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.
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 :)
- Dehydration
- Hot weather
- Low blood pressure
- Low blood sugar
- Breathing
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 :))
