Recently I experienced very bad headache pain towards the end of a quad workout. A real pounding headache in the temple area. I nearly flaked and vomited. The following day I still had the head ache. The 3rd day it was gone but returned on my 2nd warmup set of chins and then seemed to fade.
The next training day it returned after 2nd deadlift warmup set and then faded again.
I have had a couple of suggestions to remedy this - 1 ensure blood sugar levels are higher and 2 stretches for neck, traps etc (assumption being nerve problems causing the headaches).
I thought it seems strange that it would appear breifly at each workout now and I’m not sure what to do about it. Any experience with this and suggestions?
At first I thought you might just be holding your breath for too long but I doubt that would cause your head to hurt for two days; either way watch that breathing. You might want to make sure your well hydrated, since I’ve gotten nasty headaches from not getting enough water. I’ve woken up with headaches that lasted all day and I couldn’t seem to remedy them, this usually stemmed from not keeping my usual sleep cycle; I don’t know how to describe those but it was a nasty throbbing pain and every time I would strain(lift, take a crap etc.) it would get much worse. This is about the only experience I’ve had but I might go to a doctor if you’ve eliminated most possibilities. I think the advice you received about stretching your neck/back sounds good too. You’d be surprised how badly a tight muscle can hurt.
Are you breathing? In HS (when the PE teacher had me using the stupid flye machine), I would get headaches because I wasn’t breathing properly. Also, if you’re straining your neck by pushing your head forward, that can cause headaches.
Hi Alan, i experienced this about 3-4 months ago while doing leg presses. I think its called and exertion headache where blood pressure skyrockets. I got the pain during the middle of my leg presses and done another 10-12 reps and felt like fainting. I had this headache for about a week afterwards, always when i began lifting, during the day my head was spinning but the headache’s started only when i began lifting. It was scary at the time. Give it a chance to go away, if not, see a doctor quick.
How interesting… I had the same thing happen to me while squatting last night. I had to stop and rest or I would have been sick. When I arrived home, I noticed that the vision in my left eye was blurry. I took two asprin and went to sleep. This morning when I woke, I was fine. I suspect it had to do with the pressure build up from improper breathing while doing a heavy set of squats. I’m just going to make a point to breath properly and not hold my breath in the future…
You say it started while working quads. Where you squatting? You may have strained a muscle in the neck from the bar pressing on it. Then during other exercises, you tense up the same muscles, especially during deads, and further inflame the muscle. If this be the case, massage, stretching and topical liniments will help relax the muscle. Go a little easy on it for a few days. Headaches can also occur if you have recently loaded or re-loaded with creatine. Good luck.
This just happened to me… I stopped with the weights for a week, then took it easy for a week. I’ve been going heavy since then and haven’t had a headache yet.