Dear Drs.,
I have periodically experienced fairly severe dizziness following the first rep of an rpe 8 set of overhead press. This has been an occasional annoyance in the past as it wrecks my set and requires extra time. However today I twice experienced this dizziness to a degree which caused me to unsafely re-rack the bar by essentially falling forward so I thought it was worth asking about.
I have only experienced this dizziness during overhead presses, and occasionally when I used to power clean.
I am generally healthy with normal blood pressure and lab work done recently. I do frequently get light headed when standing up abruptly.
bw 180, 6’0” 37 inch waist.
I have been training for a year plus, currently on my second run of the bridge following an abbreviated run of the time crunch template.
Is this common, or does it merit a medical consultation? Is there any way to avoid its occurrence before a set?
thanks.
This is pretty common – the overhead press is the only lift I’ve ever gotten that sort of dizziness (and have actually blacked out twice) while performing. Assuming you aren’t placing significant pressure across the blood vessels in your neck (like the carotid artery, for example), we aren’t entirely sure why some people experience it in one particular lift over another, given the valsalva demands are similar. Avoiding prolonged holding of the valsalva can mitigate the risk of this happening, but otherwise there usually isn’t much else.
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Thank you for the helpful reply! Is there anything you do for safety in case you black out when pressing? I can’t press inside my R-3 (too tall), but perhaps this could be an excuse for spotter arms.
Yeah, I can press inside my rack and have the safeties set up higher. Might be a good idea for you.
Yes, will be pressing with safeties from now on.
Just wanted to say thanks again - this week I pressed and felt very confident thanks to your advice. I did what I could to limit how long I held the vasalva and crushed my target weights for the day.