Hi there!
I have been doing powerlifting for about 3 years now. Slowly but surely I managed to recover from anorexia. Basically, powerlifting helped me emotionally.
Since birth, I have also been diagnosed with mitral valve prolapse (yes I know i shouldn’t even be lifting or doing anything, but try to understand that it is the only sport I enjoy as it helped me overcome some great problems).
The thing is I get really dizzy and sick a lot. Lately I have been getting dizzy even at warming up with just the bar. I have visited the doctor but they just keep telling me to stop, without a good explanation. (For them I am just another funny patient so they said.)
I tried resting for a week and doing light exercises but the problems do not seem to dissapear. This has been going on for about 3 months now.
I would really appreciate if someone with a similar condition or more experiences could help me figure out what to do, or is the only solution really to quit everything?
You need to find an actual doctor that understands lifting. Most GPs and even specialists are pretty useless. Barbell Medicine is great. They’ve work with people like you who are told “just stop lifting” and have done some incredible things, but idk how feasible it would be to work with them. Check out their youtube channel where they post Q&A’s, tips and more: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMcGFPjX2aQy31KYdEvT2-Q
I’d recommend seeing a Cardiologist and getting their opinion. Considering you have a legitimate defect in your heart and you are experiencing dizziness and feeling ill while you’re lifting isn’t a good sign as that means something could be going wonky with your blood pressure. The doctors you’ve seen are right, you should stop lifting until you find out for sure what you can and can’t do.
The heart is not like joints or tendons. You can not find ways to work around an injury to your ticker. The doctors understand 100% The blood pressure change while you are lifting is what’s causing those issues and your defect just make it worse.
You can work around a torn bicep or AC joint but not a messed up heart. Trust me I’m a Corpsman.