Eyes, head pressure & lifting

Medical Q&A [Moderated]
1

My girlfriend wears glasses, but her dioptre is big, 4.5, so she’s now slightly panicking because the doctor (actually 2, 3 I think) told her she shouldn’t bench or deadlift, she can squat, but in general, she shouldn’t lift heavy at all, in gym or out.

So now, she’s afraid her retina will break or whatever, because of anything heavy and I keep telling her that the only thing that can cause damage in the head is pressure, when you take a breath and you put all of the pressure in the head, instead of bracing the core. Plus holding your breath while doing an exercise.

She’s not a powerlifter, so she’s not doing doubles or triples or stuff like that (not going for heavy lifts), but either way, because of her anxiety, this scares her even more than the regular person. Her training is 90% hypertrophy stuff, focused on reps, contractions etc and 10% on strength training for the squat, bench and deadlift.

I posted this question in a powerlifting group I’m in (someone told me to ask here), to get some opinions, because doctors in my country have almost 0 correlations with bodybuilding, powerlifting or weightlifting. Or any gym training in general, so my only option for any medical advice, is to ask athletes or doctors from abroad.

Is there such a high risk of injury, like blindness and other eye injuries, that would occur because of lifting weights? Proper movement, slow, controlled, proper breathing and everything. She’s sceptical when I try to tell her there isn’t, because I truly think so, but I think she’ll believe it if I get a confirmation here.

Thank you very much in advance.

2

What is her actual eye problem? Myopia?

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Yes, and other than that, nothing else, as far as I know. One eye has 4.25 and the other 4.5 dioptre (diopter, not sure how it’s spelled). We’ve been told that high eye pressure while lifting something heavy, can damage the retina and that can cause serious eye injury, even blindness. Now I understand that it’s not advisable for her to train powerlifting where sometimes she’ll have to grind a lift and cause higher head/eye pressure, but somehow I find it completely stupid that she can’t lift at all. One doctor even told her she shouldn’t be lifting anything heavy around the house, like doing laundry, lifting a basket full of clothes… My girlfriend responded that she’s not handicapped, just has bad eye sight…

Anyway, she’s been training for about a year and I pushed her here and there to lift heavier and she got from a barbell (20kg) to 60kg on deadlifts. Taught her proper bracing and technique for every movement she does, so she wouldn’t be afraid of the possibility that her eyes are gonna pop out of her head, she gained 10kg, fixed her posture and everything, but she’s still somewhat scared to lift heavy when I tell her to do a set of triples on squats… She went to an ophthalmologist couple of days ago and she heard the same thing again “don’t go to the gym, or if you do, don’t do anything lying down or anything where you have to bend forward… it’s better if you started running or something like that”. I wear glasses too and I’ve been told the same thing when I started going to the gym; I’m now squatting almost 4 plates, benching 3 plates and deadlifting almost 6 plates and I have 0 eye problems, so it blows my mind the doctors are so against lifting weights. That’s how it is for everything in our country, I had cartilage problems with my knee (turned out it had nothing to do with the gym), all of them said “it’s because of the gym”, later on I fixed it thanks to a doctor that wasn’t so close-minded, I started powerlifting and my knee is awesome.

I swayed away from the topic a bit, sorry, but I hope you realize how close-minded doctors here are… I need a doctor that does not look at the gym like it’s a sin, to tell me if I’m right or wrong when I say that lifting moderate weights, with proper breathing and technique (bodybuilding style) is not harmful and won’t cause any eye damage. I think that even occasional strength training sessions wouldn’t be harmful.

Sorry for the long reply and thanks.

4

I also have myopia, with -7.5 in the right eye and -7.25 in the left, and I’ve deadlifted 675 lbs.

Hope that helps.

4 Likes
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I am nearsighted as well. Something like -4.75 and -4.5, I can’t recall at the moment. She has bad eyesight, like millions of people. ¯_(ツ)_/¯ .

I’m not a doctor or an ophthalmologist, but I can’t see a way that lifting “heavy” would be bad in this case. This would mean that millions of people shouldn’t lift or do anything remotely challenging, which sounds profoundly dumb IMO.

1 Like
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I understood everything I needed too lol thank you very much.

7

This post caught my eye…

I am 55 yrs old and a competitive powerlifter. June of last year, I had a posterior vitreal detachment (PVD). The detachment seemed very sudden and occurred sitting at a desk, but with a fair bit of blood in the field of view. Rushed to emergency retina surgeon. PVD diagnosed. No retinal damage noticed on initial examination. Released to full activity including powerlifting, but excluding contact sports, particularly martial arts. That was a really bad day for this powerlifter not knowing what just happened, but with a mostly happy ending. A small retinal tear was noticed and repaired two weeks latter and again released to full activity. 9 months latter, second eye PVD, sitting in a chair at home. No retinal tear detected yet. Released to full activity.

PVD is very common, will happen to most people before they die, it is usually not noticed, and usually does not tear the retina. Other than fairly shitty vision, now in both eyes, as vitreous slowly clears ( I am not likely to get a vitrectomy), my lifting has progressed. But, none the less, it does correlate in my case with heavy lifting. It does cause concerns.

Having said that, I PRd my deadlift the day after the second PVD, because it was important to me to make the attempt on schedule. I felt assured by two retinal surgeons that it was ok, but there is not consensus among all medical professionals and/or strength coaches. Most Dr’s say “don’t lift anything heavy” when the eye is of concern. Which is fine for most people because they don’t lift anything heavy and don’t want to.

Anyway, any further insights from this forum for this audience concerning eye problems and lifting would be very welcome. Thanks!

8

We get lots of eye questions here, and unfortunately neither of us are ophthalmologists.

We really need to recruit an ophtho who lifts!

1 Like
9

Thanks Dr.

I know you guys aren’t ophthalmologists. Maybe someone will pop in?

as a follow up, my second eye had two small retinal tears, both laser repaired (an hour ago) I plan on continuing to lift. Surgeon still says ok. He knows about valsalva too. Says done properly shouldn’t bother eye at all. I didn’t ask what improper was.