Originally Posted by
rivo
(It was suggested that I post this here rather than in the logs.)
I guess I was a bit stupid. I power cleaned 81.5kg (180lbs) during a regular workout session. At this weight, I usually get a bit dizzy after letting the bar down but it usually goes away quickly. After the last rep, however, I thought I'd keep the bar in the rack position and hook it back into the squat stand. Long story short, I never made it to the squat stand. All I remember is waking up on the floor with a few people trying to stop my temple from bleeding. Apparently, I had simply collapsed with the bar on my shoulders. Only my choice of plates (the large ones) kept worse things from happening. Still spent the rest of the day at the hospital. Nothing very serious except for that cut close to my left eye.
I had never fainted in my life before so I simply overestimated what I could still do in that state right before blackout. I know this topic has been discussed a lot before but I thought I'd share this anyway. My advice would be to finish up whatever rep you're doing when you're getting dizzy, then take a short break.
If you have any advice on how to avoid this - if it can be avoided at all (I understand it's a side effect of the Valsava maneuver) - I'd like to know, of course.