A few months ago I was doing front squats for a few sets of 3-5 when, on one rep, I became extremely dizzy as I was coming out of the hole. I managed to stand up, and guide the bar to the rack as I was stumbling around. I figured I might have cut off some important artery with the bar placement, and it put me off of front squats for a while.
However, while I was doing some overhead presses a couple of weeks ago, the same thing happened. I completely lost my balance and the bar came crashing forwards, out of control.
So I was wondering if this has happened to anyone else, or if anyone knows why this happens? The weight was heavy for me, but I am quite weak so I was only pressing 95 lbs and squatting 185 at the most. I wasn’t sick, had gotten a good night’s sleep and had had plenty of food and water. I’d appreciate any insight that can be offered regarding the cause of my dizziness.
If i do multiple sets of squats at or around my 10RM i get a little light headed at the 7th & 8th rep during the later sets. but nothing like that…dizziness, weights crashing down around me, etc. sounds dangerous to your health first of all. I would be seeking some proffesional advice from a doctor that has some experience with athletes.
so far in my experience ive found 3 thigns that do this:
rounding the back
keeping the air in my belly too much instead of grunting/screaming/exhaling
eating crap. even if i ate 500 crabs if they arent homemade stuff then ill probably feel crappy
[quote]lordstorm88 wrote:
so far in my experience ive found 3 thigns that do this:
rounding the back
keeping the air in my belly too much instead of grunting/screaming/exhaling
eating crap. even if i ate 500 crabs if they arent homemade stuff then ill probably feel crappy[/quote]
I had same thing with front squat, but it was because I was SPEEDING through my sets ridiculously fast. I have solid form also, so make sure your not going too fast, along with checking your breathing ext. Give yourself enough rest between sets, I now try to avoid going too fast as I will get light headed.
[quote]cheeta wrote:
im sure it just means that you are lifting heavy lol, my self i am aiming for a nose bleed before the end of this year whyle deadlifting or squatting …now that be awesome… [/quote]
Thanks for the replies, everyone. Now that I think about it, I think that keeping the air in my belly too much was probably the cause. Next time I’ll try to breathe a little more. I suppose I’ll also mention the problem to my doctor during my next visit.
Blood pressure raises very high when under repetative load @ near maximal lifts.
Then when racjing weight the pressure drops -causes light headiness.
same to a same degree as standing up after kneeling for a length of time can cause dizzyness-drop in blood pressure for upright individual.(blood pressure takes time to change to take in account to stand)
many studies were done on me for this -long story.( I was in a hospital for 1 month cuz of this)
A sudden drop or spike in pressure is what causes dizzyness while lifting/ learn to breathe while keeping tight.(think of slow exhaling)
This is for anaerobic concerns -if this persists during other activities go to doctor immediately!
It’s definitely dangerous to completely lose control of a weight you’re supporting over your head. I was lucky that the weight fell forwards rather than backwards.
I meant form a medical standpoint, I useually lift in the power rack. Given that my blood pressure is on the lower side of normal, is this spike dangerous to my body if you ignore the fact that 300 pounds could crash down on my neck.
That is an awesome comment! If I weren’t married already I will chase after you until you would marry me, then we can look together for the “ultimate lifting climax” of lifting together until our noses are bleeding
On a more serious note, yeah! I remember when I saw that happening to a dude attempting a heavy squat and I thought, “man I want to get to that level of intensity!”, so far I’ve only gotten to the point where I feel my ears are going to pop out, no blood yet thought, only on my shins, from deadlifting…
[quote]cheeta wrote:
On other notes i think its awesome that you get dizzy im sure it just means that you are lifting heavy lol, my self i am aiming for a nose bleed before the end of this year whyle deadlifting or squatting …now that be awesome… [/quote]
Setting aside some of the medical conditions already mentioned, I’ll bet it has a lot to do with your breathing patterns (or lack thereof) while doing those exercises. I still get pretty light-headed on maximal effort days, but I’ve notice that when paying close attention to your breathing, not only you might be able to avoid some of that dizziness, but even squeeze out a couple of more reps.
[quote]valbert wrote:
A few months ago I was doing front squats for a few sets of 3-5 when, on one rep, I became extremely dizzy as I was coming out of the hole. I managed to stand up, and guide the bar to the rack as I was stumbling around. I figured I might have cut off some important artery with the bar placement, and it put me off of front squats for a while.
However, while I was doing some overhead presses a couple of weeks ago, the same thing happened. I completely lost my balance and the bar came crashing forwards, out of control.
So I was wondering if this has happened to anyone else, or if anyone knows why this happens? The weight was heavy for me, but I am quite weak so I was only pressing 95 lbs and squatting 185 at the most. I wasn’t sick, had gotten a good night’s sleep and had had plenty of food and water. I’d appreciate any insight that can be offered regarding the cause of my dizziness.
I’ve had a few of these times just like everyone else. I would just say to try and pay attention to your breathing on a few sets. I noticed that a few times on really tough sets, I just held my breath for most of it causing me to get light-headed. So after that I just made sure to try and take a breath before each rep and I was fine.
Of course to a certain extent, it’s still hard to do much after a hard set, but if you’re already doing that, then I’m guessing you’re just hardcore and you’re just squeezing so hard that you’re forcing all the blood into your head causing you to feel faint, or something’s wrong with you. haha.
Well, it happens especially often on the first rep of a set of front squats. In it’s milder form, my body just feels completely numb.
I don’t think it’s from exerting myself especially hard because it never happens to me on back squats and my head feels like it’s going to explode on those. I generally take a big breath before each rep and then hold it until the rep is complete (valsalva manoeuvre, or however you spell it).
Actually, now that I think about it, I was racking the bar on my shoulders with a clean style grip when I got dizzy doing the overhead presses. So maybe I am cutting off blood flow with the bar.
Thanks to everyone for trying to help me solve this mystery. I especially like the speculations that I’m just super hardcore, although I don’t think it’s true.
im sure it just means that you are lifting heavy lol, my self i am aiming for a nose bleed before the end of this year whyle deadlifting or squatting …now that be awesome… [/quote]