentrate on breathing out (breathing in was then automatic) in a steady way and slow down a little. That was usually enough to make it go away. When I first started exercising I had a hard time with holding my breath during cardio and I think I would revert to doing that during hard cardio. (I had to TRAIN myself to breathe right--sounds funny, but true) Don't know if this would help, but it is a thought. Good luck!


[font color=green]BETSY[/font]

 

[klainl]

Breathing and Warm-ups

I ditto the breathing thing. Although I haven't quite mastered it yet, I do find that if I concentrate on breathing slowly, I can make the occasional side stitch go away.

I also remember Cathe once saying here on the forum (about a year or so ago), that she will occassionally get a side stitch if she doesn't warm-up long enough prior to starting a high-intensity workout. I was having a problem with side stitches, and that advice really helped me out. Usually, five minutes of brisk walking is enough to prepare me for a run. But there are some days when it just isn't enough, and I need to warm-up a little longer or else I won't have a good run. Maybe you could see if there's a connection between how you feel during the warm-up on the days when you get cramps, and then lengthen (maybe do the warm-up twice?) your warm-up on days you maybe feel a little "off", if it seems like there's a correlation there for you, too.

Lucy K