Tiny Retinal hemorrhages

[Serack]

So I went to the eye doctor yesterday for an eyeglass perscription renewal (no problems with vision beyond the astigmatism I've lived with for over 20 years). This was my first eye exam since I started lifting, and after examining my retina's he asked,

Do you have hypertension or do you lift weights a lot?

I happened to have had my blood pressure checked manually twice last week and both times it was 120/70 so I said no and yes, why.

Apparently he saw tiny red dots in my retina indicative of tiny hemorrhages of my delicate retinal capillaries from blood pressure spikes when I lift weights, which he said is not uncommon, and didn't seem terribly concerned about, but it freaks me out a little.

Some additional data points: I happened to have failed at my 3rd rep at 290 deadlift the day before, and I frequently have to take a knee after deadlifts to avoid passing out. I started barbell training in August.

Have you heard of this type of thing being common? Should I be concerned? Should I be avoiding the Valsalva maneuver?

Searching your forums only brings up this topic for "retinal hemorrhage" and it was much more acute.

(As an aside, I find it exasperating that when I use the "Preview Post" function the "tags" field gets flooded with nearly every word in my post separated by commas)

[Mark Rippetoe]

Were you at the seminar in your town this weekend? Why didn't you ask about it then?

[Serack]

The one that's over $700? I can afford the books but...

[Serack]

Now that I'm at a computer instead of my cell phone, let me answer that a little more thoroughly. I was excited last month when I saw you were coming to town this weekend, and I would have loved to have met Jordan too, assuming he would have been there as an instructor since he lives here also. But when I saw the price tag, 2 seconds of consideration was all it took to realize the additional cost in Wifely consternation wasn't worth it (She threw a fit over my $40 tub of BCAAs).

Which doesn't even cover that if I had been at the seminar, I wouldn't have had a 1 o'clock eye doctor appointment on Sunday and wouldn't have been aware of the issue. I would have loved to have gotten face to face input from the both of you though, especially since I'm confident that my PCs are a mess but have no coaching. I'm an engineer and I excel at book lernin, but some things are tough to learn from books.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Your tiny retinal hemorrhages will heal as fast as they occur. Don't worry about them.

[Sean Herbison]

Searching your forums only brings up this topic for "retinal hemorrhage" and it was much more acute.

Google works better.

site:startingstrength.com retina