Squat help, please.

[JayBee]

so im trying to gain weight and squats are the central exercise i am using. problem is that they kick my ass.. i can feel my blood pressure go through the roof, my heart rate goes up higher than when i sprint, and by about the 12th rep i start to get dizzy and feel like im going to pass out. then, when my workout is all said and done, i feel sick to my stomach. i have to wait about an hour after the workout to eat because otherwise ill throw it all up. does anyone else have this problem? im looking for ways to maybe overcome this shit so i can down my food, and not pass out. i figure it will improve as i improve, but does anyone have a strategy to help speed the process up? i notice that the snatch and clean and jerk seem to do this too me also, but not to such a great extent.

 

[Ddevildownn]

These exercises use some of the largest muscles in your body, and thusly a large amount of free glucose and glycogen, insulin spiking with something easy to down like Powerade or Dextrose, to my knowledge should help. The blood pressure and heart rate thing can't be helped at all, I get the same way on deadlifts eyes get bloodshot and veiny, face red, ect. I don't think it can really be avoided.

 

[Mudge]

Practice breathing with lighter weights, because your BP should not be affected to the point where you feel it in your head in an alarming fashion (IMO). If you have a gut, that unfortunately doesn't help.

What is your BP at rest?

 

[JayBee]

Practice breathing with lighter weights, because your BP should not be affected to the point where you feel it in your head in an alarming fashion (IMO). If you have a gut, that unfortunately doesn't help.

What is your BP at rest?

no i have a low bodyfat, no gut whatsoever.

my blood pressure is like 135/60 i believe. when i finished my set today i just did a set of 20 with the bar and worked on the breathing. the program im currently doing says to take big mouthfulls of air and then then squat (holding your breath) i breathe out as i stand up [dont wont to mess my insides up]. maybe should i breathe out as i drop and in as i stand? i guess i never learned proper breathing for the squat.

 

[CowPimp]

Are you sure you're breathing properly? I typically breath on every repetition except for the last couple. Even then, I only hold my breath for a couple of seconds to break through a sticking point.

 

[JayBee]

maybe that wasnt so clear... i take a big mouthfull of air and then i squat down. i exhale as i stand up and at the top, i take another big breath. as i do more squats, i take more breaths between each squat.

 

[Mudge]

Those are some very weird BP numbers, how sure are you?

 

[JayBee]

Those are some very weird BP numbers, how sure are you?

90 percent i think hypertension is like 140/80, right? im not sure how accurate the measure was, either. my arms are incredibly long, so they had to use the thigh cuff, but my arms arent quite wide enough for the thigh cuff so it was kind of half assed. anyways, the systolic is on the higher side - not quite hypertension and the diastolic isnt bad at all.

 

[ReelBigFish]

try breathing through you nose, not your mouth. It will be more controlled and you'll have deeper breaths

 

[PTYP]

If you are getting dizzy, its a breathing problem.

 

[Squaggleboggin]

Many people think that unless you feel like you're going to throw up, you didn't have a good workout. I couldn't agree less. My workouts are very intense and I never feel sick or dizzy. This may subside after you get more used to it (as you said), but if it doesn't, I would definitely change my routine if I were you. Personally, I do only three working sets of two reps each with the full squat, but I do it with no less than 90% (usually about 95%) of my 1RM. After going into this type of low-volume, high-intensity style of training, I noticed that I don't even get sore after workouts, plus they take no more than 30 minutes. I'm not sure what your goals are, but if they're strength goals, you may want to try something like this. Oh yeah, I also added a lot of size doing squats this way, even though that wasn't my goal.

 

[durk]

its just something to get used to I used to have the same problem when i supperseted squats with something else. when your mind tells you your going to puke dont stop just say to yourself then puke I dont give a fuck it will be some poor janitor cleaning it up not me. (reminds me of a story for another time when I made some poor girl ball her eyes out, not training related more supplement related) your conditioning will improve so much that if you get like me you wont be to get this feeling no matter how hard you train.

 

[redman12]

135/60 is normal

 

[* Legion *]

12 reps are quite a lot for a squat anyway. i will do 12 rarely, the weights i use allow anywhere from 3 to 8 reps. maybe 12 reps are too many... are you tall? im 6 foot 4 and sometimes have the BP thing myself, but the dizziness is somethings that passes momentarily. how long do you rest between sets?

 

[JayBee]

12 reps are quite a lot for a squat anyway. i will do 12 rarely, the weights i use allow anywhere from 3 to 8 reps. maybe 12 reps are too many... are you tall? im 6 foot 4 and sometimes have the BP thing myself, but the dizziness is somethings that passes momentarily. how long do you rest between sets?

im 6'5, the dizziness is gone by the time i have racked the weight, i rest for about a minute or two between sets. im going for 12 to 15 reps, because that seems to yeild the best results in gaining more size (with my legs in particular).

 

[* Legion *]

interesting. do you do front squats at all? do you notice the same reaction? also, i drink a considerable amount of caffeine before i work out, and i believe that this contributes a bit to any bp difficulties i have had. do you do the same?

 

[JayBee]

i dont ingest any caffeine, and ive never tried a front squat.

i think i should try breathing in as i stand up, i have noticed that while breathing in as i lift the weight on a clean and jerk i dont get lightheaded as i did when exhaling as i lift.

 

[Squaggleboggin]

Well it would seem as though your body is already slightly deprived of oxygen because it's all being rushed to your working muscles. Exhaling basically gets rid of any carbon dioxide and remaining oxygen you have in you, further depriving the rest of your body from its much-needed oxygen. Breathing in probably helps to get the oxygen to more places that need it but aren't getting it. The only thing is, I've always heard people say to breathe out during each rep. I used to have this problem when I was doing a 5x5 and a 3x5 routine for squats, but now that I'm using a 3x2 I haven't had any problems with it.

 

[* Legion *]

clean and jerk is usually what does it for me, that sudden movement and exertion, holding the weight over my head is more a matter of not passing out as it is feeling the weight