kbaketm saidNot everytime, but sometimes when I run, I will get pretty bad chest pains that will make me stop running because the pain is so intense. I've had chest pains since I was probably around 12 years old (so going on for approximately 10 years), but they have only been acting up while I've been running for maybe the past year or two. I've went to various cardiologists and doctors and they keep telling me that my heart is working fine. I understand that it doesn't necessarily have to do with my heart for me to be having chest pains, but I was just wondering if anyone else is having this problem. I've lessened the intensity of my jogs to help make sure I don't have any pain, which has seemed to help some. My only problem with that is I feel like I will never be able to pick up speed if I only stay at a slower, jogging level rather than being able to sprint and pick up some speed.
Any advice?
Check your heart rate when you're working out and tell us what it is at when you get chest pains (find pulse, count beats in 6 seconds, multiply by 10). If you're cleared by a cardiologist who did exercise stress testing on you, then it sounds like you're either completely kicking your butt unnecessarily when you run (ie running balls to the wall, all out), or they missed something. Did you get the chest pains when you were stress tested at the cardiologist?
Super intense running should be compared to heavy lifting (like lots of weight lifting--low reps, high weight). You can't do it everyday. If you do, it will cause more breakdown than buildup of muscle--in this case cardiac muscle, and it won't repair in time for your next bout. Personally, I get chest pain if I overdo the running at high intensities and don't allow enough recovery time or calories (nutrition) from that bout before bed time--but mine happens after the fact.
The health benefits of running come from low to moderate intensity--not high intensity, and you're able to do this intensity everyday if you could. At high intensity, you aren't working the same energy systems or causing the same changes in the blood. On the contrary, you stress your system out (which is only good every now and then to maintain a high cardiovascular capacity, or VO2max). Light-moderate cardiovascular exercise is better for health benefits (raised HDL cholesterol, lowered blood pressure, increased blood circulation and nitric oxide release, reduced cortisol levels if done for 30-45 min max--raises cortisol if you do it longer).
There are various cardio training zones--which is why I'd want you to check your heart rate next time you run to see what zone that is for you.
I'd estimate your max heart rate at about 193 beats/min from the 208-(0.7*age) updated max heart rate formula. Generally speaking, depending on resting heart rate, if you're around 170 or greater bpm during your exercise, it may be too intense if you do that daily.
I'd get more detailed, but I don't know if you're going to even come back to this post later.
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