weight lifting

Jack LaLanne recently wrapped up a tour promoting his 11th book, "Live Young Forever: 12 Steps to Optimum Health, Fitness & Longevity." One reason to trust what the man preaches: He has seen the dark side.

Dave, I seem to have higher IOP on stressful days and weight lifting days.

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Dave,

I read that you can  bench press without elevating your IOP but you would never do push-ups although they use many of the same muscles.  Could you explain what it is that you see is the difference and how that position would be worse for IOP ?

Fritz

Hi,
I just found your blog -- it is quite interesting. I have pigmentary glaucoma diagnosed ten years ago.

I read your posts on weight lifting. I understand that the bench press was implicated for some as correlated with an IOP spike. My question is... what about an INCLINE or STANDING press, where the head is well above horizontal? Does that also cause an IOP rise or not?

Thank you,
DB

Intraocular pressure (IOP) is the leading cause for developing Glaucoma, a vision impairment that can lead to partial or full vision loss. Studies made in recent years have shown a significant increase in pressure within the eye when weightlifting or performing isometric exercise. This leads to the question: Can weightlifting lead to eye problems?

A doctor I met recommended Standard Process A-C Carbamide, which is urea and arrowroot.  I have found numerous citations that it helps lower IOP, such as this one:

I haven't blogged much about my daily eye pressure records lately. However, I am continuing to collect data and work with my medical team. As of right now we have recorded 16,785 intraocular pressure measurements over 205 days. In the last 47 days my eye pressure has consistently been under 15 during the day. The most interesting (and fruitful) research seemed to be related to my eye pressure during the night.

One change I am trying is administering my eye drops earlier in the day. Because Xalatan (and Travatan) seem to have their peak effect in the period starting 12 hours after administration, I want to use the drops twelve hours prior to my peak night time eye pressure. I believe my peak pressure occurs between 3 AM and 6 AM.

As little as 5 or 10 minutes of weight lifting gives me a post-exercise effect that results in reduced eye pressure after the workout.

The weight lifting doesn't have to be super intense, but it can't be too easy either. There have been a few studies that have looked at this effect in the past. Here are some (but not all) of the links:

Effects of Different Intensities of Exercise on Intraocular Pressure

The effect of continuous strenuous exercise on intraocular pressure

The effect of exercise on intraocular pressure (pdf)

In my experience, a short weight lifting program often brings my eye pressure down to around 14 or 15 (or less). Sometimes the effect is not very dramatic. For example, if my eye pressure is around 17, the workout might bring it down to 15. Other times, the post workout effect is fairly impressive. Here are some examples: