Exercise Intolerance

Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional. I can only speak to my own experience and hope that gives you some insight into what POTS is and how it can affect you or the people around you. 

What it feels like: Being incredibly weak and feeling faint after doing any exercise.

What causes it:

When it comes to exercising, POTS symptoms kick in almost immediately – especially if you’re not used to it.  If you’re having trouble standing up at all, especially for long periods of time, going for a run is going to be like climbing Mount Washington. Your blood pressure drops and your heart rate will be up when you’re standing, then adding exercise to all of that only brings your heart rate up even more.

Solutions I’ve found:

Exercise! I know it feels very counterintuitive but you can’t live your whole life on the couch…only like 50%. You really should exercise, start slow 5 minute walk, even if it’s around your house. Build up add 5 minutes a week, once you feel strong enough to walk consistently for an hour then add yoga or another low impact exercise and do the same thing. Build that one up to 30 minutes and then add another one. Cardio is really good for POTS so concentrate on that. I picked yoga as well because I can do a full 30 minute workout on the floor if I need to.

Works Cited

Fu, Qi, and Benjamin D. Levine. “Exercise in the Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome.” NCBI, 21 November 2014, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4336603/. Accessed 2 April 2023.

“Important Lifestyle Changes: Exercise Overview.” PoTS UK, https://www.potsuk.org/managingpots/exercise-overview/. Accessed 2 April 2023.Rich, Emily.

“Making Exercise Count with POTS.” Tucson Medical Center, 3 May 2022, https://www.tmcaz.com/blogs/medical-services/brain-health/making-exercise-count-with-pots. Accessed 2 April 2023.

How do you handle exercise?