Anxiety & Exercise

Just curious if anyone else experiences anxiety/panic attack related issues?

I have noticed on several occasions while exercising (not excessively or at an intense level) that I will start feeling anxiety and since I wear a Polar fitness watch to monitor my heart rate/calories burned/etc - I can SEE my heart rate soar while in the midst of the attack. For example: I rode my stationary bike for 10 minutes and then moved on to do my treadmill (3mph) and while my heart rate stayed at around 118 bmp during the biking & the beginning of my walking it suddenly started climbing at a quick rate & the within seconds it was at 163 bmp. I had not changed the rate of speed I was exercising or anything else.

I should note - I am not "new" to exercising, I have been doing it on and off (more off these past few months due to my schedule) but getting back into the routine of it because I know that when I exercise it helps my overall state of mind and anxiety immensely.

The only thing that I noticed today prior to my anxiety rolling in was that I was paying very close attention (and quite possibly over-thinking some muscle pain I had in my upper back/shoulder area). You know, every darn pain has to be a "worse case scenerio" and in this case I felt my mind start to wander to the dreaded "heart attack" thinking. Ugh! I am 40 years old and even though I am overweight I am in overall good health. (No high blood pressure, no diabetes, no high cholesterol, etc and I am trying to avoid all of these at all cost by getting my weight down and continuing on with my healthy lifestyle change.)

Just curious if anyone else has experienced this and possible suggestions used to keep it at bay.

Thank you in advance for reading and any thoughts/suggestions.

So many times I'd like to curse those watches. They can relay information about your HR but the other info is totally and completely inaccurate, (ie: calories burned, etc.)

The HR you mentioned wouldn't red flag me in the least, especially if you're healthy and your doc says you're good to go exercising.

I would stay away from anything by Jillian, that's my personal opinion btw, not judgment.

I don't know what you're doing for exercise or at what intensity, but if you're running, I'd gently recommend you try something different.

Also, there's a routine to get your heart rate elevated gently, which is walking on the treadmill and increasing the speed and/or the incline every 3 minutes just a smidge....do a 15 ONLY minute warm up, do your weight training or strength training, and then back to cardio, again increasing every 3 minutes, just a smidge, for 20 minutes and do a 5 minute cool down, then stretch.

That's plenty to start.

You could be pushing yourself too hard too fast.

Since your heart rate comes down,....that's the important thing.

If your heart rate jumps up that high, do not stop what you're doing, just slow down what you're doing until you get it back down to around 120ish and then pick it up again to 140-145ish and slow back down again, so you keep in control of your heart rate.

Really,....for honest,....cold stopping when you're feeling anxiety (which is just the natural course of the rush of adrenaline) is normal and natural for your body, and it's necessary to be released when first starting each exercise day,....then your body will essentially reabsorb this and you'll level out.

I'm only sharing exercise experience, not medical advice! :)








M.