Can you really do it? Think before answering

People who do strength training regularly, especially those who have reached a certain level and can lift heavier weights, sometimes experience a dizzy feeling during or just after lifting weights. This dizziness is short-lived and disappears in a few seconds. But exercisers may worry about this and wonder whether exercise will cause abnormal blood pressure or similar problems.

In fact, this dizziness that occurs when lifting weights is caused by a temporary lack of oxygen to the brain, which in turn is caused by improper breathing methods when lifting weights.

The brain is one of the parts of the human body that is most intolerant to hypoxia. People can survive for several days to dozens of days without food or singing, but suffocation and lack of oxygen can kill people within minutes. The oxygen the brain needs is carried by blood through arteries that reach the brain from the chest and neck. Normal arteries are very elastic, and the heart "pumps" the blood with pressure (blood pressure), thus ensuring that blood reaches the brain.

When people do weightlifting exercises, the situation changes a little, especially when doing heavy squats, deadlifts, and bench presses, the muscles are highly tense and the spine needs a certain amount of chest pressure to remain stable.

At this time, the athlete will naturally inhale first and then hold his breath, so that the chest cavity is inflated to fix the spine; this is conducive to maximizing strength. However, the increased chest pressure caused by holding your breath may, together with muscle contraction, squeeze the arteries, making the diameter of the blood vessels thinner and reducing blood flow. The blood flowing to the brain may then carry less oxygen than it needs, causing dizziness.

As to whether temporary lack of oxygen to the brain will cause damage to the body, it depends on the specific circumstances.

People with high blood pressure and other cardiovascular diseases should absolutely avoid holding their breath when exerting themselves. For healthy exercisers, coaches will usually remind you to keep breathing and not hold your breath when they start giving you instructions.

The correct way is to exhale when exerting force and inhale when returning to the original state. As for more experienced practitioners, when they try to lift more than 90% of the weight limit or perform the last one or two movements of each set, they will inevitably have to hold their breath for a short time.

The correct way is not to inhale too much. After exerting too much force, you should immediately start to exhale in a controlled manner to reduce the pressure. After completing the exercise, take a deep breath and relax. As long as it is used properly, there will generally be no adverse reactions.