Burning lungs while exercising

I am 9 weeks into a rigourous exercise routine, at least for me. Today I was on the eliptical and pushing extremely hard to get out of my comfort zone. I started having a burning sensation in my chest, well I would say my lungs. It DID not feel in anyway heart related. I pushed on a little further but I had to cave and stop because of the burning. It reminded me of when  I was a kid and was obese trying to get through PE and I was really struggling to get enough breath. I remember the burn then. I have never worked this hard with exercise in my life. I stopped and the burning subsided quickly. I was actually able to finish up on the treadmill and continue on with the weight training for about 40 minutes. What is that burning? Is it lack of oxygen? Is it dangerous? I felt fine after the burning stopped and finished with no further problems. Hopefully those of you who have been at this a lot longer can help me. I researched on the internet but did not find much. Thanks!

Not sure about the burning sensation, but you do need to practice proper breathing techniques when you're exerting yourself.  Have you had a stress test since the surgery?  Many people don't realize that we have stored a lot of fatty tissue around our lungs and heart while being obese.  Just because we have lost weight, does not mean that the fatty tissue is not impacting our organs. Breathing technique:  You should be doing maximum inhales through the nose, and exhaling through the mouth.  You need to start your breathing during the early part of your aerobic exercise, to store oxygen for later.  You need to also watch how long you are forcing yourself into an anerobic state.  My best advice is to to get yourself a good Polar heart rate-watch and just make sure you maintain a high aerobic number throughout the session. If you still have problems after a few sessions you may want to contact a pulmonologist. That all from here. Rob

That happens to me when I hit my 90% heart rate - I can tell immediately by my breathing and that burning sensation. I do interval training and so I hit the 90% range for only a couple of minutes, that's all I can last at that rate. And once I slow down it goes away. That could be it. Check your heart rate when you feel the breathing problem and see if that is it. I do have allergies and my family has a history of asthma (even though I, as far as I know, don't have it) so that could factor into it. I'm not sure if others have the same issue, I'm just use to me This always happened to me when I was a kid too - I HATED to exercise because my breathing was so uncomfortable - back then I don't think they knew too much about target heart rates and just thought the faster you go, the better.  It really set me up for failure the rest of my life - I've had to rethink/retrain my thoughts and feelings on exercise.

Thanks PJ. I feel like that was it. I was definitely at 90%, and maybe just pushing myself to hard. I am going to see my doc for a check up and will talk with her about it but at this point I am not too concerned. All of my workouts since have been fine. Glad to know I am not the only one with this! Thanks again for sharing your experience!