Blacking Out...

[Primal]

Hey again, this topic I'm pretty worried about. Lately during my days even when I'm not in the gym I've been getting pretty distracted and feeling quite light headed. Once again, the usual stressors and I'm working really hard on getting them resolved, I've made a lot of progress in the right direction so far. But at the gym, after doing sets and standing up, I feel like my head is coated in lead. I think the better term is your head feels quite heavy. I've really been periodizing my rest times and intensity well so far, so I know that I'm not overtraining like I used to. I'm dead sure that it is just these stupid stressor invading my head even when I'm at the gym. I'm really, really worried about passing out, it usually is the worst when I am squatting or bench pressing and since I don't have a spotting partner, this could be incredibly dangerous... Eric, I know you pass out a fair bit, or you get close to the point of blacking out. Does anybody know if it is ok if you do? I'm really going to try not to but just in case, I want to know all the facts and if I can do anything to prevent it. So far on my big compound lifts I've been keeping it in a hypertrophy rep range. I don't want to push myself to hard or I will for blackout for sure. I haven't talked to my doctor or family because they'd just tell me to stop exercising.

Sorry, I know this is really rambling and unorganized but basically, have you guys ever blacked out before? If you did, how was it like coming back to consciousness? Did you feel better and able to go more or did you still feel the same and needed to take the day off? Is it normal for people, especially people my age (I'm 19 now) to experience passing out while training intensely? I won't lie, I'm quite scared and it's not getting better with each passing day, but I am really working on this.

Thanks for any information you guys have!

-Primal

[steve_d]

Sounds like an incredibly long list of possibilites. For instance, if you're not breathing properly you could be experiencing feelings of heaviness in the head, like your going to pass out - or even pass out. Yes, this would be dangerous on the bench, or anywhere. You asked 'is it ok if you pass out'... It's not ok if the weight falls on top of you while you do. It's not ok to work out to the point of passing out, even if you are safe in terms of spotters, or whatever. The fact is, if the passing out is related to your lifting then you are lifting incorrectly. If its related to some other condition that is brought on whenever you lift, it's also not ok and you'd need to figure out why. at that point, yes, having a doctor check you out would be smart.

Anxiety and stress are bad things. They can do everything you mentioned, and everything you mention could be related to anxiety. I used to nearly pass out when I stood up and yawned or stretched to hard. Most people probably have. This wasn't anxiety related, but simply not getting oxygen to the head. Now, if I started panicking thinking it was something else, I might always have been stressed thinking I had some sort of medical condition rather than just a nothing that happens to everyone for good reason. The thing is, you could be in a loop of anxiety by stressing over things that are nothing which causes them to get worse, which causes you to stress about them more. Would you consider yourself hypochondriac when it comes to your health? A doctor might be quick to dismiss you for that reason alone - but at the same time, something could be wrong, so its not reassuring either way.

One thing for sure, its not normal, and to avoid working out hard because of those sympotms is only hiding the symptoms. Whether its as simple as bad form, bad breathing technique, anxiety related, or something serious, you shouldn't be experiencing them so best to try to get to the route of the problem.

[TT Eric]

From my personal experience, beside the stress of the lift itself, I'm not stressed at all, this happens to me when I try to push (or pull) almost like if my life depends on it, trying to go beyond my maximum set points. That being said other physical factors can worsen it, like if it happens to me while going to 'normal' failure, which should not happens; it could means one of my ribs has moved, 1st time it happened I told my chiro, he found right away a rib was out of place, moved it back, symptoms went away right there, it also can happens if something is jammed in the neck area, ie cervical vertebrae has moved, chiro just loosen up everything and it comes back all fine.

2 tips I can give you to help: if you use carbs pre and intra workout, it does help a lot being less light headed and also when possible like when you do bench press, right after your set, stay lying on the bench for like 30-60 sec, don't get up, just give some time for the BP to return to normal... BP can get extremely high when pushing all you got.

Eric

[Primal]

Sounds like an incredibly long list of possibilites. For instance, if you're not breathing properly you could be experiencing feelings of heaviness in the head, like your going to pass out - or even pass out. Yes, this would be dangerous on the bench, or anywhere. You asked 'is it ok if you pass out'... It's not ok if the weight falls on top of you while you do. It's not ok to work out to the point of passing out, even if you are safe in terms of spotters, or whatever. The fact is, if the passing out is related to your lifting then you are lifting incorrectly. If its related to some other condition that is brought on whenever you lift, it's also not ok and you'd need to figure out why. at that point, yes, having a doctor check you out would be smart.

Anxiety and stress are bad things. They can do everything you mentioned, and everything you mention could be related to anxiety. I used to nearly pass out when I stood up and yawned or stretched to hard. Most people probably have. This wasn't anxiety related, but simply not getting oxygen to the head. Now, if I started panicking thinking it was something else, I might always have been stressed thinking I had some sort of medical condition rather than just a nothing that happens to everyone for good reason. The thing is, you could be in a loop of anxiety by stressing over things that are nothing which causes them to get worse, which causes you to stress about them more. Would you consider yourself hypochondriac when it comes to your health? A doctor might be quick to dismiss you for that reason alone - but at the same time, something could be wrong, so its not reassuring either way.

One thing for sure, its not normal, and to avoid working out hard because of those sympotms is only hiding the symptoms. Whether its as simple as bad form, bad breathing technique, anxiety related, or something serious, you shouldn't be experiencing them so best to try to get to the route of the problem.

Hey Steve, thanks for the insight. I'm really sure it doesn't have to do with my breathing or lifting technique. I'm basing this on the fact that I used to lift way heavier and harder before and never had a problem with any of this. Also on the contrary I've been focusing a lot more on my breathing! I've taken notes from the powerlifters at my gym and how they breathe when they do squats and bench and I've been trying to mimic them (for squats, after you unrack keep your head straight, breathe normally twice then take a huge gulp, go down and expel on the way up for example).

I'm pretty sure it's all to do with the anxiety. Yeah, I know what you mean when you get up too quickly you get like that but it's different when you're feeling light headed like that all day, even when your out of the gym. It's not anything too serious, but it does impair my thinking sometimes. I'll forget things a lot easier, I can't focus on a point for that long, my head is always in the clouds e.c.t. Haha, no I'm definitely not a hypochondriac! I used to know a guy who was and I'm nothing like him.

Now that I'm sure that it's anxiety, would you say that it's still good to be training? I probably will anyways, and luckily school is coming up again which should take a fair amount of this stress and change it to university stress instead which may or may not help. Regardless, I still want to train, just not pass out and die. LOL.

-Primal

[Primal]

From my personal experience, beside the stress of the lift itself, I'm not stressed at all, this happens to me when I try to push (or pull) almost like if my life depends on it, trying to go beyond my maximum set points. That being said other physical factors can worsen it, like if it happens to me while going to 'normal' failure, which should not happens; it could means one of my ribs has moved, 1st time it happened I told my chiro, he found right away a rib was out of place, moved it back, symptoms went away right there, it also can happens if something is jammed in the neck area, ie cervical vertebrae has moved, chiro just loosen up everything and it comes back all fine.

2 tips I can give you to help: if you use carbs pre and intra workout, it does help a lot being less light headed and also when possible like when you do bench press, right after your set, stay lying on the bench for like 30-60 sec, don't get up, just give some time for the BP to return to normal... BP can get extremely high when pushing all you got.

Eric

Ahh yeah that's right I remembered you mentioning your ribs before. So when you get to that point it's just because of physical problems. Hmm, I usually do time my carbs before my workouts but I've never tried intra workout carbs... Do you know any good foods? I've seen people use candy like sour patch kids online but I'm not sure that you or anyone else would really agree with that. I'll also try taking my time after getting off the bench. Thanks for the tips! I really appreciate them!

-Primal

[steve_d]

Training will only help your anxiety - not hurt it. You said you have lost 30 pounds or so in another thread. Perhaps you've got to the point where you're lean and just feeling light headed from being hungry? Like Eric says, having food during the workout can help if that is the issue. Breathing like a powerlifter can sometimes mess things up too. If you take your big 'gulp' of air after a few deep breaths, its kind of like hyperventilating... It could cause light headedness too. If your light headed all day though, it sounds like a food thing. If your head is in the clouds, impaired thinking , less clear in the head, it just sounds like what I feel like when I am leading up to a show and low on food.

Stimulants can help, or hurt, depending on how you react too. Sometimes they make me light headed. sometimes they clear it up just enough to get through a hard workout.

[Primal]

Alright that's good to hear! I really didn't want to stop training for anything related to this. I didn't lose 30 lbs more like 20-23 lbs but yes still a big loss in weight I'll agree. That's the weird thing, I don't feel very hungry at all, I haven't changed up my meal timings from when I was bulking, just significantly reduced how much food I was eating and made it much cleaner. So far, I haven't had any problem with being hungry. Yeah my head is always in the clouds, some days are worse than others...

Stimulants don't affect me that much at all, which I found really surprising! Coffee does little to nothing, I haven't tried pre-workout but I'm assuming it'd be the same. Monster makes me feel terrible, I can't drink it. It feels like my heart speeds up twice as fast as it should be. I don't know how other people drink that stuff! Recently got my first training partner back from when I started 2 years ago. I told him about my problem and he said he'd keep an eye on me for sure, so at least I shouldn't die because I dropped the bar on my chest now :P

I'm getting a physical this upcoming Thursday so I'll run it by the doctor and I'll see what he says. I'll keep this thread updated!

-Primal