Do you get panic attacks after you exercise? Well, I have listed many tips and tricks to help you overcome that anxiety!

1. EXERCISE-INDUCED
PANIC ATTACKS: HOW
TO AVOID THEM
Decreasing heart palpitations
Sleeping better
Reducing stress
Shortness of breath
Heart palpitations
Nausea
Dizziness
Choking feeling
Chest pain
Thinking that you’re having a heart attack, or you’re about to die.
The following article is a chapter from my book, The Mental Health Prescription: Personalized Exercise
and Nutrition Strategies for Bulletproof Mental Health.
If you have anxiety, exercise is a two-edged sword. One the one hand, it has tremendous benefits, like:
But on the other hand, in some people with anxiety, exercise can actually induce panic attacks. Not just a
little nervousness, but a full-blown panic attack:
So if you, or someone you know has anxiety, and gets this reaction to exercise, how do you get the
upsides of exercise, without any of the downsides? That’s what we’ll cover in this article. Though if you’d
like to delve into this in more detail, I wrote a whole book about this, called The Mental Health
Prescription. If you’d like to pick up a print version of the book, you can do so on Amazon.
But first…
By Igor Klibanov

2. Increased heart rate
Increased adrenaline
Faster respiratory rate (you breathe faster)
Sweating
A lot of people who experience a panic attack during exercise wonder “did that really just happen? Can physical
exercise cause panic attacks? Isn’t exercise supposed to be good for you?”
Well, the answer is yes. Working out can cause panic attacks.
There are a lot of commonalities between exercise and a panic attack, like:
So if you have anxiety, and you’ve experienced a panic attack before, exercise can sometimes feel just like that.
And it can be hard to tell the two apart. So once you reach a certain intensity threshold with your exercise, a
panic attack comes immediately.
WHY CAN EXERCISE CAUSE PANIC ATTACKS?
P H O T O B Y M A R T I N R . S M I T H
Yes, this is a “basic” of exercise, but for someone suffering from exercise-induced panic attacks, this becomes
that much more important.
If your normal heart rate is 70 beats per minute, and you just start exercising, without a warmup, it can spike
very quickly. It might go from 70 all the way to 150 in a matter of just a few seconds. To someone who doesn’t
suffer from panic attacks, that’s not a big deal. To someone who does suffer from panic attacks, this very
sudden rise in heart rate might trigger a panic attack.
So you want to gradually, and slowly increase your heart rate over a period of 5–10 minutes.
Likewise with a cool-down. Sometimes, panic attacks happen not during workouts, but after workouts. This
can often be due to a sudden drop in heart rate. Again, that’s something that can be avoided with a proper cool-
down. Also, 5–10 minutes.
STRATEGIES TO REDUCE EXERCISE-INDUCED
PANIC ATTACKS
STRATEGY #1: PROPER WARM-UP AND COOL-
DOWN

3. Did I die?
Did it hurt?
After you experience a panic attack, it’s important to do a little introspection. Although a panic attack is scary,
it’s not fatal, even though it feels like it at the time. So how can you take the edge off from panic attacks?
Next time you have one, afterwards, reflect yourself, and ask yourself two questions:
1.
2.
This works better, if you write down these questions, and the answers to them using pencil and paper, as
opposed to just verbalizing it.
You’ll notice the answer to both questions is “no.” It might not have been a comfortable experience, but it
usually doesn’t physically hurt. Do this after enough panic attacks, and eventually, the panic attacks decrease
in intensity. If initially, you believed that you would die during a panic attack, the next time you have one,
you’ll remember that last time it happened, you didn’t die. Knowing that you didn’t die, and that you weren’t
hurt will make the next one more tolerable. It still won’t exactly be pleasant, but at least, you’ll be calmer.
STRATEGY #2: SELF-REFLECTION
Find a gym that isn’t intimidating to you. Look for one with ugly, fat people. Just kidding. But look for a
gym where you’d feel comfortable.
Work with a person trainer who you’re comfortable with, and makes you feel at ease.
You hear that exercise is good for anxiety, so you decide to join a gym that feels intimidating. There are people
who look like they know what they are doing, and you are a first-timer, and you feel like everyone is watching
you, and judging you.
First of all, that’s not true. For one thing, people are too self-conscious to worry about anyone else, but
themselves (yes, even the ones that look like they’re in really good shape). Others are too narcissistic, so they
spend 95% of their gym time checking themselves out in the mirror. You have nothing to worry about.
But even so, it can be intimidating. So you have a couple of options:
1.
2.
STRATEGY #3: EXERCISE IN A COMFORTABLE
ENVIRONMENT
Sometimes, if you focus on the sensations you have during exercise, you’ll notice that your heart rate speeds
up, your breathing speeds up, you start to sweat, and that all reminds you of how you feel during a panic
attack.
...To read the rest of this article, click here!
STRATEGY #4: DISTRACT YOURSELF