The FastDay Forum

I plan on this monday to be my second fast and coming out of it Tuesday 7am, but i want to do a high cardio spin class at 9 am. I give it everything I have that spin class, will this trigger migraine. Under normal eating I get a aural migraine after a spin class, doesnt matter what I eat before hand, it still comes. I determined to suceed at fasting, so I guess I 'll just ride that aural migraine if it comes. I wonder if I'll have the energy to do spin class, its only 45mins but its tough. Should i have a high calorie breakfast like 400cals??
I guess everything is trial at the moment.

Hi Zamale, I do a 45 min spin class on my fast day or an hour's step class, dont feel any different to doing a class on my "feast" days, but you do need to ensure you drink plenty of water. I was getting a bit of a headache, not a migraine in the beginning (am now 8 weeks in to this way of eating), but i am fine now. So keep on spinning!!!. I tend to have boiled eggs for breakfast on a fast day then not eat until my evening meal.

Hi Zamale,

I would say go for it. In my limited experience (6 fast days as of yesterday) I have done 1 very challenging spin class (9:30am Saturday morning) and 2 hard power yoga classes (8:15am) and have not eaten until after any of the classes. In all classes I had as much if not more energy than on a normal day and felt great afterwards.

Cheers,

Allan.

Thanks guys, this is helpful and I love this place. I hope I can make this work for me, I guess its trial and error and see what goes.

I do spin the morning of a fast when I have nor eaten anything and I have done it the afternoon of a fast as well before I have eaten dinner and I have always found it was OK and I had no less energy

Sounds like an exercise-induced migraine/headache to me which is often caused by one of two things.

Dehydration - make sure that you drink well during fast day and in the morning.

Too high a heart-rate; in spin, when they tell you to take it to 80 or 90% intensity, that should fall in with your max heart rate. If you go too far beyond that for long, you will end up with headaches - and you're not really going to improve your fitness by over-stressing the heart. For example, if you're told to do 2 minutes at 70%, then a minute at 80% and then 30 seconds at 90% before dropping back down to 80, it's interval training that will work your heart. If, instead, your 70% is really 80% and your 80 is 90% and your 90 is 100, then you're potentially overtaxing things and won't see the benefits - and end up with headaches.

I used to get similar headaches and my spin instructor buddy (v experienced and 'mean') told me that it's a warning sign that something's not right; particularly if they hang around for a few hours. He encouraged me to get an HRM and keep an eye on it during class - and it turned out that I was pushing it too hard. A few weeks of being more careful (which felt v odd at times since I didn't feel that I was working hard enough at the lower intensities) and my fitness levels improved so that my HR was now lower at higher resistance/rpms and I could work back up again. Just a thought!

Having said all that, if you don't mind the headache, nothing physical should stop you spinning after a fast day. Don't go overboard on the breakfast unless it's something easily digestable that will send glycogen straight to the muscle. If you eat at 7 and then do spin at 9, you don't want your body still be working hard to digest stuff with the blood flow in the digestive system rather than your muscles.