In 2023 I got my personal trainer and nutrition certifications. I was so excited to start working as a trainer since it was something I had wanted to do for a while. At that moment in my life I was extremely passionate about my health. I had been diagnosed with a few different things and honestly at the time it made sense. I was always tired and drained, dizzy and lightheaded. These feeling would occur even when I wasn’t doing anything. I was told countless times that I was just “de-conditioned” and needed to drink water and work out. I spent endless hours in the emergency rooms and at specialist trying to figure out what was wrong. I would always be told… “your healthy, just eat well and workout” which if we are being honest isn’t the most helpful when you feel like you are dying internally.

Fast forward to 2024, I finally got the job at my dream gym LIFETIME FITNESS as a personal trainer. I was elated. I started training immediately and everything was good… well kind of. I would constantly have to stop or ask for breaks because I felt faint. DO YOU KNOW HOW EMBARRASSING THAT IS AS A PERSONAL TRAINER??? Anyways I pushed through and figured out what worked for me. I learned that I needed to take frequent breaks and eat something with salt in it. I was so scared that I would black out at work or while working with a client. The thought of that put me in research mode.

What did I discover through research… nothing. Of course when the doctors tell you nothing is wrong and you just need to exercise but your body and mind know there’s more to the story it can be a bit frustrating. Google is definitely no help. I don’t need to know that I could have 500 different health problems. So I abandoned research. I continued to just suffer on and on for months, but i’m not going to bore you with the irrelevant stuff.

Fast forward to April 2025. I was confiding in one of my co-workers about how i’ve been feeling for the past few years and she said something that would ultimately change my life. She mentioned that she herself had also felt the same way LIKE EXACTLY THE SAME WAY! She told me to ask my doctor to test me for Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS). I went home that night and did endless research on this syndrome and after maybe 6 hours I realized that this may be accurate. Reading the symptoms and other peoples testimonies felt like I myself was writing how I felt.

The next day I did a walk in to my primary care physician. I told him that I wanted to be tested for POTS. He recommend that we did two separate test. One called a “tilt table test” and the other called “a standing test”. These measure your heart rate and blood pressure as you transition from lying down to standing up. The first test we started with was the tilt table test which is the main method used for determining if you have POTS. You lay down on this special table that can be tilted upward to mimic that of actually standing up. During this they monitor your heart rate and blood pressure. From lying down to standing up my heart rate increased 50+ BPM (beats per minute). That pretty bad. By the end of these test it was determined that I indeed had POTS. This was great honestly because then I would work with my doctor to figure out how to navigate life as a personal trainer with a syndrome that makes it quite difficult.
So, this is how I am learning to live with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome. For starters prior to this diagnoses, I had started multiple new hobbies such as tennis, pickleball, rollerskating, and paddle boarding. I wanted to incorporate these new hobbies into my “healing journey”. DISCLAIMER: There is no cure for POTS but there are things that you can do to make it more bearable depending on how bad you may have it. There are people who are completely bedridden and handicapped from this syndrome.

For me personally, I decided that if I have to work out everyday I would do 10 minutes on keeping my heart rate as low as possible (when I can) and resting for 5 minutes in-between to lower my heart rate. ON average most peoples heart rates should stay within zone 1-3 during physical activity unless they are pushing themselves extremely hard as athletes sometimes do. For me standing up put me in zone 4+ which is quite dangerous. So here’s how you determine what you highest heart rate should be. (220) minus your age (22) equals what your max heart rate should be. For you that is zone 5. Zone 5 should rarely ever be reached. That wasn’t the case for me. Even when I did the lightest workouts my heart rate would spike to zone 5 even when I wasn’t working hard. This shows that my heart if running a marathon even when i’m just walking. This is why working out in small increments and taking breaks in between worked best for me. It keeps my heart rate in a safe space. This works well for me and it’s how I will continue to operate from now on.

Now let’s talk nutrition. I NEED SALT. I have to consume more fluids and salts than the average person now which is something I hadn’t done in the past. If anything I would avoid salt. Ever since I started consuming salt between workouts and hydrating efficiently, i’ve noticed a drastic change in how I function and my energy levels. Now is this a 100% cure… absolutely not. But has it improved my quality of life as a person and as a trainer, yes! If you believe you may have POTS – Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, I would recommend consulting a doctor, and learning what may work for you.