Felt like passing out doing Bulgarian Split Squats

Question

I've been doing Bulgarian split squats for more than a year. Now I do 4 sets of 8 - 12 reps.

I always feel like passing out between sets, and often need 5 minutes or more to recover.

After I'm done with all the sets, I need even a little bit more and I even puked once.

I'm pretty sure my form is right. I tried to film my self and review the footage and I even asked a PT.

I like to do these but I'm starting to get worried.

Should I lower the sets? Should I lower the weight? Should I improve my cardio (running after my workouts for ex.)? Or should I just leave it as is and I will improve over time?

Answer 1

Your work capacity is lacking.

Borrowing from my answer here:

Cardio.

It's a bit of a meme in powerlifting that powerlifters never do cardio. Don't fall into that trap. The energy demands of compound barbell lifts like the back squat can be significant at higher loads and rep counts, so if you find that back squats are particularly taxing or your intraset recovery times are too long, you likely need to train your work capacity with some cardio.

This doesn't mean you have to run 20 miles a week. 90 minutes per week of low intensity steady state is probably just fine starting out, titrating that dose up as your cardio-metabolic fitness need increases.

And no, it is not going to stifle your gains. It will be a net positive since it will increase your capacity to do greater volumes of work. Greg Nuckols at Stronger By Science has written several articles related to this, here they are:

• Can cardio (eventually) make you bigger?
• Avoiding Cardio Could Be Holding You Back
• Cardio And Lifting – Cardio Won’t Hugely Impact Your Gains In The Short Run, And May Be Beneficial For Strength And Size In The Long Run
• Cardio Isn’t Going To Kill Your Gains. Need More Evidence? You Got It.

The feeling you describe is pretty typical of being cardiometabolically tapped out by the work. If you’re feeling that way from 4x8-12, it’s almost certainly simply that you’ve progressed far enough in strength that the product of the sets, reps, and load have exceeded your work capacity. Just increase your cardio.