Blowing veins in my eyes.

[IronDiggy]

I seem to have this issue with rupturing veins in my eyes when I squat in full gear. It's happened twice now, once 2 weeks out from the meet when I lifted in full gear, and again at the meet lifting in gear.

Any ideas on how to keep this from happening, it's annoying and doesn't look good when I'm always bloody eyed at work.

As well are there any health issues that could cause/result from this that you know of?

[JabbaTheHut]

I seem to have this issue with rupturing veins in my eyes when I squat in full gear. It's happened twice now, once 2 weeks out from the meet when I lifted in full gear, and again at the meet lifting in gear.

Any ideas on how to keep this from happening, it's annoying and doesn't look good when I'm always bloody eyed at work.

As well are there any health issues that could cause/result from this that you know of?

I'm assuming you are holding your breath for part of your squat. Lifting heavy weight plus holding your breath can vastly increase the pressure in your vascular system. The blood vessels in your eye are the smallest in the body and are usually the first to rupture with increased vascular pressure. This also increases your risk for stroke. My advice would be to inhale on the way down, and exhale on the way up, but never hold your breath.

[Keith]

I'm assuming you are holding your breath for part of your squat. Lifting heavy weight plus holding your breath can vastly increase the pressure in your vascular system. The blood vessels in your eye are the smallest in the body and are usually the first to rupture with increased vascular pressure. This also increases your risk for stroke. My advice would be to inhale on the way down, and exhale on the way up, but never hold your breath.

Holding your breath is essential for powerlifting...

[IronDiggy]

yea unfortunately I don't see any way to take a breath in a suit during the decent of a squat and not be crushed by the weight.

[Phenom]

I'm assuming you are holding your breath for part of your squat. Lifting heavy weight plus holding your breath can vastly increase the pressure in your vascular system. The blood vessels in your eye are the smallest in the body and are usually the first to rupture with increased vascular pressure. This also increases your risk for stroke. My advice would be to inhale on the way down, and exhale on the way up, but never hold your breath.

Valsalva maneuver. Google.

[IronDiggy]

Valsalva maneuver. Google.

So. Try this before a lift?

[Sean S]

So. Try this before a lift?

This is the same as holding your breath during the lift. The blown vessels in the eyes are simply a side-effect of heavy lifting, especially in gear. There's no real way to prevent this, so you have to learn to live with it. There's no real health problem with this, provided you don't have an underlying aneurysm you don't know about. Then again, if you have an aneurysm you could burst it taking a dump or opening a jar, so there's no sense in worrying about things like that. Chronic high blood pressure is a problem, but these transient increases in blood pressure don't appear to have the same health risks.

[Phenom]

So. Try this before a lift?

I was directing my post to jabbathehut, my advice to you would be to embrace the bloody eyes. I don't know how you could really avoid them without removing heavy squats and deads from your routine. But bloody eyes is a small price to pay to be powerful

[deeder]

I know a few people that always blow blood vessels in their eyes and these are the folks that hold their breath in their mouth... Video yourself... If your cheeks are puffed out during your squat you aren't doing yourself any good. Get that air down in your belly where it belongs.

[IronDiggy]

I know a few people that always blow blood vessels in their eyes and these are the folks that hold their breath in their mouth... Video yourself... If your cheeks are puffed out during your squat you aren't doing yourself any good. Get that air down in your belly where it belongs.

heh, thats funny...



thaaaaats my 3rd attempt at my meet and the most recent time I bloodied my eyes.

[jp2]

I know a few people that always blow blood vessels in their eyes and these are the folks that hold their breath in their mouth... Video yourself... If your cheeks are puffed out during your squat you aren't doing yourself any good. Get that air down in your belly where it belongs.

interesting, I almost always have puffy cheeks when lifting heavy. I guess i'll have to pay attn to what i'm doing for now on.......