At Look At Eye Injuries & Weightlifting

Most people who lift weights on a regular basis have heard about people who have supposedly injured their eyes whilst straining to lift weights.

Is there any truth to these stories about eye injuries and weightlifting? Is there a connection between weightlifting and retinal detachment and even glaucoma?

Unfortunately, there does indeed seem to be a link between retinal detachment and weightlifters who strain during a lift, more specifically those weightlifters who use the Valsalva manoeuvre.

The Valsalva manoeuvre is performed when a person exhales forcefully against a closed airway and has long been thought of as the optimal breathing pattern when lifting heavy weights.

Indeed, many powerlifters, strong men and even Olympic weightlifters use the technique when they lift, believing it helps increase their strength.

The problem, though, is that the Valsalva manoeuvre causes a massive spike in intraocular pressure and if this pressure passes a certain threshold then this could cause a retinal detachment and potentially even lead to further damage.

Although the pressure is only increased for the moments whilst performing the Valsalva manoeuvre, such is the surge in pressure that every weightlifter who performs it, runs the real risk of retinal damage.

Retinal detachment occurs when the retina becomes loose and separates from the pigmented layer of retina beneath.

Symptoms of retinal detachment include floaters (dots or lines of white that appear and obscure the vision periodically), flashes of light or the sensation of shadows or curtains of darkness over areas of the eye.

If left untreated, a detached retina can cause permanent damage and loss of sight.

In cases of retinal detachment, should this occur you should immediately seek medical help, and trained ophthalmologists will then examine your eye and hopefully stop further damage and reattach the retina with a laser.

This procedure has never been easier or safer, and with modern techniques, many individuals who have suffered from a detached retina have been able to return in a relatively short time to exercising and weightlifting.

However, advice from ophthalmologists to those who have suffered from retinal detachment is that they should change their breathing techniques to ensure that they don’t continue to hold their breath and strain whilst exercising.

A further problem is that by holding your breath during exercising, you are continuing to put pressure on the optical nerve that connects the brain and the eye. This pressure can lead to damage to the nerve and therefore, your eyesight but can also increase the risk of developing glaucoma in some cases.

Now, although there is good evidence to believe that most glaucoma sufferers have a family history of glaucoma, any activity that increases that risk should obviously be avoided or mitigated.

There are other groups who have a predisposition to glaucoma, unfortunately, and they include individuals of black-Caribbean or black-African descent, as well as individuals who suffer from short-sightedness or diabetes and again these groups, should mitigate their glaucoma risk factor by avoiding poor breathing techniques during exercise.

Improving your breathing technique during weightlifting (or any physical exercise) will mean that you are less likely to suffer from surges of intraocular pressure, and thus put your eye and ocular nerve under less strain.

Another way to mitigate your risk factor is to develop a positive eye care routine which means undergoing regular eye checks, taking any prescribed medication, and also including aerobic exercise in your routine, as cardiovascular exercise has been known to help reduce ocular pressure and promote good overall eye health.

Many ophthalmologists recommend receiving an eye examination at the age of 40, irrespective of whether you are experiencing obvious eye problems. This check should look to go over all potential and general eye issues that could reasonably be expected at that age and should also entail a thorough questionnaire which can identify any family history or predisposition to specific ocular ailments.

It’s also interesting to note that those over the age of 40 are more likely to suffer from eye problems including glaucoma, so those who are above this age should seriously consider routine check-ups especially if they already fall into at-risk groups or are wanting to start an intense exercise regime (like heavy weightlifting).

Exercise, of course, has many health benefits and doing the right exercise in the right way, can reduce your risk of other eye-related illnesses or injuries.

For instance, staying physically active and performing cardiovascular exercise, in particular, helps lower the risk of type 2 diabetes, a disease that causes retinopathy (severe damage to the blood vessels located at the back of the eye) and can even lead to blindness.

Another benefit from cardiovascular exercise (and even non-strenuous weight training) is that it can reduce the intraocular pressure which means that just by altering your exercise regime slightly you can go from risky, potentially dangerous exercise to a regimen that actually helps decrease the likelihood of eye problems.

If you suspect you may have injured your eyes whilst lifting weights or at any other time, it’s important you seek help as soon as possible. You can always book an appointment with your GP, walk in centre, local optometrist, or head on over and check out London Cataract Centre. Their highly skilled team of professionals deal with a multitude of eye conditions on a daily basis, and will ease your worries whilst walking you through the treatment process every step of the way.