February 5, 2007
Killer Workouts, by Eugene Allen - May 05 CFJ
Rhabdomyolysis was first described in the victims of crush injury during the 1940- 1941 London, England, bombing raids of World War II - and more recently in Eugene’s garage.
A rugby player performs intense sets of squat jumps on a hot day, collapses, and is rushed to the hospital, where he spends two days in intensive care. Doctors notice that his heart is beating abnormally and that he has unusually high levels of potassium in his blood. A soccer player runs a series of 100- meter sprints at near maximum intensity. After his eighth sprint he collapses to the ground; when he gets to the hospital he is found to have high levels of potassium and myoglobin in his bloodstream. He spends several days in the hospital and is unable to train for several weeks. A highly fit marathoner holds a 6:30 pace for 26 miles but collapses only a few feet short of the finish line. Blood tests reveal a potassium concentration three or four times the normal level and he dies.
Read the full article in PDF
Eugene,
After several 16-hour days of intense exercise, dehydration, and illness while conducting military hand-to-hand combat drills I was hospitalized for 10 days with kidney failure which led to liver failure and heart problems. Doctors pumped me full of fluids and eventually my kidneys kicked back in, however, doctors were never able to determine what I actually suffered from. Until reading your article, it had been a mystery. I have suffered from similar, though less severe symptoms since and was wondering if a person who has fallen victim to Rhabdomyolysis is more predisposed to suffering from it again?
Matt
hey i read your article and found it verry interesting and i wondering if a person that works out with intensive training pretty much every day could develop this problum or is it just in people that make a large jump
Hey All...
Interesting article. I guess, depending on the circumstances, pushing through one last set may not be the best!
Also very interesting about women being more "protected" from it. My wife gave birth at home (on purpose with no drugs:). I can see that women, because they give birth, biologically being more able to handle extreme exertion without causing complete system shutdown. My wife said, also, that you can choose to stop exercising anytime, but birth just keeps going. I tried to imagine doing 20 burpees every 3 minutes for 7 hours (our first homebirth was 7 hours), and then I start to maybe get a glimpse of the birth. Hmm... Women don't seem to get this... Yeah, I can see why this would be evolution-arily adventagious.
So next time I think I can't make it through another set, I'll have the internal battle of "My wife can give birth, I can do this!" vs "Dude, just quit now, don't end up like the guy in the article!" (I think, at this point, my wife will probably win)
Matt,
I had a near fatal Heat Stroke while training at Ft. Benning and was found to have the same problem. I had one other later incident and looking back remember vividly both incidents. They were both due to exertional stress, hydration and heat. Since then I have been careful to hydrate and eat well, but have been able to increase my stregnth, stamina and the intensity of my activities workouts (Crossfit and Rugby being my prefered). Key is to watch for the signs, but my doctors all say that I am predisposed to it happening again if I don't pay close attention to my body.
