Often people are seen complaining about experiencing black spots or feeling dizzy while exercising. These black spots eventually even lead to a black out. Does this problem need medical help or is it a sign of overexertion? Find out, in the following write up, more about this phenomenon.
Workouts have become an integral part of everyone’s life today. Everybody seems to be obsessed with looking perfectly in shape and staying fit. While doing so we sometimes forget that we push ourselves way too much to get rid of those extra pounds, which can result in seeing black spots while working out that can also eventually lead to a black out. When you are working out, your heart and various other muscles of your body are working harder than usual. In fact, our heart pumps blood at a much faster rate than it would, to see to it that blood is supplied to every part of our body while exercising. Sometimes, dilation of blood vessels leads to slowing down the volume of blood, that may lead to low blood pressure. When the blood pressure falls down, blood flow to the brain also decreases, this is exactly what causes black spots while exercising; it also makes you feel weak and nauseous.
What Causes Black Spots While Exercising?
The sensation of having just about to pass out while exercising may come in the form of black spots. Now, the common reason for this particular situation is low blood pressure as discussed above. However, other than this, dehydration and low glucose levels can also cause black spots in vision when exercising. Exercising amounts to loss of body fluids due to tremendous sweating, this has to be replaced to keep the body fluids at an optimal level. An imbalance in the same drops the blood pressure down, therefore one can experience black spots.
While exercising, coordinating the technique of breathing with your workout movements is very important. Sometimes, you overwork your breathing, in fact, some even try to exaggerate it so much that it can make you feel dizzy, ultimately leading to a black out. Black spots may even appear while exercising if you indulge yourself into activities that involve wandering of eyes on and off the center in a disoriented manner. This happens mainly while on a rowing machine, doing your crunches, aerobics or Pilates. Having talked about what causes black spots let’s get an insight about what can be done to curb this condition in the next section.
Ways to Combat Black Spots While Exercising
Keeping Yourself Hydrated
A healthy dose of water is required while you are exercising. Now, drinking a lot of water before, after, or during the workout regime is definitely not advisable, but sipping some water during your workouts, helps in replacing the lost fluids in the form of sweat. This will reduce the frequency of you seeing black spots during the workout regime.
Do Not Push Yourself Too Much
Avoid pushing yourself way too much while exercising. Pushing your self further than what your body can even sustain results in dilation of blood vessels, which drops the blood pressure and fails to supply adequate blood to the brain and also other parts of the body, ultimately making one feel dizzy. Hence, perform those workouts which your body can sustain.
Concentrate on Breathing Techniques
As discussed earlier, breathing fully is an important technique in helping you reach your fitness goal. Breathing fully and properly not only helps ignite the burning of fat, but also supplies you with the right amount of oxygen needed to increase the intensity of workouts (helping the brain to function better too) without experiencing black spots.
Never Exercise on an Empty Stomach!
Although it is not good to fill up your stomach before a workout, snacking on something light and healthy gives your muscles the strength to sustain the activity. When you tend to work on an empty stomach, your body has no fuel for those working muscles, resulting in your blood sugar levels to drop down. Thus, you tend to experience those black spots. Therefore, a light breakfast or a small but healthy snack (preferably protein rich) is advisable.
One can easily overcome this condition by resorting to the following ways, given above. And if the above ways fail to combat black spots while working out, see a medical practitioner who will be in a better position to help you diagnose the problem.