Evey year it seems like the first few swims make me feel very nauseous afterwards. During these workouts I’m really only able to get in 600-900 yards each and never more than 250 yards in a single set. Ok, the distances are very short, but my arms just give out. I seem to be fine while swimming, but when I get out, I’m nearly loosing it for a half hour afterwards.
Anyone else with this problem, I rarely have anything in me at the times I swim - 5.30am or rarely noon.
After these first few days, I’m ok and the distances obviously improve. I guess the solution is to never stop swimming. It’s the time of day it has to be done that kills me.
Do you eat anything before you swim later in the season? I know I sometimes will get nauseous if I haven’t eaten anything. But then again I have an angry stomach
Generally the first of the year coincides with a cutback in the diet too, have you been cutting calories too? Swimming when I’m really hungry tends to make me feel sick.
no, I usually don’t eat anything before swimming throughout the year. Since it’s so early, I’m not in the mood for much. I have eaten bananas before and that seems to upset my stomach too. So, not I typically don’t eat. Maybe I’ll try a gel and see how that goes. Afterwards, I’m ready to eat the kitchen sink, but that has more to do with my core temp cooling down and a reflex in my body thinking it needs to eat.
I think it may also be a combination of the “newness” of being in the water, I know I had the same thing happen, and the exertion is different than the bike or run, those being mainly lower body. It may also be the breathing cycle, that may make you ill as well. As long as you know it goes away, thats what counts. I know mine did, and I’m 4 weeks into swimming now.
Might be caused by your inner ear (balance) adjusting to all the turning your head does while breathing. Motion sickness. After a few workouts, your ear/brain adjusts to the turning. People with vertigo can bring it on by lying down and turning their head from side to side. This is also a treatment for vertigo.
Yep, happens to me every season. When I first started swimming a few years ago, I had to take dramamine before I swam, otherwise I’d have to just lay down on the floor in the locker room afterwards curled up in a ball and wait for it to pass. I saw audiologists, read everything I could get my hands on, asked every swimmer/swim instructor if they have ever heard of any such thing - nada. So I learned to breathe bilaterally, which I think helped. And if I stop swimming for a prolonged period of time, I have to slowly build the distance, just as you said. I stopped swimming between August and December and my ramp up has been painful, starting with about 700m. I swim 4-5 times a week now, and am only up to about 2400m at a time. I’ve learned my lesson - never take 6 months off again! (As much as it pains me to say it).
This happens to me even on an empty stomach, but any food in my stomach at all makes it worse.
This happens to me too. After years of getting sick after swims, researching, experimenting and seeing loads of doctors, a neurologist diagnosed Benign Positional Vertigo. He put me through various head maneuvers and exercises but the most helpful one for me is the Epley maneuver. I ususally repeat this 3 times after every swim and it has made a big difference. No idea if this is your problem or not, but I thought I’d pass it along since it took 3 years of frustration for me to work it out.
After reading your reply, I checked a few places for this and it seems like you leave your head off the end of a bench, seat, or bed while lying on your back, and rotate your head side to side.
Let me know if you have a better way of describing it. This is one of the reasons I don’t do flip turns, I tend to get some vertigo and after years of tubes in my ears I cannot stand to have fluid enter my ears.
I’d try a bagel or plain toast rather than a gel, doesn’t seem like some sugary goo would settle your stomach too well.
Aside from that, swimming’s a pretty different position, if you think about it. You’re horizontal, moving fast, turning your head, maybe flip turning but if not at least doing a fast open turn and reversing direction. Of course it’s going to mess your equilibrium up for awhile until you get used to it!
You’ve found your real solution anyway, just don’t take a long break from being wet.
You described the basics of Epley. Which side you perform it on is dependent on which inner ear is the problem side (mine is right). As it was described to me, it won’t make you worse if you do it on the wrong side–it just won’t help. My husband sometimes moves my head through the positions which is helpful; he can watch my eyes and when they stop spinning and focus (about 30 seconds) it’s time to move to the next position. The first head drop makes me feel super queasy but I feel better very quickly. It all sounds funny, but it’s made a huge difference for me. My swims got so bad for a while that I’d spend 4-8 hours afterwards throwing up and in a viscous spin cycle. Now I can make it through an IM swim. Good luck!
I am just back from my first swim workout in a long time, and I barely made it back to the office driving my car. I even had to stop on the side of the road to let that “feeling” past.
It started to get worse as I got out of the pool, and just got worst after that. I remember the same happened to me last year when I started to swim on a regular basis.
The worst is that I had decided to take things real easy today, to get back into it slowly. I wanted to do something like 2X500 at a slow pace. I did one 500, then took about a 2 minute break, and got going again but I was starting to “feel it” so I stopped.
I should have opted for some 100M (or even 50M) sets.