The 14th Annual Charm City Strongwoman Contest was a success!! Fivex3 Training raised over $12,000 for the Ulman House/Ulman Foundation. Next year is year 15 and we will be bringing back our very first contest from 2012 for the anniversary celebration.

Left, Heavyweight Open Winner, Anna Silbaugh, puts up 80lbs with the Circus Dumbbell for reps. Right, Heavyweight Novice winner Alyssa Zagar, carries the 185 Husafell Stone over 300 feet. [photo courtesy of Fivex3 Training]

Middleweight Open winner, Jessica Lewis, attempts to deadlift the 6th rung of the Lever Deadlift (close to 500lbs). Only one competitor picked the last rung up - HW Open winner, Anna Silbaugh. [photo courtesy of Fivex3 Training]

Railbob1776

In case you missed it, Rip was interviewed by Mark Bell recently. I thought the black guy was a bit disrespectful with the laughing and silly faces but still interesting.

Why Simplicity in Strength Training Always Wins Ft. Mark Rippetoe

Roman Messali

Hello, Mr. Rippetoe. I'm 15 and I started your program just three months ago and I have to say I've been making a lot of progress. However, recently, I've noticed that during lifts I can get a lot of head pressure, red eyes, a flushed face, and even feeling like I need to throw up sometimes during reps. To clarify, today I went in and, while squatting, my vision became a little blurry and my eyes became noticeably bloodshot. Later, while bracing for the press, I even felt like I blanked out for half a second, as though I was to pass out, though, then again, I've never passed out so I wouldn't be able to tell you what that feels like. Point is, during many of my lifts I get visibly red, my eyes become bloodshot, the pressure in my head increases a lot, and sometimes I even feel somewhat nauseous from these. I'm not overweight and don't have any health problems, though I have been fairly inactive and unathletic, never being very interested by sports. This doesn't happen every day so I'm wondering if it doesn't have to do with my gym's temperature, which, for some reason, the heater is still on. I was also wondering if this could be happening due to somewhat shallow breaths so next time I go I'll make sure to take deeper, larger breaths. Thank you!

Mark Rippetoe

Take your big breath and hold it with your mouth open. I'll bet you're trying to hold it in your mouth now, which causes all kids of bad problems.

Roman Messali

Thank you for responding! I'm still a little confused though on what you mean. I've browsed around some more and seen people saying to hold the breath in your lungs and not your mouth, but how would I go about blocking the air in with my mouth open?

Mark Rippetoe

Try it. You can learn.

JFord

Think about taking a hard shit.

You are welcome.

Soule

He’s 15, doc. He’s never had to struggle with grown man hard shit problems.

JFord

Lol. Then I got nothin’.