I have apnea, should I stop lifting heavy?

[ApneaKillsGains]

Dear Mr. Rippetoe,

I hope you can find the time to answer a question I can't find the answer to on the internet.

TLR: I have apnea and am wondering if I should stop deadlifting completely.

A year ago I was diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea. I'm 34 and not a big guy, 1.82m long and about 74kg at the time of diagnosis. The cause of the apnea was that my airway gets blocked by my jaw and my neck.

After a few months I was given a MRA device, a device which holds my lower jaw in place to prevent it from tilting backwards and blocking my airway.

My life improved a thousand percent, for the first time in my life I slept a whole night without waking up. I felt like Superman and decided to finally become strong, so I went to the gym and lifted heavier and ate more until I weight about 81kg.

Around this time my apnea started to return. This was caused because my MRA device wasn't doing it's work properly anymore. My doctor also said that my weight gained could be causing it as well because more weight around the neck is more pressure on the airway.

I now believe I have to lose all the gains I've made. And this in turn led me to the question if I should stop doing any exercise which involves the use of the trapezius muscle, including deadlifts.

I hope you can shed some light on this. Deadlifting is my favourite thing to do in the gym.

[Mark Rippetoe]

I don't know what an MRA device is. My lifters with sleep apnea use a CPAP quite effectively.

[Automag]

I too suffer from obstructive sleep apnea, as do lots of folks.

Soft tissue closing up the airway is the issue. The top three things that make that type of apnea worse are being fat, smoking, and alcohol. Smoking makes breathing harder, and alcohol relaxes the muscles, both contribute to the obstruction. Additional fat also blocks the airway a touch.

It’s possible that you found the very borderline body-fat level where your apnea can be fixed with an oral appliance, and you are skating right on the edge. While I’m not a doctor, logic tells me that if you get strong that won’t hamper your apnea, but if your body fat percent shoots up that might.

The program as written adds some fat to skinny folks, you might have to run a more restrictive diet and make slower gains, or get strong, deal with the apnea, and trim down later. Giving up entirely does not sound to me like the best of your available options.

If you are a back sleeper, that also restricts the airway. If you sleep on your side that will help. You can sew a small pocket in the back of a bedshirt and insert a tennis ball - that will keep you off your back while you sleep. It’s not a fancy solution, but it works for some and is pretty easy to try.

Personally I quit smoking for almost a year now, lost a bunch of fat, and I don’t drink enough to be relevant. It really quite pisses me off those things did not fix my apnea.

[Walter Palmer]

Anyone with a neck size over 17" is considered "at risk" for sleep apnea. NFL players, for instance, have a much higher incidence of sleep apnea than the general population. So, it is not necessarily a "fat" issue but a size issue. CPAP takes care of my sleep apnea just fine as it does with many other lifters I know.

[Sam Beckham]

I got conflicting information from my doctors on this. Primary care doc said losing weight would help. The sleep apnea specialist I went to said that only applies if you are a fatass. He said I could try and loose a little weight but it probably wouldn't help. I just got the CPAP and have continued to lift and gain weight.

[2) The Answer is Texas]

When was the last time you adjusted your MRA / MAD? If you gain weight, just go to dental technician and let them tighten it to compensate for the narrower airway (or do it at home, depending on the mouthguard)

However if it gets much worse you might need a CPAP because a MAD / MRA only works with light sleep apnea. (Luckily my apnea can easily be fixed by just dropping 10 lbs which I'll do after SS)

[deeprooted]

I was a really skinny dude until starting to work out in my mid 20s and never used to have problems with sleep apnea or even snoring before. Once I started to really gain weight and go from 60 to 90+ kg and around 20% bf I started to get me some quite bad sleep apnea and while not lean I wouldn't call myself a fatass. Many nights I couldn't actually fall asleep because I didn't get no air the moment I snoozed off and made a huge snore, that woke me right up again.

At that time I didn't even know what sleep apnea was but I figured out what happened in my airways. I also figured I could relax my airways on command and realized that the obstruction was dependent on head and especially jaw position. I still must have snored quite a bit at times but trying to keep my head forward and looking up as much as I could, did resolve the issue at that time.

Once I slimmed back down I could immediately notice the sleep apnea and snoring getting less and less just with the first few kg's lost and at 83 - 85kg I didn't have the issue at all. Now I'm back at gaining and at around 87kg I do have to watch my head positioning a little again in that at least I shouldn't "look" down and tuck my chin in.

It's good at the moment but I'm a little afraid of gaining too much fat as seeing it first hand I definitely do believe that fat gain to be a big factor in this, apart from individual anatomy. Maybe being skinny while growing up was also a factor, since there's not much reason for the airways to grow any larger than they have to if at that time there's more than enough space. Oh, I really do hate myself for being so skinny during my youth.

[Tiburon]

Around this time my apnea started to return. This was caused because my MRA device wasn't doing it's work properly anymore.

Then go get it refitted. Duh. That's what the little screws are for on the side

[Mark Rippetoe]

And not everybody really needs to either train or sleep. Some people just barely get by, and that's fine too.

[crookedfinger]

I now believe I have to lose all the gains I've made. And this in turn led me to the question if I should stop doing any exercise which involves the use of the trapezius muscle, including deadlifts.

I hope you can shed some light on this. Deadlifting is my favourite thing to do in the gym.

At 5'11" and a fat 257, I had sleep apnea. I started lifting and dieting and the apnea went away. I got down to a too skinny 178. I then worked my way back up to a much stronger, not too fat, 241. No Apnea.

Strength is not the issue.