Current Events > A Question About Exercising and Light Headed

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Before my heart attack last May I never got light headed. Since then daily. I just went for an eeg and doctor found one side was showing seizure activity. I am not sure if its related to my light headedness, will ask when I see him in two weeks.

Anyways doing exercising my physical therapist had me stop doing the exercises when I said I was light headed. I told him to let me push through it. He said when you push through being light headed results in falling. He had me sit and did the vitals which were normal. He told me again not to do any exercises standing up alone (which I dont do) and he said always stop and sit when light headed.

I had thought pushing through was a good thing. I always when tired or winded pushed for an extra few minutes since I thought it built stamina. Wouldnt same apply to light headedness?

Not with lightheadedness. In fact, being lightheaded usually means blood is not pumping enough oxygen when its from exercise, which means your heart will try beating faster, which could lead to increased risk of a heart attack.

With enough time and with guidance from your PT, your heart will get stronger and youll eventually be able to do more before that feeling occurs, but I would certainly not press it given that youve had a fairly recent heart attack.

Even heart issues aside, unless youre hardcore training for a competitive long distance race or such, I would avoid pushing through lightheadedness. Pro runners do it because that feeling is something you have to get used to, but unless you are in that sort of situation and extremely in tune with your body, theres no need. At that point theres no health benefits; competitive racers only do it because they sacrifice some health benefits for their competitiveness.