Hi, I've recently run into a big problem while bench pressing. I've been working out now for 2 months. I'm a 21 year old male. When I work out, I bench press first and do 4 sets of 10 reps, of weight that takes me to failure. My problem is this. Last week I was benching and after my first set I noticed that my face was hot. I thought that I had just breathed poorly during that set. So when my face cooled down I continued my work out and made sure I was breathing correctly. As I went through the sets my face continued to get hot, and I started to feel light-headed. After I finished my last set, I felt like I was gonna faint. My friend told me that I looked like a ghost. I went to the bathroom and spent about 45 mins splashing cold water on my face to try and bring down my body temp. During this time I was panicking. I left the gym after.

I let about 5 days go by and then I went to workout again (which was today). I made sure I had eaten well and was well hydrated. I was kindof unsure. The same thing started to happen again. When I was doing my first set I could tell that my face was getting red. As I stood up from the bench I started to get dizzy. I think all the blood had left my face. I did the second set and I started to feel much worse. I stopped benching after that. I'm not sure, but its like I'm getting big blood rushes. I don't think that I'm using too much weight. If anyone has any suggestions or information on what I'm doing wrong or could be doing I'd greatly appreciate it.

If diet, hydration and breathing are in check, this might be cause for deeper concern. Are you warming up first? Does anything like this happen with any other exercises? Cardio? Do you smoke or are you drinking the night before? If you're certain that all of the usual suspects are out of the picture, you might consider going to see a physician. A sports medicine doc would probably be best, if available to you.

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Keep your body lean, your blood clean and your mind sharp. -Rollins

Yeah I've been doing some research and I'm suspecting that my breathing isn't right. I've learned that not exhaling properly during the point of greatest exertion can cause dizziness and nasea. I use to keep my feet on the bench in the past to make sure I had stability for my back. A couple weeks ago I've started to put them on the ground because I know I won't strain my back. I'm starting to think that this is causing my breathing problem. When my feet are on the bench it brings my shoulders up higher and makes it easier to breathe. With my feet on the ground I think my chest naturally gets pushed out and its harder to breathe. Does this make any sense?

Yes... it's not very good form, but I see a lot of people do it. I don't know. I guess it's up to you. I'd lower weight and go back to straight form, or maybe work on breathing. Hope it works out for you.

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Keep your body lean, your blood clean and your mind sharp. -Rollins

Also how many reps are you doing? I notice when i do high reps (15-20), my face has a tendancy to get really red, accompanied by slight lightheadiness. so you *might* want to try changing your reps up - depending on what your doing.

just a thought,
H8CC