My First Spin Class Nearly Killed Me (Literally)
A year ago today, I attended the spin class which nearly killed me. I wrote this piece the day after being discharged from hospital, but never published it. The one-year anniversary feels like a good time to look back.
TLDR; I overdid it at my first spin class; two days later, my legs stopped working, and I ended up in hospital with a life-threatening condition called rhabdomyolysis.
Before I begin: if you came across this article online because you think you might have rhabdomyolysis and you are experiencing severe muscle pain, aches or cramps, dark urine and/or feel tired — GET CHECKED OUT NOW.
9 am last Monday; I went to my first-ever spin class. Having not done proper exercise since PE in year 11, I massively overdid it. Surrounded by 30 people smashing it with apparent ease, it bought out my competitive side. For the first five minutes, I tried to push past my inability (my first mistake) and keep up — in hindsight, this was stupid, considering I was the only new person in the class. There was something about being singled out by the instructor as the newbie and that 60-year-old guy in the corner that was spurring me to push harder. I spent the remaining 45 minutes sitting down, attempting to carry on beyond the pain (my second mistake), trying not to stick out and not wanting to let the instructor down. When I got off the bike at the end of the class, my legs were like jelly — I couldn’t stand up. But I thought — ‘this must be what proper exercise feels like’. I shuffled home and carried on with my day.
Over the next two days, my legs began to seize up. Everyone (myself included) found it hilarious that I’d been to one spin class and could barely walk. I assumed it was an extreme case of DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness). I pushed through, going to work on Tuesday. By Tuesday night, I could barely climb the stairs to bed, let alone lift my legs to get in. When I woke up at 4 am, I could barely put heel-to-toe to get to the bathroom and it was excruciating to move. I Googled ‘spin class extreme muscle pain’ and read about a girl who’d almost had to have her legs amputated due to a condition called ‘rhabdomyolysis’ after taking her first spin class. This freaked me out. I called 111 and, in turn my GP, who told me to go to urgent care.
By the time I arrived at urgent care, I had blood in my urine. The doctors ran blood tests and diagnosed me with rhabdomyolysis. The marker for rhabdomyolysis is an increased CK level (creatine kinase) — normal levels are below 300, and at the time of admission, mine was 28,000.
What is rhabdomylolysis? According to WebMD:
Rhabdomyolysis is the breakdown of muscle tissue that leads to the release of muscle fibre contents into the blood.
In short — I’d pushed my leg muscles well beyond their physical limit, so they’d begun to break down and enter my blood. I’m told this (rare) condition happens mostly to first-time spin-classers and people who do extreme endurance sports like marathons and triathlons. It’s believed to be a fight or flight response, allowing us to run from the lion and survive the initial threat.
The knock-on effect of rhabdomyolysis is that your kidneys fail because they can’t process the Creatine Kinase (CK) deposited in your blood, eventually meaning the toxins enter your heart and… well… kill you.
They put me onto a drip, the only treatment for rhabdomyolysis if caught early, essentially flushing the toxins out of my blood, trying to push back the tide of acute kidney failure. Over the next four days, about 20 litres of sodium chloride drip were pumped through me. Despite this, my CK level continued to climb — 34,000 > 47,000 > 52,000 > 79,000 > 102,000 (60 hours later), much to the doctors’ confusion.
I was incorrectly discharged from hospital on day 2 when a mixed-up blood test suggested my CK level had dropped to 62 from 52,000. Luckily, an eagle-eyed junior doctor spotted the anomaly and called me back in. By the time I made it back to A&E (welcomed as ‘spin class guy’ by the receptionist), my CK level had reached 79,000 before peaking at 102,000 in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Slowly, my leg mobility showed signs of improvement. After the first day, I could just about raise my legs. After the second, I could begin to bend them. After the fourth, I could cross them again.
Finally, on Saturday (5 days after the event, 4 days after beginning treatment), my levels began to decline. 90,000 > 68,000. The doctors discharged me for follow-up bloods two days later (which is the time of writing) these returned at 24,000. Ironically 24,000 is a similar level to when I was admitted — but as it’s shown a constant decline, I’m good to go about a slightly more relaxed pace of daily life.
Thank you to the medical professionals who saved my life and looked after me. We must protect the NHS at all costs.
Why am I telling you all this? So someone else Googling ‘extreme muscle pain after spin class’ gets help, and because taking FAST action SAVED MY LIFE. We know our bodies SO well. If something doesn’t feel right, TAKE ACTION. As someone told me last week, ‘you never regret getting checked; you only ever regret not getting checked’ — get checked! (and now you know what rhabdomyolysis is).
ONE YEAR ON
It’s a year since this all played out. In the weeks following my discharge, my legs gradually returned to full working order without further intervention. I’m still yet to meet anyone else who has suffered from rhabdo. And in case you’re wondering, I haven’t returned to spin… yet.
