I searched the forums but didn’t find anything about this. Perhaps that says more about me than anything else.
I’ve only recently (30 days) begun to drag my fat ass off the couch and into the gym.
Twice a week I use an ab crunch machine (it looks Nautilus-ish). For the first two weeks I started at 70lbs and worked up to 130lbs with no problems.
But last week I did my sets like this (60 seconds between each set)
8x70 (warmup)
8x90 (warmup)
8x110
6x120
4x130
This was typical except the last set - after the 120 set I started to feel nauseous. I decided to just tough it out but by the forth rep on 130 I thought I was going to puke. Not because the weight was too much. It was that nauseous feeling you get after getting kicked in the junk (but the discomfort is distinctly abdominal).
I had to lay down for about 5 minutes to feel good enough to walk to the locker room.
Then on Monday the same thing happened. I was doing the same set and at the same place in the sets I felt sick.
Then again today.
This is not a new amount of weight. The number of reps and sets haven’t changed. And it’s distinctly different then the sick feeling I get when I run or lift intensely.
I’ve never been overly sore or injured my abs. I don’t have a hernia. Every other exercise is fine. Even just doing crunches on a bench is fine.
It’s only when I use the abs machine that this happens.
A little more detail…
I work out at 6am so pre-workout I have a piece of fruit and 16 oz of water about 30-40 minutes prior to starting my workout. I keep 20oz of water with two scopes of protein powder with me during the work-out. I tend to get through half of it while lifting.
Prior to abs I’ve done:
- Squat
- Bench
- Inclined Rows (t-bar)
- Good mornings
- Chest pulls
In that order with no issues (not looking for a routine critique - just letting you know what I did earlier in case it matters).
Seems like it’s one of the following:
a) I’m just a big pussy (probably true) and this is completly normal (probably not).
b) I’m sitting wrong and pinching my balls when crunching. I’d expect an entirely different sensation if this were the case.
c) God is telling me to get off the machine and get onto an inclined bench to do sit-ups.
d) Something else entirely.
Thoughts?
Thanks.