Headache (Constant Head Pressure)

Pharma / TRT
1

I just finished a cycle of Deca 300 & Anavar. Deca ended around 4.5 weeks and Anavar 2.5 weeks. My headache started one week after my cycle ended. I have had constant pressure on the top and back of my head for 14 days now. It really doesn�??t hurt unless I strain hard during working out �?? then the pain becomes very intense and sometimes becoming unbearable.

My question is: has anyone ever experienced this after finishing a cycle? I went to the doctor and he said it is probably a migraine, but I have never had a migraine in my life. Could just be a crazy coincidence.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

2

Did the doc test your bp? How are your hydration levels.
Normally people dont get migranes for 14 days strait. I would think your doctor should have been a bit more concerned with these symptoms.

3

110 over 70. I drink 1 gal of water per day. Maybe it is stress - who knows? Anyway, I am having an MRI done Tuesday, so I guess we’ll see. I was just wondering if anyone has ever experienced something like this after a cycle.

4

Deca is very suppressive of your natural test, I don’t know if there’s any valid connection between your hormone levels being out of whack and the migraines but you never know. Everyone is a little different, are you running a PCT protocol?

5

I had the exact same thing happen to me minus the gear. I hit some brutal deads one night and the next day the back of my neck was tight and I couldn’t do shit without feeling like my head would explode. I’ve talked to others who have experienced this but there is no consensus on what it is. What helped me through it was icing the back of my neck and not sleeping on my stomach. After about 2 weeks I felt better and could train without much pain.

Hope this helps and if you find out anything from the MRI please let us know.

6

[quote]Make1tRa1n wrote:
I had the exact same thing happen to me minus the gear. I hit some brutal deads one night and the next day the back of my neck was tight and I couldn’t do shit without feeling like my head would explode. I’ve talked to others who have experienced this but there is no consensus on what it is. What helped me through it was icing the back of my neck and not sleeping on my stomach. After about 2 weeks I felt better and could train without much pain.

Hope this helps and if you find out anything from the MRI please let us know.[/quote]

I’m on the same boat with this one. When I first started powerlifting I did some heavy rack pulls and saw stars, almost passed out, and got a slow burning headache that lasted about 24 hrs. It then took about 2 weeks before I wouldn’t get it if I even barely strained with weight. I chalked it up to over taxing the nervous system. I’d say its possible you pushed yourself to the limit while on cycle or right after you came off.

7

That sucks, I have had it happen as well. Mine started during a dropset of hack squats. I was pushing hard and my head was pressing hard against the pad. It started small so I continued to keep going. With every rep it got worse until I started seeing stars and felt light headed. It felt like the back of my skull was burning from the inside. I stopped and sat down for a while.

The headache didn’t go away for about an hour but would return everytime I did a heavy lift. In the end I took a full week off from everything and came back slowly after that. I do not what actually causes it but time off is the only thing that made it go away.

8

2thepain - Mine started while maxing out on chest. During the third rep, I felt something pop in my head. The pain was intense for about 3-4 minutes. After that, I’ve had a constant pressure / slight headache. The pain only comes while straining now, but maybe I am experiencing what you did? I took a muscle relaxer last night and the pain is barely there. Also, after I get adjusted and a rub the pain goes away for the day, but comes back the following day.

Anyway, do you feel stopping everything for a week got rid of it? I would hate to lose a week in the gym for nothing.

9

[quote]Mel S wrote:
2thepain - Mine started while maxing out on chest. During the third rep, I felt something pop in my head. The pain was intense for about 3-4 minutes. After that, I’ve had a constant pressure / slight headache. The pain only comes while straining now, but maybe I am experiencing what you did? I took a muscle relaxer last night and the pain is barely there. Also, after I get adjusted and a rub the pain goes away for the day, but comes back the following day.

Anyway, do you feel stopping everything for a week got rid of it? I would hate to lose a week in the gym for nothing.[/quote]

One week off in the gym is not going to kill you. It is recommended in some circles. Just think of the muscles getting a small vacation and then getting ripped to pieces cause they are a bit slack.

Also if your getting these head aches …maybe lowering the intensity of your workout might be in order. Think about it this way. If you had a pulled muscle/tendon, you would ease up on it right(well most would)? Same deal …why screw yourself now or perm. with training that is hurting you. You have the rest of your life to hit the gym.

10

[quote]Mel S wrote:
2thepain - Mine started while maxing out on chest. During the third rep, I felt something pop in my head. The pain was intense for about 3-4 minutes. After that, I’ve had a constant pressure / slight headache. The pain only comes while straining now, but maybe I am experiencing what you did? I took a muscle relaxer last night and the pain is barely there. Also, after I get adjusted and a rub the pain goes away for the day, but comes back the following day.

Anyway, do you feel stopping everything for a week got rid of it? I would hate to lose a week in the gym for nothing.[/quote]

I do feel that it was time off that healed the condition. I tried to lift the next day because the headache was gone but on my first work set it came back. I went to a doctor and he told me I had pulled my trap towards to base of my skull. I seriously doubt that but regardless, I took time off, eased back into my workouts that second week. So far it has never came back.

11

I’ve had similar pains from heavy squats. My assumption is that the nerves that run up the back of one’s skull can become inflamed from having a heavy bar lying too high on the back. Maybe try using a lower bar postion when squatting.

12

Time off is important. Take the week off and take the next week easy, nothing that requires straining or holding your breath. Withing a few weeks you’ll be fine. My incident happened almost 2 years ago and I haven’t had one since…I’d I’ve strained a lot harder. I should also add, I wasn’t using anything either. I really think it’s just a CNS overload, like blowing a fuse so to speak.

13

My MRI is clean. So, I guess it must be a strain from lifting heavy. I’ll just need to take it easy I guess.

Anyway, I just found out that I have a hernia - what a bust! Has anyone ever had to deal with this? If so, please let me know what I have to look forward to?

15

[quote]Mel S wrote:
My MRI is clean. So, I guess it must be a strain from lifting heavy. I’ll just need to take it easy I guess.

Anyway, I just found out that I have a hernia - what a bust! Has anyone ever had to deal with this? If so, please let me know what I have to look forward to? [/quote]

It’s good that your MRI is clean. It sounds like a muscular strain on the two large muscles that run from the back of your skull, over the top of your head, and to the brow. It tends to be a habit, that when people are exerting a lot of effort, such as lifting or even thinking hard, we subsconsciously tense the muscles in our heads. I believe that’s why heavy lifting can cause headaches, and thinking hard hurts.

I think you ruptured a trigger point. Trigger points are taut bands of muscle in which the fibres have stuck together and hardened through chronic tension. They can cause all kinds of musculoskeletal pain and headaches, etc.

If it recurs, you could try looking up a doc who does TPI - Trigger Point Injection therapy, also known as myofascial medicine. What they do is inject a solution of muscle relaxant, such as procaine or lignocaine, into the taut band, and break up the sticky fibres of the trigger point, which releases the tension. Eventually it heals, and you feel a great difference. I had it done for chronic headaches and it did work quite well.

By the way - I have a hernia as well. It’s a real bummer!! What type is yours? Mine is inguinal, which is in the groin and scrotum.

For the hernia, what you have to look forward to is a repair surgery and after that, a 6 week to 3 month recovery period in which you can’t do any lifting!

FUCK. I’m not looking forward to mine. The worst part about not being able to train for that long is not just the loss of mass and strength - it’s the fact that you lose momentum. The hardest part for me is when I have to get back into training hard if I’ve had a long break.

Right now I do not want to break my momentum so I am still lifting and training, with my hernia. However unwise that may be, I don’t know. I will have to at least get a special jock strap to support the hernia.

17

[quote]bushidobadboy wrote:
It’s highly unlikely that you would strain the occipitofrontalis muscle during lifting as it plays no part in head/neck stabilisation but only wrinkles your brow, lol.

Secondly, you can’t rupture a trigger point. Trigger points are indeed lumps within the muscle, caused by various neurological or pathophysiological mechanisms.

It is possible to get them chemically massaged, but why would you want to fuck around with more injections, when any competwent manual therapist can remove them using ischemic compression?

Bushy[/quote]

Oops - I used the wrong terminology and didn’t explain properly as I was in a rush. I skimmed over the thread and typed a hasty reply - got lots to do right now but I’m still checking in on T-Nation every now and again. Can’t stay away from the bloody place, lol.

I admit you’d be more erudite in the areas of biomechanics, anatomy and physiology than me, Bushy, since it’s your area of speciality and experience. :stuck_out_tongue:

I meant he could have inflamed a trigger point. Since the pain symptoms were on the top and back of the head, I assumed some kind of site specific injury could have occurred there, although it is also quite likely to be referred pain. In my haste, I just used the word ‘rupture’ due to the snapping or popping sensation the OP described.

The fact that rubbing and muscle relaxants provided relief suggested to me that it is muscular. The other possibilites sound horrible.

I have a bad habit of tensing everything from the shoulders, neck and up, including the scalp musculature, when I am under stress or straining hard and it does aggravate headaches. I feel that I did develop a habit of recruiting the scalp muscles during head/neck stabilization, which seems to be a protective reflex because I got smacked in the face with a football one time, among other things.

Procaine injection therapy or similar is still effective and worked better for me than manual therapy, in my experience. The injections themselves were painless. But perhaps I haven’t seen a suitably competent manual therapist.

18

Just go to a chiropractor that preforms physical therapy as well. Prob get electric stim ice stretches and manipulated.

Jd

19

Thanks for all this info. I iced the back of my neck twice a day for three straight days, and didn’t lift heavy in the gym. The pain was basically gone, so I started lifting heavy again. The first day I lifted shoulders and abs and I was good �?? no pain. I lifted back heavy two days later and my head blew up. The pain starts in the back of my upper neck sort of where the neck and head meets. Then the pain works its way to the top of my head and the major pain ends up in my temples, especially the right temple.

When the pain gets intense, I need to rub my temples towards the front-top of my head until the pain subsides. I went to the chiropractor twice, and I felt great both times after, but the following day the pain would be worse. I am assuming that it is due to my neck being sore. Anyway, I will make some calls and look into trigger points.

20

Bushy Wrote:

The squatters and deadlifters who got head/neck pain are likely to get it from a muscular strain, but if you got it whilst benching (when the head and heart are at the same level, i.e. the BP in the head is higher than it would be if standing, suggests a possible vacular incident. You felt a ‘pop’ and the pain lingered for some time, but did you gat any other symptoms, like bludder vision, dizziness, nausea, ringing in the ears?

The day the pain started - While driving to the gym and felt a slight headache coming on, but it wasn’t too bad. Everything was cool during warm up - on my second heavy lift I felt the pop on the top of my head. I stood up and the top of my head and both of my temples were killing me. I rubbed both temples for about 2-3 minutes until the pain became tolerable. I had no other symptoms at the time of the injury besides an instant headache and slight contain pressure. What do you recommend I do or see?

FYI �?? I am not sure if this means anything, but prior to the headaches I was training very hard for 10-12 weeks. I took almost 7 days off the gym to go to NYC and relax and party, and the very next day I got back from my vacation this happened in the gym. Not sure if flying or just not doing anything for 7 days straight would have anything to do with my injury.

Mel