Pain in exercise is a sign something is wrong

Main Category: Pain / Anesthetics
Article Date: 19 Feb 2004 - 0:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   opinions  


If you feel pain when you exercise it is a sign that something is wrong. You have gone beyond the threshold of the optimum level of exercise. According to Dr.Panteleimon Ekkekakis, the best way to exercise and the most effective way to exercise is when there is no pain or feeling that it is unpleasant.

He said that people do no carry on doing things if they find it painful or unpleasant.

Many people go to the gym as a New Year's resolution. If their experience is painful, unpleasant or uncomfortable they will not come back. They will stay at home and watch TV.

People tend to do the exercise that is recommended to them rather than doing what suits them. This means having a pleasant experience.

Those who do too little do not get the full benefits. Those who do too much, give up.

Ekkekakis says that there is a level of exercise intensity that suits most of us.

This level is reached when our bodies are moving from aerobic to anaerobic metabolism. This is when the body moves from burning fuel with oxygen (aerobic) to using non-oxygen sources (anaerobic).

This intensity level is the ideal because the benefits are as good, and often better than more intensive exercise. It is useful for sedentary and older people to know this.

If you regularly exercise high above this level you will soon burn out.

Ekkekakis says that asking people to measure their heart beats is often inconvenient. Most things trainers and gyms ask people to do in order to measure their performance are tricky to carry out.

In his study, Ekkekakis found that as soon as people exceeded their aerobic-anaerobic transition they starting feeling worse (gradually).

• Additional
• References
• Citations