Heavy OHP - Nearly Passed Out

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bgates1654

New Member
Wow... never had that happen before.

I noticed on my previous workout (max stim 10lbs above 5RM) that if I breathe out to quickly after I set it down I get a little bit of a headache. However if I kept my core tight and breathe out slowly there were no ill effects.

Today I went up another 5lbs and on the 1st rep couldnt press it, so I went to push press it. I got about as close as it gets to passing out. I had it most of the way up on the push press then my strength just left me. I dumped it on the rack as quickly and safely as I could as I felt a nasty headache coming on and started getting tunnel vision. I could tell I wasnt going out completely so I jsut leaned on the bar. I got the buzzing in the ears and everything. It passed after a few seconds but it scared the **** out of me.

I rested for a minutes and tried to support the weight on my shoulders in the bottom of the press and I could not keep my glottis closed to prevent the escape of air and I felt the headache coming back. So I racked it.

I rested again for another few minutes and picked it up in the rack position... no problems. However I was breathing normally... no Valsalva manuever.

I dropped 20lbs off and pressed it fine, valsalva manuever and all. I did notice that I was significantly weaker than normal though.

I used this weight in my last cycle to push press. So this is really bothering me.

I had just finished a PR (10rep MS) squat session though. I gave myself the normal amount of resting time which is about 5-10min (yeah I am lazy). Maybe my core was too tired? If not what the heck is going on?
 
After a bit of research I am not so bothered anymore. It turns out exertion headaches are fairly common in young people and the near-feint was jsut a side effect of the valsalva manuever. I think I am applying too much IAP for the OHP considering I obviously dont put that much pressure for the squat or deadlift. OHP shouldnt need as much IAP right?

I read that the benign exertion headaches are caused by swelling of the blood vessels in the brain and that vasoconstrictors such as ergotamine are prescribed to aleviate that.

I could have a tumor or something like that though ;) Usually they make you get an MRI to make sure there is no organic lesion causing the event.

One cool thing is that I have been thinking about trying out bromocriptine on my next cut. Bromocriptine is in the ergot family and is a vasoconstrictor. Neat coincedence. I just need to head up to the doctor and convince him to prescribe.
 
Glad you are OK. I have occasionally had a headache come on after a hard set of squats or deads. Biggest problem I ever had was after I really pushed a set of leg-press to failure (after 20 reps). Not only did I feel like heaving but I went blind for 10 mins as my brain shut down my eyesight in order to keep enough oxygenated blood going around the more important bits! Eye doc explained it all to me and said that if I had lain down on the floor, rather than sit down, it might not have happened. Really scary though. It's much more likely to happen after high rep metabolic type work.

I think the best advice I can give is to stop if you feel a headache coming on. Allowing pressure build up from a deep breath to release slowly as you get to the hardest part of a rep can really help.
 
Well I went ahead and tried that weight out again. I took it a bit more slowly and made sure my breathing was a bit more even. I had no problems this time even though I got a new PR on the DL (325 easy I think i could have got 345/355) and incline bench (215). I still couldnt press 155, but it was an easy enough push press/negative. No headaches no feintness. I think i am gonna call it a cycle anyway... unless I feel uppity this weekend.
I am a little disappointed with my press performance though. I was hoping for a 1RM of 165. I like the jump in squat/DL performance. I think it stems from practice because I started doing 1 set of 135 to lactic acid threshold after my work sets. I feel much more confident in the squat now. I was doing so well that I thought I was cheating on height and had my wife double check my form.
 
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