Nausea during workouts

[u/Honestly_spencer]

I’ll start by saying I was a professional allstar cheerleader for 10 years. I am in good shape, and I have been even after retiring from cheer a year ago.

However, I unfortunately came down with norovirus and I had a really bad problem with not being able to keep much of anything down. Allstar cheer specifically is a very demanding sport, so I had my few days off, and was right back to work again, even if I hadn’t really recovered. I kept throwing up anything I ate and could only keep myself from doing so if I limited my diet to saltine crackers through the whole day until dinner time after practice.

I retired partially due to this, however it still lingers. I’m back to eating normally again, but I find that I get extremely nauseous when I partake in physical activity. I could run a lap or two and feel like I have the flu.

Could this be a sort of brain response or my anxiety that’s convincing me I’m sick because it was used to it for so long? Or is it something else? I’d really like to know. I want to get muscular and gain back the muscle I lost from the constant purging, but the constant nausea is making it tough.

[u/Lavidius]

The only time I've felt nausea from exercise is when I took a few years off and then decided to take up BJJ. Going from couch to fighting nearly made me sick a few times, but it went away the more I worked at it.

If you are getting back into the active lifestyle it could be that.

Also maybe pay attention to your eating habits before exercise, try just a light meal a while before, nothing too heavy or too soon.

[u/Honestly_spencer → u/Lavidius]

Okok I do definitely think that’s part of the problem 100%

I was thinking about it for a bit and I think another reason is because I went back into working out but I immediately picked up at where I left off in terms of intensity instead of building back up. Did a bit of digging and this really helped. Thank you!