There are certain situations in which you should immediately stop exercising. In any of the following situations you should stop exercising until you are examined by a physician.
If you develop chest pain or pressure stop exercising at once. Chest pain associated with exercise is heart related until it is proven that it is not. Now not all chest pain associated with exercise is heart related. Since you are exercising, it certainly could be muscular or chest wall. People with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) can have chest pain when exercising. You could have exercise induced asthma. None of these, in general, will kill you. Coronary artery disease certainly can. A stress test done in this circumstance can assess your risk of coronary disease as well as your exercise capacity.
If you get unduly short of breath while exercising you should stop. Now obviously, if you are exercising properly, you should get mildly short of breath, but if you feel you are more short of breath than you should be for that level of exertion you should see a doctor. This could indicate a heart problem, a lung problem or anemia.
Feeling your heart race too fast for your level of exertion, or beating irregularly, could indicate a heart issue and should be checked out. You may have coronary artery disease or an arrhythmia like atrial fibrillation.
Any dizziness or lightheadedness associated with exercise should be looked into. It could indicate heart failure, coronary artery disease or it could be due to medications, especially blood pressure medications, diuretics or water pills, or medicines like viagra or cialis.
If you develop any type of pain, you should stop exercising. No pain no gain is an inappropriate saying for 99.9% of the population. None of you are Arnold Schwarzenegger or training to tryout for the NFL. Pain indicates that something is wrong. Now you do need to be able to tell the difference between soreness and pain. Soreness is your body getting used to a new workload. Pain is your body’s reaction to something being wrong and should be evaluated. It could be due to poor shoes causing foot, ankle, knee or hip pain. It could be due to poor form doing an exercise, or it could be some other injury. In any event, it should be checked out. Don’t try to exercise through pain. At this level, no pain no gain is wrong.
But do remember that sweat is just your fat crying.
Mike Fedak. The exercise doc