What to do if you have left side stomach pain while running

Running is good for your health and can also help you lose weight, so it is the sport that many people choose. But we may find that sometimes when we run we feel pain on the left side of our stomach. Running is an aerobic exercise, the breathing response is intense, and the lungs will also exercise more vigorously. So when the body is feeling unwell, it will show up during running. So, what is the cause of the left side stomach pain when running? Let’s take a closer look below.

1. Some people often experience pain in the upper abdomen or the left and right upper abdomen when running, especially in the early morning. Medical experts believe that this is related to spasms of the respiratory muscles. The main respiratory muscles in the human body are the diaphragm and intercostal muscles. If the diaphragm spasms, it will cause pain in the upper abdomen or the left and right upper abdomen. When running, the human body's organs will transition from a quiet state to a state of exercise. Because the metabolic process in the body is vigorous at this time, the demand for air and various nutrients suddenly increases, and the body's metabolic products are also accelerated to be excreted from the body. This requires the respiratory and cardiovascular systems to improve their work efficiency. However, since the functions of the human body's internal organs cannot be immediately adjusted to the required state, there is a contradiction between supply and demand between the motor organs and the internal organs. The human respiratory system must speed up the breathing frequency and increase the breathing depth to meet the needs of the body.

People who are new to long-distance running often only pay attention to increasing the breathing frequency, but neglect to regulate the depth of breathing, which leads to a faster contraction frequency of the respiratory muscles, causing tension in the respiratory muscles and thus spasms. The spasms of the respiratory muscles can directly stimulate the sensory nerve endings, thus causing pain. Experts suggest that you should do a good warm-up before running to prevent this phenomenon. Through warm-up, the internal organs of the human body can gradually enter a state of exercise. Then running can avoid stomach pain. Even if stomach pain occurs, the symptoms will be relatively mild.

2. This phenomenon is a very normal reaction. Everyone may encounter the situation during long-distance running where they should first slow down their running pace, but they should not stop suddenly. Instead, they should press the painful area with their hands, take deep breaths, and then gradually increase their running speed after the pain is relieved. If the pain does not subside but instead gets worse, then you should stop slowly.

3. Generally, many people who have not exercised for a long time will have problems at the beginning of exercise. When running for about 300 meters on the first day, the left or right side of the stomach will hurt. It is recommended to continue running for 1,000 meters after the pain. It will be normal when you continue running on the second or third day. In general, it is due to lack of exercise. It is recommended not to eat food that is difficult to digest a few hours before exercise. Generally, only milk or water should be consumed a few hours before exercise. It is also recommended not to eat fried food. After digestion, fried food will produce trans fatty acids in the human body, which takes about 50 days to digest. When people exercise, these junk food residues often rebel in the human body, causing left stomach pain.

From this it seems that the reason for stomach pain when running may be that you have not exercised for a long time, and sudden exercise will definitely make the body feel uncomfortable. Maybe you had a stomachache because you ate too much before running. It may also be caused by poor physical fitness. Therefore, we must be in good physical condition so as to avoid physical discomfort as much as possible.