{"id":301368,"date":"2025-10-14T01:25:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T01:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/301368\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T01:25:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T01:25:14","slug":"i-got-rhabdomyolysis-from-a-kettlebell-workout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/301368\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I Got Rhabdomyolysis From A Kettlebell Workout’"},"content":{"rendered":"

I could tell something was off one morning during the summer of 2020 when I went to the bathroom and saw what appeared to be grainy bourbon swirling around in my toilet bowl. (Sorry if I\u2019ve forever ruined your fave whiskey for ya!) Startling, oh yes. Thinking back, I had been nursing achy hamstrings following a kettlebell workout<\/a> a few days prior. And since my pee certainly hinted that something wasn\u2019t working right internally, I suspected the two were connected.<\/p>\n

Until that workout, I hadn\u2019t picked up a kettlebell in months. It had been my primary form of exercise for six years\u2014I even got certified to teach it\u2014but I was starting to burn out, so I swapped in a less intense Pilates practice. Now I was ready to ease back into the swing of things (key word: ease).
<\/p>\n

I began with a 30-pounder and did one-minute intervals of swings, squats, and presses, eventually moving up to 45 pounds. I\u2019d worked with that weight before\u2014but again, it had been awhile. I left the gym hobbling (oh, my hammies!) but otherwise fine.
<\/p>\n

The soreness lingered but wasn\u2019t bad enough for me to cancel Saturday Pilates<\/a>. A stretch might be good, I told myself. But I woke up the next day to my unfortunate bathroom sitch. <\/p>\n

Body Breakdown<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was vaguely aware of the condition known as rhabdomyolysis<\/strong>, in which injured muscle tissue breaks down and releases its contents into the bloodstream, potentially damaging the kidneys. But I figured there was no way my 25-minute kettlebell sesh could have been intense enough to cause that level of harm. Yet I found myself Googling \u201cthat thing when you work out too hard\u201d (who can remember the word rhabdomyolysis?). One of the first symptoms I came across: dark, brownish-colored urine. <\/p>\n

After some initial testing at urgent care, I was referred to the ER, where doctors measured my creatine kinase (CK)\u2014an enzyme found in your muscles that, when elevated, may indicate damage. I learned just how injured I was: A healthy adult\u2019s CK level falls between 22 and 198 U\/L (units per liter); mine was a whopping 90,000 U\/L.
<\/p>\n

\n

“The tipping point is different for everyone, which is why it\u2019s key to be in tune with your body.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

When I was told I would have to be admitted for at least a day, it was a strange pill to swallow. I wasn\u2019t suffering from any other symptoms, like dehydration, nausea, or faintness. Yet I spent the night in the hospital spooning an IV bag to flush my kidneys fast enough to avoid damage. (Renal failure can be one of the more serious side effects of rhabdo.)<\/p>\n

I was told to take six weeks off from exercising. When I did venture to my first hardcore class (boxing), I sneaked a peek at my pee for days afterward, just to make sure everything seemed A-OK. Fast-forward a year later, and I\u2019m healthy as ever.
<\/p>\n

Give It A Rest<\/p>\n

I get it: You feel a sense of pride when you fight through the so-sore feels. But you\u2019ll come back stronger if you take a day off when\u2026<\/p>\n

\"rest\"Your muscles ache several days later.<\/p>\n

Sweat on Sunday and still achy by Wed? Cue to cool it.<\/p>\n

\"rest\"Your fatigue is out of proportion to your workout.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve played tennis forever but feel zapped during a longer or hotter practice, it might be your bod asking for a break.<\/p>\n

\"kettlebell\"You can\u2019t perform at your usual level.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s say you have been training for a race and can\u2019t run as fast as you did last week, but your regimen is the same. Build more recovery time into your plan.<\/p>\n

FYI, exercise-induced rhabdo isn\u2019t terribly common\u2014about 12,000 cases are diagnosed annually in the U.S., according to a study in BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine. But Todd Cutler, MD<\/a>, an internist at NewYork-Presbyterian\/Weill Cornell Medical Center, says nurses in his ER noticed an uptick in rhabdo cases that coincided with the recent rise in popularity of high-intensity cycling classes. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s not typically an exercise newbie who gets injured, either; it\u2019s often a healthy, relatively fit person who pushes themselves to extremes the first time they try a new workout (or when they return after an absence). It makes sense, given my experience. \u201cIf you weren\u2019t fit in the first place, you wouldn\u2019t have been able to do the exercise,\u201d says Dr. Cutler. In other words, my underlying health allowed me to reach the point of overexertion.
<\/p>\n

Less Is More<\/strong>
<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a fine line between pushing yourself (which nets you gains) and going overboard (which leads to injury). The tipping point is different for everyone, which is why it\u2019s key to be in tune with your body. (Hamstrings feel as if they\u2019re under a blowtorch? Put down the weight!) If you\u2019re trying something new or going back to working out after a hiatus, ease into it, advises Lauren Borowski, MD<\/a>, a sports medicine specialist at NYU Langone Center for Women\u2019s Sports Health. <\/p>\n

My new mantra: Match workouts to current ability (no matter your past experience). And\u2026rest days are clutch<\/a>. Take them. The kettlebell will still be there tomorrow.<\/p>\n

Related Stories\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Amy Wilkinson is a contributing entertainment editor at Women’s Health, where she edits the magazine’s celebrity cover stories and writes health features. She has previously held editor titles at Entertainment Weekly and MTV News. In 2021, Amy completed her 600-hour teacher-training at Core Pilates NYC to become a comprehensively trained Pilates instructor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I could tell something was off one morning during the summer of 2020 when I went to the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":301369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[3178,153192,1201,1198,210,2875,153191,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-301368","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-content-type-news","9":"tag-contentid-0513fbdb-76f9-4506-8bc4-9a907522c9b0","10":"tag-displaytype-standard-article","11":"tag-fitness","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-locale-us","14":"tag-shorttitle-i-got-rhabdomyolysis-from-a-kettlebell-workout","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115369916928445120","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}