Ok, last week I did not faint but I puked so I decided to train in a fasted state today, that way there is nothing to throw up :).
Things I did to avoid fainting this time:
- Took some water with salt prior to training (to raise blood pressure a bit)
- I was careful with breathing: I breathed down, then up, then down again
- I sat down right after the deadlift for the just in case :)
The deadlift went up ok, felt easy, but the technique was poor, I believe (at least) the following were wrong:
- Hips start too high, making all the work with my back, which is inefficient
- The bar was too far from the body, which shows at lockout
- My form is way better on the way down than the way up
Anything else? Tips to improve this? I won't get up to a 200kg/440lbs deadlift without some help from the strength community to improve my form. Feedback welcome :)
It looks like the road to a 200kg/440lbs deadlift is going to be interesting:
Last Saturday I deadlifted 170kg/374lbs, it felt easy, then I left the bar on the floor and as went back to a standing position I felt backwards unconscious for a few seconds.
I hit my upper back pretty hard but iced it early at home and seems mostly ok for now. I suppose this was good because the upper back took the worst part of the blow and my head hit the wall with much less force.
Although I recorded it something went wrong and the video is black, but
I thought the video was all black but it can be watched, quality is poor but fainting is evident:
What happened was very similar to this guy, fainting after deadlifting just fine:
The most commonly accepted root cause for fainting seems to be "a lack of oxygen in the brain".
Some preliminary research seems to indicate the following as potential causes, will try to do some tweaking to avoid this in the future .. if I can :)
From this I think the following might help, will experiment and report results back in the blog:
- Drink more water pre-workout: To prevent dehydration
- Take some salt mixed with water pre-workout: To prevent dehydration (help liquid retention) and increase blood pressure
- Take some sugar pre-workout? to increase glucose levels. I should be careful with sugar-crashes here.
- Take a few breaths at the top of the deadlift (i.e. instead of holding my breath up and down the movement): This should oxygenate everything better and reduce the chances of fainting
- Maybe sit down after putting the bar on the floor instead of getting up? This should prevent the black-out of getting up and decrease the impact of a fall (i.e. I would already be very close to the floor :))
There is nothing like public accountability so here are my goals for 2013.
The point of these goals is not to break any world records but rather to beat myself and enjoy the long ride of weight lifting :)
1) Deadlift >= 200kg | 441 pounds
Current best: 173kg | 381 pounds (conventional style, hook grip, no chalk) - November 2012
2) Pseudo-Squat >= 130kg | 287 pounds (approx equivalent to >150kg | 331 pounds squat)
Current best: 100kg | 231 pounds - January 2013 - Building my way back up
NOTE: Using a rusty machine harder than the squat itself due to a shoulder injury I'm recovering from
3) Must-have: Bench press >= 80 kg | 176 pounds - Nice to have: Bench >= 100 kg | 220 pounds
Current best: 100kg - Approximately November 1994
NOTE: Using a smith machine so that I don't kill myself training alone using a reverse grip :)
I am currently building my way back up from a shoulder injury, so staying healthy and injury-free is top priority at the moment
4) Closing the HG300 heavy gripper
Current best: 5 reps with HG200 - January 2013
5) Body fat <= 20%
Current bodyfat is somewhere between 25,5% (accumeasure) and 32% (from neck to waist ratio calculations), the goal is to get the accumesure number down to 20% and the waist one to 25-27%.
This is an opposing and lower priority goal so I chose a moderate fat loss (approx -5% body fat in one year)
