FitnessMash

When Bracing Goes Bad

Before I tell this story, I need to make a couple of disclaimers:

1) What I’m about to tell you did not, in any way, change my belief about the importance of core stability training (nor should it change yours); and

2) The fact that I find the following incident somewhat laughable in hindsight is OK because it happened to me. Your laughing at the potentially dangerous situation, however, is NOT acceptable, and if I catch you smirking the next time I see you I will beat you down!

Here goes…

I was at the gym earlier this afternoon (Saturday) working on my one-arm push-ups (still on an incline after three months of effort, mind you, and no changes in set/rep scheme or angle since the last time I did them). Getting to the floor is a lofty goal, I realize; but I digress…

I get home (feeling slightly compressed but not any more so than usual), eat some food, and BAM! I can’t breathe. Abdominal wall/diaphragm is in total spasm and making me hyperventilate. I try to slow my breathing but I can’t get in a single deep breath.

I figure it best not to pass out in my basement apartment, so I call the EMTs – who, of course, can do nothing but make fun of me after the oxygen kicks in and I tell them what I think happened.

I get to the hospital, and it’s de ja vu all over again. Nurse, x-ray technician and doctor ask routine questions about symptoms and situation (all the while I’m sitting on a bed in the middle of the hall…gotta love our health care system), and I have to tell the same story. Doc rolls his eyes, cancels the x-ray but orders an EKG “just in case.”

EKG is good, so he gives me some Maalox (why, I have no idea). I down the shot of Maalox and, lo and behold, the same thing happens again! Spasms, hyperventilation, can’t breathe. Stupid nurse keeps insisting it’s anxiety. I tell her she’s giving me anxiety because she won’t give me the damn oxygen! She finally gives me some oxygen and things settle down.

At this point, I figure eating/drinking is a trigger. Doc then suggests Valium… NOT HAPPENIN’. Too much work to do to be loopy. I agree to take a different muscle relaxant (Flexeril) with less severe side effects so I can get the hell out of there. Fortunately, it seems to work.

When all’s said and done, I sign the release and walk home from the hospital with a prescription for Flexeril, explicit instructions to lay off the one-arm push-ups (good thing I don’t take exercise advice from doctors), and some great blog material – which brings us to the present.

Now I’m sitting here late Saturday afternoon feeling pretty relaxed but starving and still afraid to eat, and too out of it to study for my finals yet enough with it to share this ridiculous story with you.

The moral? I guess there can be too much of any good thing…

Filed under: core training, fitness-related injuries, strength training, workout tips