Chris Thornham begins his training. But by mid-game, things started to turn around. “I would reach for food and my biceps would cramp. My jaw, my hands, my quads, basically every muscle in my body would cramp,” he said. As an endurance athlete, he was no stranger to pain, so he kept pedaling. But after crossing the finish line, he sat in the medical tent, shaking uncontrollably. Sonam suspected he might have rhabdomyolysis, a dangerous disease caused by muscle damage, but his urine wasn’t brown (a telltale sign), so he went home. Two days later, still delirious, he told his wife, “I think you should take me to the hospital.” He was hospitalized for four days and given large amounts of intravenous fluids to flush his system.
What is a Labrador?
Rhabdomyolysis, or rhabdomyolysis for short, is a disease that occurs when too much muscle is injured too quickly. “This breakdown of muscle causes the muscle’s intracellular contents to leak into the bloodstream,” explains Ted Girouard, director of the athletic training program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. When these proteins and electrolytes are released in large amounts, they can overwhelm the kidneys, which “are made up of all these little tubes that filter blood and help us produce urine,” Girouard said. “If these tubes become clogged, the kidneys can suffer.” “. This can lead to swelling, weight gain due to water retention, and kidney failure.
Striated muscle can range from mild (think next level pain) to life threatening. Girouard mentioned that some athletes may experience mild symptoms and recover with rest and hydration, while others experience flu-like symptoms or severe swelling after work, indicating that the condition is worsening. In extreme cases, rhabdomyolysis can be fatal. If you’re concerned, the only way to know for sure is to get a blood test for creatine kinase, a muscle protein. Girouard’s advice? If you notice signs, don’t take any chances – seek medical help immediately.
warning sign
Alex Rothstein, coordinator of the exercise science program at New York Institute of Technology, says the first warning sign of rhabdomyolysis is pain that goes well beyond normal exercise soreness. (In Sonam’s case, he suffered extreme cramps during the ride.) Another sign? Performance drops drastically. If an exercise you normally can do suddenly feels impossible, it’s time to stop exercising. Marathoners or endurance athletes especially should pay attention to this: “If based on training you were supposed to be moving fast, but now you’re walking and it’s very painful, that would be an early indicator,” says Girouard.
While urine is a hallmark symptom of rhabdomyolysis, it’s not always a good indicator. “When you start experiencing this in your urine — whether your urine is very little or very dark — it’s a sign that you’ve gone too far,” Rothstein says. In Sonam’s case, he never experienced dark-colored urine, which suggests that the appearance of rhabdo varies from person to person.
Who is at risk?
Although the condition is fairly rare, rhabdo often makes headlines after grueling college athletic training or military training, such as an incident at Tufts College that resulted in the hospitalization of nine lacrosse players. This is more likely to occur when athletes begin training at a high intensity without adequate preparation at the beginning of the season.
It’s also commonly associated with high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and group training, such as CrossFit, spin classes, or SEAL training. “In a group mentality, there’s a lot of peer pressure to work out harder and harder,” Girouard said. So the same thing that makes group classes great—the drive to push yourself—can also make group classes risky. Here’s something both individuals and coaches should be aware of: Just because the goal is to complete “as many reps as possible” (AMRAP, a popular CrossFit format) doesn’t mean you should push to the breaking point.
