Pounding Heart When Exercising

[JHAG86]

Hi, i am a 28 year old man from Birmingham, England.

i have a problem that scares me every time i play football or sport or do anything physically strenous for that matter.
My heart pounds so hard it feels like my BP is through the roof. i can feel the pounding in my chest and my neck without touching those areas. The pounding gets more severe when i take a breath inwards also.
i have suffered with health anxiety for around 8 years. This heart pounding sensation has been prevalent for quite a while now and although i try to carry on exercising and playing sport, it really scares me. i feel like my heart is under too much pressure and at some point it will give in whilst im playing or even worse when im not. Nobody else i know seems to have this which makes me worry more.
i have in the past had 2 ecg's, one 24 hour holter and another normal 5 minute one and both came back normal. both were a few years ago now however.
my bp is around 125/75 at rest but can be higher if im feeling anxious.
i am slightly overweight at the moment but am generally fit and healthy and eat well.
does anybody know if it can be normal to feel your heart beat pound whilst exercising? can i be safe playing football with this symptom?

Thanks in advance for reading

[SJL]

I'm 24 and have the same thing when playing indoor football, although I also get the odd palpitation and feel a thud in my chest which makes me cough. I've stopped playing now and think it could have been related to dehydration, my diet at the time or drinking caffeine the same day, I was also overweight.

Recently I had a much more serious problem after exercising where my heart rate stayed high and I was getting the thud beat every 3rd or 4th beat or so. It took around 15 minutes to calm down. I didn't have an ECG at the time so never actually caught what it was, an ECG a few weeks later showed nothing wrong. You really need to catch these things on an event monitor but playing football with wires all over you isn't exactly suitable. The best thing in your case would be to ask a doctor if you could be referred to a cardiologist for a stress test.

[ohwell123]

hello mate im from the west midlands aswell

when you become neurotic you become totally intune with your body and start diagnosing yourself with every problem in that area it may be accompanied by symptoms that mean no harm at all but to you in your magnified view they do

I used to sit there thinking why can I feel my pulse in my back neck fingers thudding away im only sitting here watching the tele

its all anxiety you/me are fuelling the prob I felt my fingers pulse 10 years ago and didn't think anything of it

if you've had tests and that and your only 28 try and put it to the back of your head and be careful what you read on the net if you've ran around a sports hall with your heart pounding away that's a good thing imho

[JHAG86]

Thanks both for your help

i did have a few palpitations on both ecg's. well a pounding heart on the second and they said it was fine but it is very uncomfortable for me during football.

i think it may just be me being tuned to my heart so need to relax. i did wonder if other people feel their heart beat hard during sport?

thanks again

[SJL]

I imagine most people would if they put their hand on their chest.

Walking up the stairs makes my heart pound for a few seconds, or simply jumping up and down on the spot.

[ohwell123]

ofcourse your heart pounds you know this deep down trouble is your now paying attention to it and seeking reassurance which will make your anxiety leave for a few hours then come back harder

[Daniele_T]

I've always been extremely fit but suffer with health anxiety also....i never had palpitations or felt my heart so much until I started measuring my pulse.
Do you measure your pulse?

Your pulse and blood pressure are pretty irrelevant however.
If You're going to drop down dead they won't really change or show anything until you just peg it....now that may not be helpful to you but this will be...

You've possibly seen athletes just drop and it's always alarming and we hear of it because in young men it is Rare!! Very Rare!!

If you need to put your mind fully at rest get an echocardiogram as this will rule out any myopathy which is often a congenital and unseen problem that causes these rare occurrences.

It is however the image of these things and your own thoughts which are likely the big problem and no underlying unseen physical complication.

The good news.....
Do you faint?
Have you fainted?
If you can exercise full out till your heart is pounding and you haven't then you are getting plenty of oxygen pushed around your system and your heart is doing perfectly.
Do you get pain other than muscular with nausea and fainting?

These are the real indicators of heart trouble....don't torture yourself.
The less you can think about the negative the less you will notice your symptoms.

Be brave and good luck...it isn't easy and you're not weak or a wuss.
You are fighting the hardest battle of all...the one against yourself.

All the best

[JHAG86]

Thanks to all. This has been very helpful for me

[NotCool]

I'm 24 and have the same thing when playing indoor football, although I also get the odd palpitation and feel a thud in my chest which makes me cough. I've stopped playing now and think it could have been related to dehydration, my diet at the time or drinking caffeine the same day, I was also overweight.

Recently I had a much more serious problem after exercising where my heart rate stayed high and I was getting the thud beat every 3rd or 4th beat or so. It took around 15 minutes to calm down. I didn't have an ECG at the time so never actually caught what it was, an ECG a few weeks later showed nothing wrong. You really need to catch these things on an event monitor but playing football with wires all over you isn't exactly suitable. The best thing in your case would be to ask a doctor if you could be referred to a cardiologist for a stress test.
I've experienced these "thuds" in the sternum area before, last time it was 2 days ago when I was running. I'm not exactly in shape, and it's hard to say whether it's related to that or not. Last year I had a cardio-stress test on a treadmill, and I wore a holter monitor for 24 hours. I've also had specific heart-related blood tests. All 3 came back clean. Still, as a hypochondriac I obviously get stressed out when it happens in the middle of nowhere (on a route where I run), and it disrupts my running routine. I think it might be PVC, based on the symptom description. Self-diagnosed, obviously.

[Aaahhfreakout]

If you've had an ECG while this thudding is happening then I guess it's okay.

Something to try is not eating or drinking alcohol for a few hours before exercising to see if that helps as digestion will add to the work the heart has to do.

[SJL]

It's pretty hard to catch the thuds on an ECG, I can run on a treadmill for half an hour and not get them, I could play indoor football for an hour too and not get one then the next week I would. It's really annoying being told by your doctor that nothing is wrong because your ECG at the time is normal, yeah of course it's normal I'm lying on a table doing nothing :mad: