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[Azated]

I have an annoying problem affecting my excercising that I'd like some advice on.

I've always been a tall, skinny guy with little muscle. Recently, in the last six months or so, I've decided to get into shape. I've taken up lots of sports; indoor rock climbing, roller skating, archery, general weightlifting, and to top it off, tai kwon do. I've seen a dramatic improvement in both my fitness and weight, which is very encouraging. However, I've never been able to stand straight for more than a few minutes at a time without feeling woozy. I notice this very clearly during my martial arts training, often to the point of almost passing out.

At first I thought it was because I was just out of shape. Even after these six months of exercise, it still happens. If I bend at the hips for a few moments, it seems to help. The only reason I could come up with is something like blood pressure; maybe my heart just isn't strong enough to pump blood around a 6"2 figure during intense workouts. Eating high protein food constantly doesn't seem to help, either.

I really enjoy martial arts. It's an incredible workout, brilliant for fitness, strength, and understanding of how my body works. The only thing keeping me from training more often is the fact that in the twenty or so sessions I've had, I have never been able to push through a whole class without needing a five minute break or risk passing out in front of the other students.

Any suggestions on what I can do?

[Max White]

Donate blood. They test your pressure and hemoglobin count. If they don't let you give blood, you know what the problem is.

[Sir Finkus]

See a doctor.  A healthy person should not have any issues standing.  I'm tall, skinny, and out of shape half the year and I've never had problems standing, even all day.

[uber pye]

you are probably locking you knees for too long. you just need to bend them a bit every so often (every 30 sec should work).

[Tellemurius]

yea i usually stretch or walk around every 10 minutes when i was working as a gas station clerk, by the end of the day my feet were shot.

[Il Palazzo]

Accept the fate the nature has burdened you with, and learn to live with your disability!

Youth, such a hopeful time. Most of the plumbing and hardware still working as intended, and relative ease of pulling oneself out of whatever auto-destructive behaviour tickles your fancy, breeds the belief in one's infinite potential. In a linear relationship between work put into self-improvement, and results.
Alas, young cub, that shall never be. No matter the effort, you'll never overcome the limitations so generously bestowed upon you by the random chance upon conception and early years of development.
Oh, you may work out, you might study hard. And yet, you'll never be a Batman nor a Bruce Lee.
It's an illusion, you see. For, soon you hit the ceiling of your potential. You plateau with the results of your hard work. You encounter an unavoidable obstacle to your naive dreams of glory.
And as the payoff of the ever-increasing amount of effort diminishes, you find less and less motivation in you to continue, spoiled by the early successes.
So you can't stand for prolonged periods? It's the nature's way of saying "I've got your balls and I see no reason not to crush them", where "your balls" is a metaphor for the fantasies you'd had about your future self.
You may think of it as a bizzare dickishness of life, but the truth is you've just experienced the stubborn denial of reality that defines the human condition. And indeed, will you not continue in refusing to remove the blindfolds from thine eyes? Will you not travel to a medicine man and plead for drugs to fool your body into believing that yes it can, after all, stand straight without passing out?
Ah, the meds, the sweet pills of oblivion. Aren't they the most devious gateway drug?
Why stop at whatever presription you get for your present problem? Why not fight other limitations by artificially altering your body's chemical processes? Can't develop any more muscle? Get them steroids, boy! Can't focus anymore? Metamphetamines are here to give you a shaky hand and a yellow-toothed smile. You can't dream anymore? Venture to the land of LSD.

Doomed, that's what you are. You can either foolishly seek to conquer your limitations and end up a junkie wreck of a man, or learn to live with the newly found realisation that the quiet desperation is all that you'll ever get from life.

And then, once you're old and decrepit and crippled by the inexorable march of entropy, you'll think to yourself: "Why?"
"Why did I not go to the doctor? The fuck was wrong with me to seek health advice on the internets? How bonkers must I had been to follow some hairy, overweight, basement-dwelling ogre's* suggestions? I have wasted my goddamn life! Nurse! Nurse! Let me grab your left boob! I want feel alive for once, nurse!"

*not factually accurate

[Rose]

[Azated]

That was beautiful. 

[Rose]

According to a friend of mine that works out a lot, you're pushing yourself harder than your body can take.

Or you might have a heart problem.

Or the heart problem might be caused by pushing yourself too hard.

If your heart explodes out of your chest, let us know.