Squats and Hernia

Hi everyone! My husband is complaining about abdominal pain when he squats. He says it's not muscle soreness, but more of a hernia-like pain. He's 40 years old, weighs 190lbs, and at the moment does barbell squats at 120 lbs for 3 sets of 10. He swears that he has good form, but maybe he's still doing something wrong. Any ideas?

Thanks!

If you breathe whilst you lift, the pressure gets released out your mouth and not your navel, or scrotum. This is very important when lifting heavy.

I burst out my navel while not breathing during weighted pullups of all

ROFLOL!!!!

Very, very funny.

Uh.

It was a joke, right?

Heh. No, actually.

A couple years ago I grabbed a 40 lb dumbbell between my ankles, went up and down a few times. Then I /hear/, more than feel, RiiiiiiiiiPOP!

I came down, felt my navel, and some of my intenstines are poking out through the abdominal wall beneith the skin. I really don't even remember if I was breathing correctly or not.

I know I can get it 'repaired' with a surgical mesh insert. But the hole is smaller than a dime, and doesn't trouble me much if I remember to keep my airway open while I lift. I do have to poke the stuff back in every once in a while. But as long as it never gets caught out there for too long there's no danger of that little loop of guts dying and going necrotic.

I've gotten much stronger since then, and no worries. Now, if I deadlift heavy and forget to breathe I can feel a pain starting in my groin. The thought of another rupture somewhere is frightenining enough that breathing is the first thing I think of when going down to grip the bar.

I'm much more concerned about my right supraspinatus, as it doesn't seem like I'm going to be able to do anything resembling a press for a long time.

It shouldn't matter. Seriously.

You're out of your mind. I'd get that fixed in a heartbeat.

If everything's working properly, you don't breathe at the heaviest part of the lift. Because of your hernia, you can't lift anywhere near as effectively as you could.

Sheesh, you're a train wreck.

You need the pressure to maintain spinal stability.

And the 'pressure' coming out of your scrotum is called gas. i wouldn't advise lifting heavy while gaseous.

I concur with Wayne. Get it fixed. There is a good reason why virtually everyone holds their breathe during maximal attempts.

Where to begin.

Please don't take this the wrong way, but most people I know who squat that little weight have serious form problems. I'm not even a regular squatter but I've 'fixed' a few in the gym by just straightening out the most obvious form problems.

I think you've got two consultations coming for your husband. The very first one is with the doctor, because lifting 120 lbs. the wrong way can certainly mess you up. Once the medical issues are taken care of, a good coach/trainer should be next, and I recommend your husband stop performing barbell squats until he gets some good teaching.

Again, I don't mean to be insulting, but that's less than 2/3 of his body weight. With good form, he ought to be able do move more weight without much bother. I also recommend he consider doing shorter sets, perhaps 5 sets of 6 instead of 3 sets of 10, in order to remain fresher and keep a focus on good form. The shorter sets will also allow him to move more weight.

Good luck.