Fear of exercise/Heart issues whilst exercising

[Cheekychap]

Afternoon all,

During exercise I suffer severe panic, and worry what if my heart stops or I have a heart attack, all unrealistic stuff. This then in due course provides me more panic only during and prior to the workout such as dizzyness, fast heartbeat etc and limits my cardio workout for example currently only able to do half an hour. Sometimes I even have to leave the gym. This all worries me because I know if feeling lightheaded etc you shouldn't be exercising. I believe this started after I had a panic attack shortly after a cardio exercise.

However having said this exercise to me personally is the best treatment for anxiety and the low mood I suffer. Been far more beneficial than CBT, beta blockers etc especially with reducing the physical symptons such as feeling dizzy.

I also have a fear of fainting running alongside this...

Any help or supportive ideas?

Many thanks.

[Pet59]

Hi there,
I am exactly the same. I need to lose weight but once I start exercising, then my heart starts to race, I get afraid that i will have a heart attack or keel over and then I stop. It is such a vicious circle. I find that when I get into this anxious state, if I sip at some water it helps.

[james_grimble]

Ive had exactly the same thing.

I used to work out 5 times a week lifting heavy weights ( 120kg bench press etc )

I would do cardio 3 times a week.


Now when I am lifting weights I am aware of my heart beating rapidly ( obviously it is because im shifting a lot of weight ) but now I really notice it and focus on it when before I wasn’t even aware of it because it wasn’t on my radar.

The same with running I feel like I am going to drop dead so I just run 50% of what I can and if I get even a twinge in the chest I stop thinking im going to have a heart attack.

For about 1 hour after too I am on edge thinking I am going to have a heart attack.

You just need to think, I have ran and lifted 1000 of times before and im still here. I forced myself to absolutely hammer the treadmill last week. I did spints for 1 min on 1 min off on the treadmill, took my heart to nearly 200 beats per min.

And guess what………………… no heart attack.

[Gingerspider]

Hey, I have this too. I get really bad palps when I do anything (seriously unfit lol). It's very irritating because like you I always feel ten times better when I am doing something. At the end of the day, you've just got to do it and think of all the times it's made you feel better!

[natalie5555]

im the same exercise makes u feel so much better aswell but I'm just too scared atm. I get pretty bad palpitations doing housework because it obviously requires alot of moving around and that freaks me out! Hope your ok!

[Cheekychap]

Horrible eh, just got to feel the fear as such. Offering support to all of you. Any advice on actually overcoming it? The dizzy spells are the worst!

[Dvorak]

I'm struggling with the same worries. I've had the unfortunate luck of wearing a HR monitor while I had a panic attack whilst jogging. It showed 201 as my maximum. Now I'm just afraid that my heart's going to end up just stopping or keep accelerating.

My maximum HR was 207 at the cardiologist during a stress test. I've even been to a sports doctor who told me not to worry about it, yet I still find it difficult to get over it.

At the moment I'm doing really light exercises such as press ups and jogging for very short distances. Maybe you should just try to get comfortable again with yourself by doing light excercise and gradually increasing the intensity/duration?