Gassiness/flatulence during works sets

First of all, let me describe the situation.

It mostly happens during heavy work sets (and as I’m currently close to breaking my pre-pandemic records, every training is my max effort), usually during squats, especially above 120 kg, when I’m really struggling with lifting (but still manage to finish the sets). Though sometimes it happens with heavy deadlifts as well, or power cleans. So to sum it up, it’s almost always when I’m bending in some way, but I do feel gassy sometimes during the presses, probably because the squats start it all. I thought the belt was the main factor, but as I’m finding it hard to squat with a belt on thus lifting beltless, the issue is still there.

That said, sometimes I train without any issue.

But if I was just gassy/bloated, I wouldn’t have complained. Sometimes there’s flatulence, sort of a short but loud sound that sounds like you’re ripping some fabric. No smell, it’s just loud. And I want to avoid that.

My diet, well, it’s not perfect, but I do try to eat lots of protein (usually from chicken, turkey and fish) with some sort of carbs (rice, potatoes etc.), combined with an odd protein shake, especially on training days. Before almost every workout, I eat oatmeal with milk and sugar, and if I have time, I have a cup of coffee afterwards. Every pre-workout breakfast is followed by a big dump - never leave home without it (to the gym, at least). I obviously do not eat lots of beans, eggs or cheese, especially prior to the workout. But more often than not, I feel bloated in general, because I’m overweight (96 kg, 175 cm) and my eating habits are something like “eat until you’re full, or until your (large) portion is finished”, for 2-3 times per day, not counting pre-workout breakfast (so usually lunch and dinner). There’s some junk food and the occasional beer once/twice a week, but nothing significant.

Out of the obvious “don’t eat so much all at once”, what are some things that would help me get rid of my issue in the short term?

Coach Tom (who deserves a raise!) told me not to believe any idiot on the interballs, and also suggested simethicone (which I have not yet tried).

Experimenting with dietary changes would probably be my first move. I will say that I don’t have a good physiologic explanation for flatulence that only manifests during one particular exercise, however.

Thanks for the response.

With regards to the dietary changes, would you recommend certain methods of food preparation over others, changing the habits or something else (or all)?

I wouldn’t go as far as saying it’s that one exercise that does it. I’d say it’s more of a combination of heavy strains and bending that puts my gut under stress. The diet and the usual state of my gut certainly don’t help.

Or maybe my body is telling me that since I’m in that position…you know…

A few things I’d probably look into changing, in general:

  1. Eating a 90-120 minutes prior to your workout
  2. Eating a smaller, lower fat and fiber meal pre workout. Think ~ 500-600 Calories or so.
  3. Weight loss to reduce waist circumference <92cm
  4. Stop doing LP

As far as behaviors and specific actions to do all of these things for you the individual, you may benefit from a consultation with one of our professionals.

Thank you for the advice. Can you expand slightly on the 4th point, please?

We’ve talked about it in a number of posts, podcasts, and other published media so a lot of this is repetitive and, to be honest, I’d much prefer people to train using the LP than not train at all. However, the program has significant limitations that I think limit its use. A brief list:

  1. No autoregulation
  2. Hyperspecificity in exercise selection
  3. Hyperspecificity in rep schemes
  4. No conditioning
  5. The culture around grinding it out, rapid weight gain, etc. are toxic and antithetical to long-term development

If the program routinely produced world-beaters or even above-average results, perhaps I would be less critical of the method. However, the program “works” for about 9 weeks on average and people aren’t very strong or even prepared for training going forward from there. Rather, these folks tend to spend a lot of time spinning their wheels resetting and doing the same thing over and over again because they’ve bought into the culture of SS.

I’d rather you do our free Beginner Prescription or really anything else the has autoregulation, exercise and rep scheme variation, conditioning, and a decent support system.

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Sorry for making you repeat yourself. As someone who manages a forum, I know how stressful it can be. I’ve been reading the articles posted here for more than a year or two, but I guess I didn’t see that or just forgot. I will try and search though.

I thought you meant that in relation to the problem I’ve been having, but anyways I have enjoyed LP as it makes me go to the gym almost every time, and it has done so for months before the pandemic (even helped me sort of transform my body). I have enjoyed that in spite of (or because of) these exact 5 things you mentioned. Take it as-is, select few (great!) exercises, easy to follow, no conditioning ha, and the grind mentality (no weight gain for me though). There’s something about 3x5 that I just love, don’t know what that is.

The only thing I would say I don’t like is the SS culture, I have no account there I think, and this website is generally my main source of information on health and lifting. I’m a big fan of what you guys are doing (hence why I’m asking here), but I’ve been on and off LP before I found out about you.

However, I do get your point, autoregulation being the biggest one for me, because every work set is like an RPE 9 or 10 - squat 120kg+, DL 130kg+, BP 85kg+, OHP 50kg+ and PC 65kg+, and soon, form breaks and reps are missed, even with adding less weight to the bar (which is very limited because there aren’t plates lighter than 1.25kg), and deloading. I’m currently 6 weeks in and I’m a week or two from breaking the records on all my lifts, which is where I got stuck before the pandemic.

I wonder though, is that something that would limit my transition to your Beginner Template/Prescription, and how would that look like?

I will consider a switch for sure, though the only thing that’s keeping me is money, as I come from a developing country where your beginner template is like a fifth of the minimum wage, and I’m not even working. It’s not your fault in no way, it’s just how it is. So maybe when I get employed I can look into getting the full template(s).

Yea, this is a result of adopting the value system associated with the program. Unfortunately, I think this does more harm than good.

Yea, I think this approach is actually antithetical to the program, despite it being recommended. If there is such an onus being placed on how strong someone can get in a short period of time, why not adopt a new program that facilitates that?

I would just jump into the 2nd phase of the Beginner Template.

Yea I can understand that. I would run the Beginner Prescription over the LP though any day.

Not to diminish the fact that this is a serious issue, but I laughed like I was reading a haribo sugar free gummy bear review on amazon