In March, Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services raised concern over a surge in cases over the past few months among young women in part of the province.<\/a><\/p>\n WATCH | Women in St. John’s get diagnosed with rhabdo: More young women in St. John\u2019s are getting muscle damage from intense exercise<\/p>\n N.L. Health Services is warning the public about the risks of intense exercise, following a spike in the number of cases of rhabdomyolysis in the St. John\u2019s area. One doctor says pressure to flex on social media is leading to more health issues in young women. The CBC\u2019s Zach Goudie reports.St. John’s seeing increase in cases<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve just seen quite a lot of activity regarding fairly strenuous exertional exercise causing this and people posting what they\u2019re doing,\u201d said Dr. Richard Barter, clinical chief of emergency medicine for Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services in St. John\u2019s.\u00a0<\/p>\n Between October 2025 and April, emergency rooms in the province\u2019s eastern area, which includes St. John\u2019s, logged 20 cases of rhabdo \u2014 mostly women between the ages of 19 and 30. It\u2019s a \u201cworrisome\u201d trend, Barter said, noting that typically the area would expect to see between eight to 14 cases in a given year.<\/p>\n Exercise-induced rhabdo cases aren\u2019t tracked across Canada, though Barter previously said the normal rate of rhabdo is about 4.5 to eight cases per 100,000 people each year. Research in the United States<\/a> found that, between 2000 and 2019, the condition sent more than 40,000 Americans to hospital emergency rooms.\u00a0<\/p>\n That study found the most common activities sparking rhabdo were exercising without equipment, weightlifting and football. The majority of cases were in men between the ages of 16 and 35. It also found a 10-fold increase in ER visits from the first decade to the second.\u00a0<\/p>\n While the study didn\u2019t look into what\u2019s behind the increase, its researchers speculated that changing exercise trends likely contributed, with high-intensity interval training (or HIIT) classes becoming more popular in 2014 and weight training in 2015. <\/p>\n Rhabdo usually happens after \u201cunaccustomed exercise,\u201d according to Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky, division head of neuromuscular and neurometabolic disorders at McMaster University in Hamilton. <\/p>\n \u201cIt’s usually if you do something that you’re just not used to and you really push it too hard,\u201d said Tarnopolsky, adding it can also happen when people return to working out after taking some time off.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Whenever you do a new exercise or start working out again after a break, it\u2019s common for your muscles to feel tight or stiff in the days after.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf it\u2019s really extreme and you can barely bend your legs, your arms are stuck and you can\u2019t straighten them out and, or you start to have dark-coloured urine \u2026 that means that you\u2019re damaging your muscles so badly that the proteins are spilling out in the urine,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n When that happens, Tarnopolsky said people should go to the emergency room, so they can get started on IV fluids to keep things from getting worse.\u00a0<\/p>\n In rare cases, when protein levels in the bloodstream get too high, they can damage the kidneys and the person could require dialysis, Tarnopolsky said. He said that while it\u2019s possible that it could result in long-term kidney damage, it\u2019s unlikely.\u00a0<\/p>\n The condition can also lead to compartment syndrome, which is when the muscles become so swollen that they need to be cut open to relieve the pressure. Again, Tarnopolsky said, this is a rare consequence.\u00a0<\/p>\n Other possible issues include seizures, blood clotting or heart arrhythmias triggered by an imbalance of electrolytes. <\/a><\/p>\n Are trending workouts contributing?\u00a0<\/p>\n Experts question whether social media is playing a role, with people challenging themselves or their friends to take part in strenuous activities, or fitness influencers encouraging people to work out in ways they maybe haven\u2019t before.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAvoid the influencers on the internet. That\u2019s where you run into problems,\u201d said Tarnopolsky.\u00a0<\/p>\n But there hasn\u2019t been much research into this, so it\u2019s hard to know for sure.\u00a0<\/p>\n Heat also plays a role, said Tarnopolsky. Higher temperatures increase muscle breakdown<\/a> and can lead to dehydration, all of which impact the kidneys.\u00a0<\/p>\n Since one of the biggest risks is overexerting oneself, Tarnopolsky said that no matter how fit you are, you can experience rhabdo. Research has found that it often affects both military personnel <\/a>and athletes<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n But that doesn’t mean people can do intense workouts provided they follow a certain diet and exercise rules, said Tarnopolsky, who works with a small number of people who actually have a genetic disorder that makes them more prone to getting rhabdo. <\/p>\n How to prevent it\u00a0<\/p>\n Melissa Denny, owner of Peak Performance Training & Nutrition in Brockville, Ont., said she\u2019s on high alert for potential cases of rhabdo.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot more social media pressure on getting back to that \u2026 supermodel look,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u201cSo people are really training super, super hard and catching up on these really intense classes, like spin, HIIT.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n But, Denny said, people forget that proper diet, hydration and recovery are a big part of the equation.\u00a0<\/p>\n Denny said a top priority during her classes is keeping people safe. Her trainers do that by keeping class sizes small so instructors can check in on everyone, offering water and a cool towel, and reminding them to take breaks and hydrate.\u00a0<\/p>\n Dr. Tarnopolsky, meanwhile, said the main ways to prevent rhabdo are staying hydrated, listening to your body, and slowing building up if you start a new form of exercise. He said if you’ve already had rhabdo, you’re also unlikely to get it again.<\/p>\n WATCH | What to look for if you think you might have rhabdo: How far is too far to push your workout?<\/p>\n With a new year, many people are flocking to the gym with new fitness goals. It\u2019s normal for muscles to be a bit sore after a workout but pushing too hard can lead to serious damage, especially with popular high-intensity training such as CrossFit. Michael Kennedy, an associate professor of kinesiology at the University of Alberta, joined Edmonton AM to break down what to watch for with a condition called rhabdomyolysis.<\/p>\n Even though she has fully recovered, Fancey still can\u2019t shake what happened to her at spin class more than two years ago.<\/p>\n \u201cI still struggle with panic attacks, sometimes with regard to when I try to go to a gym,\u201d she said, adding she\u2019s created a home gym, which makes her feel more comfortable.\u00a0<\/p>\n She also sticks to \u201cgentle movements\u201d that are helping her \u201ccreate a healthy relationship with exercise.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the music blasting, the lights dropped low and her feet locked into the pedals of the exercise…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":571534,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[337,97],"class_list":{"0":"post-571533","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-fitness","9":"tag-health"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=571533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775642108_994_default.jpg\")
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Dr. Richard Barter, clinical chief of emergency medicine for Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services in St. John\u2019s, spoke out about a ‘worrisome’ trend of young women getting rhabdo. (Curtis Hicks\/CBC)What causes rhabdo?\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775642109_314_default.jpg\")
Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky is the division head of neuromuscular and neurometabolic disorders at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont. (Hugo Levesque\/CBC News)<\/p>\n![\"People](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775642109_53_default.jpg\")
Intense workouts, such as spin or HIIT classes, can cause people to overexert themselves. This spin class was taking place at Peak Performance Training and Nutrition, a gym in Ontario. The gym says it keeps classes small to monitor everyone and encourages people to exercise within their limits. (CBC News)<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775642110_690_default.jpg\")
Melissa Denny owns Peak Performance Training and Nutrition, a gym in Brockville, Ont., where she says her instructors are on alert for rhabdo. (CBC News)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775642110_721_default.jpg\")
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