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Puneeth Rajkumar, Raju Srivastava, Sagar Pandey and now Siddharth Suryavanshi. All of them had one thing in common, their deaths are linked one way or the other from the gym. Few died during their gym sessions and few of them died right after, that is what the reports told. Almost all of them died of a cardiac arrest. News spreads out and we have all sorts of speculations pertaining to exercise intensity, steroid usage, supplements and even mental health. Every news channel has an expert talking about one point or the other.
Few of the reasons listed below as claimed by a lot of celebs and medical experts and as reported in news papers and forums:
Pre-workouts and protein powder supplements
Over-exercising or "Hyper-gymming" (whatever that means)
Lifting heavy weights
Steroid usage
Lack of sleep
Social media and peer pressure
So many claims have been made but none of them has become a concrete reason for either of the deaths. While it is disheartening to know about such sad demise of young men, it needs to be understood and addressed esp. by the fitness community and those who understand fitness, otherwise the layman would anyways blame weight training and supplements which is the easier thing to do for they will have another reason to skip the work.
Pre-workouts and protein powders:
When we talk about pre-workouts, the first thing that comes to our minds is that it's a supplement and it's scary because it is processed and could be poisonous :O. Keeping this "processed food is poison" debate aside which I have addressed multiple times on my social media handle, let's try to dig deep as to what could have been a cause of a fatal cardiac arrest.
A cardiac arrest occurs basically due to erratic heart beat - either too fast or too slow or irregular. The person starts feeling too fatigued, short of breath and discomfort in the chest. While there are so many individual components in a pre-workout supplement, the one in focus is "Caffeine". Usually, pre-workouts contain roughly 200-300mg of caffeine. While the daily upper limit of caffeine as prescribed by FDA is 400mg, we don't take into account the amount of caffeine in colas, coffee and tea which essentially makes the total count >400mg including pre-workout. People usually use a pre-workout supplement to charge up for a workout and perform better, While it is a decent goal to perform well in the gym or outdoors, one needs to have solid reasons to do so at the back of their minds than simply go out there and lift a few kilos or run a few miles.
In our strength and conditioning training, I always ask people to seek out their "why" during the initial assessment which is the most important component of anybody's fitness journey. "Your why can trump almost any how" is a common saying and which is true because fitness journey isn't smooth, there are ton of obstacles to stop you in your tracks and push you back and down. A solid reason to train will also overpower a need for such pre-workouts. In no way pre-workouts are bad, but our lifestyles are such that an over-consumption of caffeine may be detrimental to our health.
Regarding protein powders which are usually made of milk products or plant based, don't usually contain caffeine so one cannot have a strong case against them. The most important factor while choosing your supplements (if you want) is to buy from an authorized source.
Over-exercising or Hyper-gymming:
Can be better stated as doing more than what your body can take. However, it has couple of perspectives:
- The person is relatively new to the gym and tries to lift heavy and perform a lot of repetitions beyond his/her body's threshold.
- The person is used to working out but doesn't understand the other variables in his life like nutrition, stress, sleep and recovery and thus pushes beyond the threshold.
In either of the cases, I am sure it is that person's responsibility to understand that fitness goals are long term and permanent changes take time. If you try to go through a shortcut it usually hampers your body one way or the other. But, it is a bigger responsibility of the fitness professionals - coaches and trainers, to guide the trainees on the variables of progressive overload, goal assessment, body's training ability, injury history, posture management and how to modify the workouts based on a person's state of being on that day. It is sad that most cult edge fitness centers care more about the lounges that they have created and cut short their effort by providing workout programs with a "one size fits all approach".
Lifting heavy weights:
This claim probably soothes the soul of people who fear the effort it takes to lift heavy things or fear the people who lift heavy. Research and observation has time and again proved that weight training enhances health by increasing bone density, insulin sensitivity, reduces stress and makes you look hotter. However, in continuation to the above point about fitness professionals, care must be taken to guide the trainees on proper form on all the exercises, discourage ego lifting and safely progress as per client's goals.
Steroid usage:
In the last 3 years, similar to the Indian TV artists, we have also seen cases of professional bodybuilders dying of cardiac arrest. Due to the nature of the sport all of them have to use anabolic steroids to keep training and get bigger. However, there has been evidence that links the usage of anabolic steroids with erratic heart function leading to cardiac problems and sudden death out of nowhere. To get on stage, pro-bodybuilders have to be in a world class shape by dieting down to dangerous levels, train hard in the gym and dehydrate themselves which could also contribute to the cause of failure of the organs like heart, kidney and liver.
With professional bodybuilders it is a sort of mandate these days for using drugs to reach towards peak physique and performance, but so many youngsters are also abusing steroids which are many a times illegally sold in the black market, sometimes in the local gyms as well. The result, uncontrollable rage, a much larger muscle to tissue ratio, injuries and fatal health problems.
Youngsters must exercise caution and always have a clear goal in mind and understand the number of years of hard work it can take to get to their goals. Sadly, there is a lot of influence of the movie industry and media influencers that has caused youngsters to perceive fitness as merely a means to develop a good looking physique. Fitness has a much bigger benefit when you combine it with a strong "why", keep your head down and work patiently for years.
Lack of sleep:
With such a huge inflow of information through our smartphones, there is this "hustle culture" that has you leave behind all the comforts and get after it. While it is quite an aggressive approach and imitates so many role models who get up at 3 am or 4 am to train hard in the gym, it rarely is as clear as black or white. You don't even know that person and how they manage the other stuff, whereas you have a full time job, cook your meals, have wife and kids to cater to and then you "Gotta train hard buddy!". Ridiculous! Training must always match your lifestyle and your environment. Don't be fooled by what your favorite influencer does. Yes, getting up early has its benefits but not at the expense of sleep. If you are consistently sleep deprived, instead of moving forward towards your goals, you may be pushed back because of lack of recovery, hormonal imbalance and diseases. Again, a well experienced fitness coach needs to impart guidance in this regard and show the reality.
Social media and peer pressure:
This isn't just limited to the gym, but it has spread in all areas of your life since childhood. We live to impress others and seek validation. Because of social media and a ton of information overload, this is so deeply ingrained in people that going back to a normal perspective is next to impossible.
We would do anything, use any product and go to any extent to impress people we don't even know without caring about our health and wellness. While it seems quite cliched but this is exactly what's happening. You go to any gym setting and if you see people around you who lift heavier than you, you seek to lift equal to or heavier than them and this is one of the major causes of spinal injuries, shoulder pain and knee issues. Without perfecting your exercise form if you try to overload your body, you are short circuiting the learning process. It later hits you hard. Just like any other skill, weight lifting is also a skill that needs a ton of practice and repetitions to master before you become good at it.
But in order to do that, you have to instill the confidence to lay low and work on your craft without getting too influenced on what the others are trying to do. Again, a strong goal assessment done at the beginning of the workout program helps a lot here.
To conclude, while these are few of the common issues that might be causing this downward spiral and deaths, I am still unsure of the exact reasons from a medical standpoint. However, if we can spread awareness to fitness enthusiasts and trainers actively and seek to understand their goals, emphasize recovery and instill confidence with safe progressive overload patiently, we can see a lot stronger individuals who can actually add value in this world.
I would love to know your thoughts on this in the comments section.
More Strength!
Be the Outlaw !
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Hi,
Thank you for reading. I hope it adds some value to you.
I am Vidhu Mahana, a dual certified Strength and Nutrition Coach who emphasizes goal based workouts and nutrition training. You can follow me on my Instagram handle @outlaw_lift for all my fitness and nutrition related content.
I am also an avid traveler and seek to find myself in the wilderness and detours. You can follow my travel journey here - @outlaw_wander