getting lightheaded while deadlifting
ObsidianMist
Posts: 519 Member
so yeah. is that normal/common? it doesn't happen with any other exercises I do (squat, bench, overhead press, bentover row), just deadlift. I always have a protein smoothie before the gym so I don't think it's a needing to eat issue.
if it's relevant, I'm a 31 year old female, 110lbs, been doing stronglifts 5x5 for 4.5 months and am currently deadlifting 150lbs... although yesterday I got so lightheaded lifting that much that I deloaded down to 145. am I just trying to lift too much? should I deload more and work my way back up?
if it's relevant, I'm a 31 year old female, 110lbs, been doing stronglifts 5x5 for 4.5 months and am currently deadlifting 150lbs... although yesterday I got so lightheaded lifting that much that I deloaded down to 145. am I just trying to lift too much? should I deload more and work my way back up?
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Replies
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exhale when you exert... there are a millionyoutube vids of people holding their breath on deads and passing out... for ALL lifts it is important to keep the air flowing ... so breath and you should be okay3
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Likely a breathing issue. Holding your breath too long.
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Maybe have some coffee before you lift. Caffeine helps in the gym. Also-protein smoothies should be consumed AFTER the workout, not before.0
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If I try to do too many reps on the same breath it can happen to me. I either do full resets or I breathe at the top of the lift. I'm sure some air comes out naturally during the lift, but I would never intentionally exhale while pulling.5
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Willbenchforcupcakes wrote: »If I try to do too many reps on the same breath it can happen to me. I either do full resets or I breathe at the top of the lift. I'm sure some air comes out naturally during the lift, but I would never intentionally exhale while pulling.
Listen to this lady ^^^^ for she knows what she's talking about!
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i always take a couple deep breaths before i pull to make sure i got a lot of O2 in my blood for the pull. and then of course one deep breath for the lift.1
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Easy to do with poor breathing. Hold your breath in your abdomen and not your chest. Holding your breath in your chest can stimulate your vagus nerve and cause dizziness, lightheadedness, stars and fainting. Been there, it sucks.
Anyone who tells you to breathe during your deadlift have no clue what they are talking about. Breath before the lift, after the lift, or when locked out at the top if you are doing touch-n-go deadlifts.6 -
piperdown44 wrote: »Willbenchforcupcakes wrote: »If I try to do too many reps on the same breath it can happen to me. I either do full resets or I breathe at the top of the lift. I'm sure some air comes out naturally during the lift, but I would never intentionally exhale while pulling.
Listen to this lady ^^^^ for she knows what she's talking about!
Co-signed0 -
okay so yeah it's probably because I tend to take a deep breath into my chest and hold it until I've set the bar back down. I'll try breathing into my stomach more and taking a couple extra breaths beforehand and see if it helps. I only ever do one full lift at a time, definitely not doing multiple reps on the same breath.
as for the smoothie, I don't like to eat anything heavy before the gym but I need some sort of sustenance so I drink half of a fairly big smoothie before the gym and the other half after. and I put instant coffee powder in it to get my caffiene in the morning on gym days so it's not an issue of needing caffiene.
I very much appreciate the tips, I'll let you guys know how it went after my next session!0 -
deadlifts went much better today! still noticed some lightheadedness start to happen as I was standing and holding the lift for a few seconds, but breathing out a little bit for those few seconds kept it at bay.
thanks for the help!3 -
ObsidianMist wrote: »okay so yeah it's probably because I tend to take a deep breath into my chest and hold it until I've set the bar back down. I'll try breathing into my stomach more and taking a couple extra breaths beforehand and see if it helps. I only ever do one full lift at a time, definitely not doing multiple reps on the same breath.
as for the smoothie, I don't like to eat anything heavy before the gym but I need some sort of sustenance so I drink half of a fairly big smoothie before the gym and the other half after. and I put instant coffee powder in it to get my caffiene in the morning on gym days so it's not an issue of needing caffiene.
I very much appreciate the tips, I'll let you guys know how it went after my next session!
This is your problem. Exhale at the top and get a new breath before coming back down.
Deadlifts are a big enough lift that you don't need to do them in quick succession for them to be effective. Take your time and get enough air.
Get a couple breaths in between each rep as well if you need to.3 -
I definitely don't do them in quick succession. I do the lift, hold it for a few seconds, set it down, breathe, make sure I'm still in proper position, switch my grip, and then do it again. then I take a proper rest before doing 2 more, another rest, 2 more.0
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Carlos_421 wrote: »ObsidianMist wrote: »okay so yeah it's probably because I tend to take a deep breath into my chest and hold it until I've set the bar back down. I'll try breathing into my stomach more and taking a couple extra breaths beforehand and see if it helps. I only ever do one full lift at a time, definitely not doing multiple reps on the same breath.
as for the smoothie, I don't like to eat anything heavy before the gym but I need some sort of sustenance so I drink half of a fairly big smoothie before the gym and the other half after. and I put instant coffee powder in it to get my caffiene in the morning on gym days so it's not an issue of needing caffiene.
I very much appreciate the tips, I'll let you guys know how it went after my next session!
This is your problem. Exhale at the top and get a new breath before coming back down.
Deadlifts are a big enough lift that you don't need to do them in quick succession for them to be effective. Take your time and get enough air.
Get a couple breaths in between each rep as well if you need to.
actually, i would say depending on the weight your pulling, its not always a good idea to exhale at the top, and in the case of a heavy pull, its a good idea to get in the habit of not exhaling at the top since you'll lose your core strength and thats not really good when you got a lot of weight in your hands. Of course you can drop the bar , but letting the bar down controlled is part of the lift. For me, when i do a heavy pull, i hold my breath the entire lift top to bottom, exhaling only at the very bottom , keeping it controlled. If i'm doing lighter weight sets, i'll hold at the top and then exhale on the way down and quick deep breath at the bottom. I always hold at the top just as a force of habit. I've lost lifts from accidentally exhaling too soon and losing my core.
So another trick to not getting dizzy is to do some squat warmups, so you aren't just jumping into the lift, because some of the lightheaded is just from the fact of your brain going up and down really fast. So warm up your brain with some body weight squats or something. that sounds weird, but it kinda works.1 -
I'm currently lifting about 145lbs, heaviness is all relative so I don't know if you'd consider that heavy. and deadlifts are always the last thing I do, so I would have already done my sets of heavy squats before doing deadlifts.0
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ObsidianMist wrote: »I'm currently lifting about 145lbs, heaviness is all relative so I don't know if you'd consider that heavy. and deadlifts are always the last thing I do, so I would have already done my sets of heavy squats before doing deadlifts.
heavy is realtive so the number doesnt matter, but how many reps are you doing, that will give you an idea of if its heavy or not. if you are able to do more than 3 or 5 , then its not really heavy.
Also you can try doing your deadlifts earlier in your workout before you are exhausted. They are a big compound lift take a whole lot of energy. I do deadlifts only once a week , directly after squats0 -
Carlos_421 wrote: »ObsidianMist wrote: »okay so yeah it's probably because I tend to take a deep breath into my chest and hold it until I've set the bar back down. I'll try breathing into my stomach more and taking a couple extra breaths beforehand and see if it helps. I only ever do one full lift at a time, definitely not doing multiple reps on the same breath.
as for the smoothie, I don't like to eat anything heavy before the gym but I need some sort of sustenance so I drink half of a fairly big smoothie before the gym and the other half after. and I put instant coffee powder in it to get my caffiene in the morning on gym days so it's not an issue of needing caffiene.
I very much appreciate the tips, I'll let you guys know how it went after my next session!
This is your problem. Exhale at the top and get a new breath before coming back down.
Deadlifts are a big enough lift that you don't need to do them in quick succession for them to be effective. Take your time and get enough air.
Get a couple breaths in between each rep as well if you need to.
actually, i would say depending on the weight your pulling, its not always a good idea to exhale at the top, and in the case of a heavy pull, its a good idea to get in the habit of not exhaling at the top since you'll lose your core strength and thats not really good when you got a lot of weight in your hands. Of course you can drop the bar , but letting the bar down controlled is part of the lift. For me, when i do a heavy pull, i hold my breath the entire lift top to bottom, exhaling only at the very bottom , keeping it controlled. If i'm doing lighter weight sets, i'll hold at the top and then exhale on the way down and quick deep breath at the bottom. I always hold at the top just as a force of habit. I've lost lifts from accidentally exhaling too soon and losing my core.
So another trick to not getting dizzy is to do some squat warmups, so you aren't just jumping into the lift, because some of the lightheaded is just from the fact of your brain going up and down really fast. So warm up your brain with some body weight squats or something. that sounds weird, but it kinda works.
Good point.0 -
heavy is realtive so the number doesnt matter, but how many reps are you doing, that will give you an idea of if its heavy or not. if you are able to do more than 3 or 5 , then its not really heavy.
Also you can try doing your deadlifts earlier in your workout before you are exhausted. They are a big compound lift take a whole lot of energy. I do deadlifts only once a week , directly after squats
well I just always do a warmup of one set of 2 reps, and then 3 sets of 2 reps at the full weight. it's just slightly modified from stronglifts because the 5 reps thing bugged me, I prefer an even number so that I can do an equal amount with each grip lol. I'm positive I could do more than that but that's not what the program calls for. I generally increase my weight every time I'm at the gym though.
I used to do my deadlifts somewhere in the middle of my workout but one of the personal trainers at my gym was giving me some tips on my form one day and advised that I should always do deadlifts last, and that's actually what stronglifts calls for as well. besides, I don't get exhausted. I take appropriate breaks between sets to calm my heart rate. if I raced through it I would probably get exhausted but I would also perform much more poorly.0 -
ObsidianMist wrote: »heavy is realtive so the number doesnt matter, but how many reps are you doing, that will give you an idea of if its heavy or not. if you are able to do more than 3 or 5 , then its not really heavy.
Also you can try doing your deadlifts earlier in your workout before you are exhausted. They are a big compound lift take a whole lot of energy. I do deadlifts only once a week , directly after squats
well I just always do a warmup of one set of 2 reps, and then 3 sets of 2 reps at the full weight. it's just slightly modified from stronglifts because the 5 reps thing bugged me, I prefer an even number so that I can do an equal amount with each grip lol. I'm positive I could do more than that but that's not what the program calls for. I generally increase my weight every time I'm at the gym though.
I used to do my deadlifts somewhere in the middle of my workout but one of the personal trainers at my gym was giving me some tips on my form one day and advised that I should always do deadlifts last, and that's actually what stronglifts calls for as well. besides, I don't get exhausted. I take appropriate breaks between sets to calm my heart rate. if I raced through it I would probably get exhausted but I would also perform much more poorly.
Equal amount with each grip?0 -
yeah I do mixed grip.0
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ObsidianMist wrote: »yeah I do mixed grip.
So you switch your hands mid set? how would 3 sets of two give you equal reps for each grip?0 -
ObsidianMist wrote: »yeah I do mixed grip.
So you switch your hands mid set? how would 3 sets of two give you equal reps for each grip?
okay. so I get set up for a set of 2 reps. do one rep, switch grip, do other rep. therefore after I've completed 3x2, I've done 3 reps with each grip. as opposed to if I only did 1x5, I would do 3 reps with one grip and only 2 with the other.0 -
ObsidianMist wrote: »heavy is realtive so the number doesnt matter, but how many reps are you doing, that will give you an idea of if its heavy or not. if you are able to do more than 3 or 5 , then its not really heavy.
Also you can try doing your deadlifts earlier in your workout before you are exhausted. They are a big compound lift take a whole lot of energy. I do deadlifts only once a week , directly after squats
well I just always do a warmup of one set of 2 reps, and then 3 sets of 2 reps at the full weight. it's just slightly modified from stronglifts because the 5 reps thing bugged me, I prefer an even number so that I can do an equal amount with each grip lol. I'm positive I could do more than that but that's not what the program calls for. I generally increase my weight every time I'm at the gym though.
I used to do my deadlifts somewhere in the middle of my workout but one of the personal trainers at my gym was giving me some tips on my form one day and advised that I should always do deadlifts last, and that's actually what stronglifts calls for as well. besides, I don't get exhausted. I take appropriate breaks between sets to calm my heart rate. if I raced through it I would probably get exhausted but I would also perform much more poorly.
thats not really the greatest of advice, deadlifts are a compound lift and should be done closer to the beginning of the workout. If i recall, stronglifts just has you doing just the compound lifts, and deads are the last of the compounds. But they would not be after accessory exercises if you are doing them. They go before. However, it all just depends on goals and programing and then personal preference , But to say "always do deadlifts last" is um well kinda ignorant. Gym trainers... ugh.... they scare me.
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ObsidianMist wrote: »ObsidianMist wrote: »yeah I do mixed grip.
So you switch your hands mid set? how would 3 sets of two give you equal reps for each grip?
okay. so I get set up for a set of 2 reps. do one rep, switch grip, do other rep. therefore after I've completed 3x2, I've done 3 reps with each grip. as opposed to if I only did 1x5, I would do 3 reps with one grip and only 2 with the other.
Do you do double overhand on your warm-ups out of curiosity?0 -
ObsidianMist wrote: »heavy is realtive so the number doesnt matter, but how many reps are you doing, that will give you an idea of if its heavy or not. if you are able to do more than 3 or 5 , then its not really heavy.
Also you can try doing your deadlifts earlier in your workout before you are exhausted. They are a big compound lift take a whole lot of energy. I do deadlifts only once a week , directly after squats
well I just always do a warmup of one set of 2 reps, and then 3 sets of 2 reps at the full weight. it's just slightly modified from stronglifts because the 5 reps thing bugged me, I prefer an even number so that I can do an equal amount with each grip lol. I'm positive I could do more than that but that's not what the program calls for. I generally increase my weight every time I'm at the gym though.
I used to do my deadlifts somewhere in the middle of my workout but one of the personal trainers at my gym was giving me some tips on my form one day and advised that I should always do deadlifts last, and that's actually what stronglifts calls for as well. besides, I don't get exhausted. I take appropriate breaks between sets to calm my heart rate. if I raced through it I would probably get exhausted but I would also perform much more poorly.
thats not really the greatest of advice, deadlifts are a compound lift and should be done closer to the beginning of the workout. If i recall, stronglifts just has you doing just the compound lifts, and deads are the last of the compounds. But they would not be after accessory exercises if you are doing them. They go before. However, it all just depends on goals and programing and then personal preference , But to say "always do deadlifts last" is um well kinda ignorant. Gym trainers... ugh.... they scare me.
but I don't do any sort of accessory exercises. I just do the 5 compound exercises included in the stronglifts program.0 -
ObsidianMist wrote: »ObsidianMist wrote: »yeah I do mixed grip.
So you switch your hands mid set? how would 3 sets of two give you equal reps for each grip?
okay. so I get set up for a set of 2 reps. do one rep, switch grip, do other rep. therefore after I've completed 3x2, I've done 3 reps with each grip. as opposed to if I only did 1x5, I would do 3 reps with one grip and only 2 with the other.
Do you do double overhand on your warm-ups out of curiosity?
no, I do mixed grip always.0 -
ObsidianMist wrote: »ObsidianMist wrote: »ObsidianMist wrote: »yeah I do mixed grip.
So you switch your hands mid set? how would 3 sets of two give you equal reps for each grip?
okay. so I get set up for a set of 2 reps. do one rep, switch grip, do other rep. therefore after I've completed 3x2, I've done 3 reps with each grip. as opposed to if I only did 1x5, I would do 3 reps with one grip and only 2 with the other.
Do you do double overhand on your warm-ups out of curiosity?
no, I do mixed grip always.
Everyone is different but you seem worried about equal grip strength. Most only use mixed if they are sure their grip is the only thing that will cause them to fail the lift. A "normal" grip is better for your grip strength and the lift itself if you can handle it.1 -
ObsidianMist wrote: »ObsidianMist wrote: »heavy is realtive so the number doesnt matter, but how many reps are you doing, that will give you an idea of if its heavy or not. if you are able to do more than 3 or 5 , then its not really heavy.
Also you can try doing your deadlifts earlier in your workout before you are exhausted. They are a big compound lift take a whole lot of energy. I do deadlifts only once a week , directly after squats
well I just always do a warmup of one set of 2 reps, and then 3 sets of 2 reps at the full weight. it's just slightly modified from stronglifts because the 5 reps thing bugged me, I prefer an even number so that I can do an equal amount with each grip lol. I'm positive I could do more than that but that's not what the program calls for. I generally increase my weight every time I'm at the gym though.
I used to do my deadlifts somewhere in the middle of my workout but one of the personal trainers at my gym was giving me some tips on my form one day and advised that I should always do deadlifts last, and that's actually what stronglifts calls for as well. besides, I don't get exhausted. I take appropriate breaks between sets to calm my heart rate. if I raced through it I would probably get exhausted but I would also perform much more poorly.
thats not really the greatest of advice, deadlifts are a compound lift and should be done closer to the beginning of the workout. If i recall, stronglifts just has you doing just the compound lifts, and deads are the last of the compounds. But they would not be after accessory exercises if you are doing them. They go before. However, it all just depends on goals and programing and then personal preference , But to say "always do deadlifts last" is um well kinda ignorant. Gym trainers... ugh.... they scare me.
but I don't do any sort of accessory exercises. I just do the 5 compound exercises included in the stronglifts program.
Deadlifts are very taxing, and heavy squats beforehand leave you already less than 100% when you get to deadlifts. It's not bad to do them last but if you're struggling or looking to push DL it's advisable to not have them be the last of your major compounds for that day.0 -
This is the first time I've seen or heard of people talking about doing equal deadlift reps for each "side". Is there a reason for that? Why not just find what's the most comfortable/powerful and stick to it? I don't think I've done a single deadlift with my left hand supinated in three years.0
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