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There have been cases where a person suffered from a heart attack or cardiac arrest while working out at the gym. On YouTube, there are many videos of people dying in the gym. The comments on those videos are filled with doctors giving their highly scientific reason on why the person died. The first reason they give is that the person was training beyond his limits, going too hard, overtraining. However, the doctors, with their in-depth knowledge on the subject, fail to define what overtraining is.
The concept of overtraining comes into play while talking about professional athletes. These athletes have to learn the techniques of their sports, practice the actual sport, do cardio, and do strength training at the gym. All of this is very fatiguing, takes hours to perform, requires a lot of energy, and that is why these guys are prone to overtraining. The normal gym goers training for hypertrophy train for around 45 minutes to two hours, three to five times a week. They also take two to five minutes of rest between each set, check their phone, talk with their friends. None of this is even close to the intensity at which professional athletes train. It is very rare that a normal gym goer would be overtraining. In most cases, they are under training.
Still, considering that people are overtraining, there are two types of fatigue that can occur. One type is local fatigue which is the disruption of the muscles being used. If a person does 50 sets of bicep curls, then his biceps would be extremely sore and he will feel severe pain while bending or extending the elbow. If the person is asked to do a set of bodyweight squats, he would be able to do that without much problem, cause the biceps are not involved in the movement. But, he will not be able to perform pull-ups as those require the biceps to pull. This is not something that can cause a heart attack. The biceps will hurt due to soreness, that is it. After a few days, they will recover and grow stronger.
The next type of fatigue is systemic fatigue which affects the whole body. It is a summation of all physical and psychological stress. If a person runs a marathon, he will not be able to do the lat-pulldown after that due to being tired, even though the legs are not involved in the pulling motion. This type of fatigue can cause immunosuppression making the person fall sick easily. But, not it will not cause a heart attack. The solution is to incorporate rest days, deloads, or a re-sensitization phase in the routine. This fatigue is nothing serious.
Another way with which a person can push the limits is by doing more reps. If a person does 10 push-ups and that is the maximum number of reps he has ever done, he can try and push himself to 11 or 12 reps. This type of progressive overload is very essential for building muscle and increasing strength. There is no harm in progressively overloading. The worst thing that can happen is that person will fail and drop on the ground, nothing wrong with it. This gets a little risky weighted exercise like the bench press as the bar will drop on the person’s chest if he goes to failure. Getting a spotter here solves the problem. When training alone, do not go to failure, keep one rep in reserve to be safe. It is also risky with advanced calisthenics exercises like explosive pull-ups and all of its fancy variations. A person may fall on the ground if he fails to grab the bar, causing a bump on the head but not a heart attack. Training to failure does not cause a heart attack. If people keep training within their capacity as the doctors say, their muscles will never grow.
The next thing the doctors in the comment section blame is cardio. They claim that pushing your limits during cardio will cause a heart attack. Cardio, which is proven to improve heart health, is now causing heart attacks according to them. If a person pushes himself during cardio or does high-intensity cardio, what will happen is that he will stop, start panting, take deep breaths and continue his cardio. He will also get dehydrated and require a water break. That is it. There are obese people who start panting after walking a few steps. If they follow such advice and avoid exercising cause it is intense, they will remain fat. Cardio does not cause a heart attack.
Some of these doctors speculate that it is high protein intake that caused the heart attack. This is true to some extent. The Kuopio Ischaemic heart disease risk factor study showed that high protein consumption was marginally associated with an increased risk of heart failure. Another study by Loma Linda University showed that people who consumed meal protein had a 60% increase in the risk of cardiovascular disease and those who consumed plant protein had a 40% reduction in risk of cardiovascular disease. Access to that study is now forbidden. In the case of animal protein, it contains saturated fat and cholesterol that can cause the problem. But, a high protein diet with plant protein is safer. So, it is the high saturated fat and cholesterol that is the problem, not protein.
These doctors do provide much safer alternatives to the gym which are to practice karate, Kung Fu, or wrestling, the traditional forms of exercise. They believe that modern gyms are harmful and people should go back to their traditional exercises. In simple words, it is the “return to monke” type of ideology. Any person with common sense will be able to tell that fighting is not safer than doing a bench press. The training for martial arts is much more serious than normal gym workouts. The second alternative the doctors provide is to just walk. There is no need to build big balloon-like muscles, it will not impress anyone, it is better to just walk. The gym is so dangerous that one step in causes instant death, do not step in there!
Soldiers have to go through much harder training routines than normal people at the gym. Imagine what would happen if they stop training hard thinking that it will cause a heart attack.
It is sad to see that the gym has such a negative image in the minds of the people. The reason is that gyms are dominated by bodybuilders. When someone thinks of a gym, they imagine steroids and syringes. These bodybuilders are sometimes hired as bouncers or henchmen by some gangsters. In movies, the big muscular guys are usually shown as some mini-boss or bodyguards of the villains. When people see a bodybuilder they feel that he must be a bully, going around beating innocent people. They are surprised when they find out that strongmen like Brian Shaw can be humble and gentle. If a small guy is humble, no one cares. Another notion is that people who are bad at studies, unintelligent become bodybuilders. With all of this pre-existing negativity, when there is news of someone dying at the gym, people jump to the conclusion that it was the gym that killed the person.
The reason why these people are suffering from heart problems is their genetics. Many people are very fit, they do not smoke or have high cholesterol but still suffer from a heart attack due to their genetics and family history of heart attacks. The people dying in the gym probably have a family history of heart attacks.
The second reason could be that they had a cardiovascular disease beforehand which combined with intense exercise can cause problems. It is not working out that gave birth to the disease. If there is a heart problem or any other disease, consult a real doctor before starting a workout program. Going for a checkup is also helpful to find out about heart problems.
The next and probably the biggest reason is the malpractice at the gym of selling fake supplements and steroids. A few trainers sell supplements after removing their labels. These containers could be filled with anything, even urine. This is another reason why people think negatively about fitness. To be safe, do not buy any supplement without a proper label and bill.
There could be many more reasons that only a real doctor can tell. You can rest assured that normal workouts will not create any diseases instead, they will make you healthier. Do not get demotivated to train by reading news of people dying at the gym. People die while sleeping as well but that does not demotivate people from sleeping.
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