Headache (Constant Head Pressure)

[JohnnyBlaze]

[quote]Mel S wrote:
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.
[/quote]

Aha, it sounds like there is something going on in what I have heard doctors call the “insertion point”. This is the area where the rear neck muscles attach to the skull. There are ligaments and connective tissue there that can get irritated by heavy straining or acute trauma. The kind of treatment for this area is called prolotherapy, which can be administered by a doctor also competent in TPI. They can inject a solution of lidocaine and glucose along the insertion point connective tissue, into the ligaments and attachment points. This causes temporary inflammation, but also stimulates the area to heal.

Manual massage and applying gentle head traction can also help relieve it.

It’s kind of freaky because you have to lie on a bench with your head tilted forward, and since it’s so close to your skull you can hear a crunching noise when the needle goes in and breaks through the tissues, lol. But it doesn’t hurt and for me it provided immediate relief, although it was stiff and sore for a few days afterwards while it was healing. Just make sure you see a very competent doc - you don’t want them to hit any nerves or anything else along that structure.

Is the area sore if you press with your fingers, right where the neck and skull meet?

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.

Good idea. I came across a diagram of trigger points that can refer pain up the skull. The Xs are the trigger points and the red shaded areas are where the pain is referred. It sounds as if your symptoms are consistent with the diagram in the middle, which is along the sternal division.

Feel along your sternocleidomastoid muscles and see if there are any spots there that are sore, tender, and/or trigger intense pain.

Also feel along the back of your neck, and down to your trapezius, and look for tender spots.

[JohnnyBlaze]

[quote]Mel S wrote:
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 ?

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?
[/quote]

So there were no vascular symptoms such as blurred vision, dizziness, nausea, or ringing in the ears…everything seems consistent with a muscular or ligamentous injury, IMO, but of course I’m not an MD.

The pop on the top of your head, that is strange. It wasn’t ‘in’ the head, was it? It was a popping feeling on top, along the outside of the skull?

Is is sore up there right now on the spot where you felt it pop?

I’m not sure if the area on top of your head was locally traumatised somehow, or if the pain and popping feeling were referred from somewhere else…

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

I think you did get back into it too hard and fast. After a week of R&R, it’s best to ease back into the training at 90% of max effort instead of going full throttle straight away. Looks like you blew a fuse somewhere, but I hope it heals for you and doesn’t recur. It sounds very acute but it’s best not to allow it to become chronic. As a sufferer of chronic headache myself, it’s NOT pleasant to be experiencing them on a regular basis.

[sdspeedracer]

[quote]bushidobadboy wrote:

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?

Bushy[/quote]

This happened to me several years ago while pushing a heavy leg press. Not sure if I was pressing my head back while straining or not, but it was like a shot went off in my head. At the time, I thought I’d forced an aneurysm, but few bleeder symptoms ensued. I hurt for several days and never did get back on the leg press – I moved to front and overhead squats, much to my advantage.

But I still remember how horrible it was at the time. I thought I was going to bleed out and die right in the gym, and packed up and went home scared. I experienced bad nausea right there that I attributed to the pain, and any ringing in my ears I attributed to my physical state from having been working hard and having forced higher BP. Never did establish what it was in my head, though.

[Mel_S]

Thanks Johnny for all your help. It�??s crazy that I can post my problem in a forum, and get better feed back than from my own doctor. It seems doctors are clueless these days.

My headache goes away instantly after applying an ice pack to my neck for 20 minutes. So, I bet the problem is located in my rear trigger point.

I have an appointment tomorrow with a Prolotherapy doctor. I really hope this does the trick.

I am experience no soreness of any kind, but my neck is always a bit stiff.

Thanks again for all your help!

[2thepain]

[quote]Mel S wrote:
Thanks Johnny for all your help. It�??s crazy that I can post my problem in a forum, and get better feed back than from my own doctor. It seems doctors are clueless these days.

[/quote]

Although doctors have more years of school and a better broad understanding of the body and how it works (at least more than myself) most never put the time into understanding the body systems used by advanced bodybuilders and powerlifters.

I too am impressed by the amount of knowledge some of the members of T-Nation are able to share. Many members here have many years of experience dealing with signs and symptoms that doctors usually pass off as a generic acute illness. I have seen this far too many times and because of this I would feel very confident posting a question in the T-Nation forums.