A beauty influencer has told how she ended up in intensive care after tackling a bike spin class so severe it turned her pee dark “like Coca-Cola”.
Kamila Rigobeli, 29, from Sao Paulo, Brazil, shared footage of the gruelling 50-minute workout with her 116,000 Instagram followers.
But just three days later she was rushed to a hospital ICU after she found her leg muscles were so damaged she could barely walk.
Doctors diagnosed a rare and sometimes deadly muscle condition called rhabdomyolysis, which can lead to kidney failure.
The condition breaks down muscle tissue rapidly causing agonising pain.
Kamila explained: “I don’t go to the gym regularly, but, from time to time, I take tennis, volleyball and walking classes.
“One day, I decided to accompany a friend to an experimental spinning class.
“I thought this would be like any other class, but it was very intense, without any breaks.”
She added: “Even during the training, which lasted 50 minutes, I started to feel discomfort, but I continued, as I thought it was normal.
“When the class ended, my legs could no longer support my weight and I almost fell when I got off the bike. Everyone laughed, including the instructor.
“I was still in a lot of pain when I got home and, after about three days, I could no longer walk and could no longer bend my leg.
“My muscles burned as if everything was torn up inside.
“During this time, my urine started to come out black, like Coca-Cola.
“It was then that I knew there was something wrong with me and a physiotherapist said I needed to rush to the hospital.”
Kamila said medics immediately booked her into the ICU warning her she could need dialysis and might even lose a kidney.
Her legs, she explained, were massively swollen and she was warned not to move them to reduce the risk of releasing toxins into her bloodstream.
Kamila said she was not even able to take pain medication because she was still breastfeeding.
She said: “I thought ‘I’m going to die in this hospital without even being able to say goodbye to my children’.”
But she survived and after a week in intensive care, medics warned her that even though she was fit to go home her liver would not recover for two months.
She said she is still waiting to see if there will be any long-term effects, saying: “But for now, I’m out of danger.”
Rhabdomyolysis is characterised by the destruction of muscle cells, which results in the release of myoglobin into the bloodstream.
In excess, this protein can be toxic to the kidneys, in addition to damaging other organs.
It can occur after practising any intense physical activity above the limit supported by the body or if they become severely dehydrated during the workout.
