Wow! Tai Chi nearly killed me!

ouroborous · June 16, 2011

So, yesterday, I went to my first tai chi class (ever!) I felt a little self-conscious (since I felt so clumsy next to all of the graceful tai chi and kung fu students) but I muddled through it. It didn't seem terribly "hard" -- the stretching at the beginning was a little challenging, but not overly so -- nothing really hurt, and I didn't even build up much of a sweat! On the way home I was thinking -- "okay, well so tai chi won't be to build muscles or burn fat, but rather to work on balance and keeping limber" and I was fine with that (I work out nearly every day to build muscle and burn fat, so it's okay if tai chi is more about meditation and stretching than bodybuilding!)

Then I came home and had a quesadilla and ate it a little too fast (I was starving!). I had a bit of acid reflux, but I thought nothing of it and took a couple of antacids. In about 20-30 minutes, I started getting really bad calf cramps, started feeling achey all over, and then started feeling really, REALLY tired. I went to bed and took a tylenol PM (I was achey, plus the PM part of tylenol PM is diphenhydramine, which is basically Benadryl, which helps my night time allergies). Today, for the first time in a while, I woke up really kinda tired and groggy, and I'm still a bit draggy!

So I'm trying to figure out what happened; was Tai Chi harder than I thought, and despite not feeling tired or achey at the time, I was really worn out? Or maybe the fatigue plus cramps meant I was borderline dehydrated or low on some micronutrient? I thought I drank plenty of Water yesterday, but maybe not enough -- I recall that I did have more coffee than normal yesterday.

The answer could be as simple as "you were tired, dummy!" (I AM over 40 now, after all!), but I'm wondering if there's some other lesson to take home here. Any thoughts?

chilo1 · June 16, 2011

Maybe it just coincidently happened after Tai Chi and you're about to get some kind of virus/cold anyway??

ouroborous · June 16, 2011

Well, I don't feel at all sick or in any way under the weather today.

Honestly I think I'll have to chalk it up as "just one of those things that happens." It's possible that I may be running a little dehydrated lately (I've noticed other symptoms) and this may have been related (the tiny bit of exercise/sweat from tai chi may have been the tipping point), so I'm focusing on Water intake today. 30 oz down and counting!

GreginMI · June 17, 2011

I read the title of this post "Wow! Tai Chi nearly killed me!" and the first thing I thought was, "well you shouldn't be eating such spicy foods!" Bahahahahahahaha

dlflightgirl · June 17, 2011

That kind of excersize will strengthen your core muscles if done right. When I was younger and took Kung Fu my teacher was married to a thai chi master and he was amazing to watch. On the next note if you drink caffeinated coffee that will dehydrate you so you need to drink more Water. Have fun with the class though it will get tougher

S311kyra · June 17, 2011

I haven't tried it since my sleeve because I'm still on activity restriction. However, I love tai chi and used to do it all the time. The first month of it snuck up on me and I felt exactly like you described. It works you harder than you think.

Disney · June 17, 2011

I read the title of this post "Wow! Tai Chi nearly killed me!" and the first thing I thought was, "well you shouldn't be eating such spicy foods!" Bahahahahahahaha

That's funny, because I read it as " Chai Tea nearly killed me"...I thought, man, I better go read that, my grandmother drinks that stuff constantly!!!!! haha

Ourorubus.....I hope you figure out what is making you feel this way.