strength exersizes turn aerobic

NothinToLose

NothinToLose

New member
Ok, just about 2 weeks ago I started doing small exercises to tone up my muscles and gain strength. I'm just recovering from being sick with mono for a very long time and I have not been able to do any exerise at all for last 7 month. So, I'm starting very slowly with abdominal crunches, butt exercises and squats. I started with 10 reps of each, and then next week bumped it up to 20 reps (yeah, I know its nothing for healthy and fit people, but right now I'm pretty happy I can do that much without feeling sick the next day!)

Weired thing is - When I'm doing squats, on 3rd one I'm strating to huff and puff, my heart rate shoots up like i'm running a sprint. I'm feeling that my butt muscle work, I'm feeling that my calfs work, I'm feeling tension in the knees, but I don't feel anything in quads! I've never had the strength exercises turn into aerobic so quickly! My husband said that I was doing them too fast, so I slowed down, and still huffing and puffing like crazy. At this point I don't want to do any aerobic exercise, I just want to start toning my muscles little by little, and give them more strength. I also would like to avoid sweating/huffing and puffing, as it makes me feel so out of shape, and it makes me feel worse, both mentally and physically and eventually discaurages me from any attempts to exercise. This never happened before when I did strength exercises.

Did anything like that happen to you? Does anyone have any suggestions on how to train quads and avoid aerobic effect of exercise? Does anyone have any idea why this is happening?

Thanks for your input.
 
sorry to hear you have been sick for so long, but glad you are now recovering! its very smart to start out slow like you have been doing but if your experiencing huffing and puffing thats unconfortable, i really think you should consult with your doctor for advice instead of us before continuing.
 
I'm still probably recovering from mono. I'm not 100% yet, I know this. That's probably why my body is reacting that way to squats.

Still, if anyone has any suggestions, feel free to post!
 
with squats, i actually very rarely feel it in the quads. My knees and back feel it way before my quads ... but, that's the reason why squats are such a good exercise ... they work so many different body parts (as my main goal for squats is for the lower back).

Also, for this reason, you may be feeling overly exhausted ... you are working a lot of muscle groups all at the same time. I feel strained around 5 or 6 and by the last set, I often feel a bit dizzy .... and, I've been working out 4 x week for quite some time.

However, if you also feel dizzy and exhausted from the get-go, bring the weight down to a bare minimum and only do a few 5-8 reps. If it still persists, definately talk to your doctor.

I would still recommend doing some cardio, but very lightly ... like walking on a slight incline on the treadmill ... this helps two-fold: 1) need to lose fat to see muscles 2) working on an incline will help build muscles (so will biking slowly at a higher setting)
 
Thanks for reply.
It really helped hearing that squats are working many muscle groups and have similar experience with feeling them in other body parts first. I think I'll stick with squats for now, and maybe do lighter version/less reps to allow myself build up strength and fitness. The reason I was concentrating on squats is because I go skiing in winter(mountain), and every time it kills my legs, so I was trying to build up some muscle strength before skiing starts. Any other suggestion to build up quad muscle strengh?

At this point i'm not worrying about any muscle definision, just to built some strength and feel like I have more energy. Once I get that, I will start on building up stamina for cardio. I'm starting to walk stairs at work 1ce a day up to 6th floor, just to make myself move a little, but not pushing it at this point yet. I'm definitely very far away from being able to do 30 min of cardio!

Thanks for reply!
 
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