Hey Coach,
About a week ago after seting a rep PR on deadlifts i got the worst headache of my life. It stayed with me till i caved and poped 2 tylenol about 2 hours later (had to leave the gym early). But now i seem to be getting them a lot more, i got one for the third time yesterday warming up with light squats. Are these common? Should i take it easy for a while?
I had a similar problem first happened when doing leg press, the pain was so bad i though i was going to die i went straight home to bed. I had three days of the gym then went back and it happened again doing my first warm up set on bench. After that i could even have sex without i happening. I though the worst no sex and no gym! I had a full month off both and went back to very light training making sure i warmed up. Have not had it happen since!!!
Have a rest for a few weeks and hopefully you will come good. Apparently a good warm up is essential with correct breathing when performing exercises.
I used to get workout-stopping headaches exclusively from doing bicep curls and nothing else. The solution for me was to breathe properly during the sets. Obviously not the only cause of gym headaches, but still worth thinking about.
I’ve also found that making sure that the posterior muscles aren’t excessively tight helps, including the plantarfascia and particularly the upper traps and neck muscles.
Hey,
I experienced these last year until the point where I would literally be afraid to start lifting because they would be so painful; It felt like my brain had its own heartbeat and it really freaked me out. I ended up seeing a neurologist and got some CT/MRI scans done to rule out any aneurisms and took a little time off. The tests came up clear and I haven’t had any issues since. My doc called them “benign exertional headaches”. Depending on how worried you are, I would recommend seeing your doctor to rule out something more serious. It definitely put me more at ease.
Also, depending on the location of the pain, it could be just a muscular tightness thing especially if the pain is towards the back of your head since some of the the upper traps/neck musculature innervate into the back of the skull and could be causing your headaches.
could be dehydration. how much water do you drink per day?
Same thing happened to me a year back or so. I got the worst head ache of my life while benching and later while doing pushups. It felt like something snapped inside my head, but like the rest of you it wasn’t an aneurism. Doc said it was nothing, but i disagree. I’ve since asked an expert similar to CT in person and he didn’t know what they were either. This could be interesting.
I’ve had 3.5 of them so far, the first starting from the deadlift rep pr , one from light squats, and 1.5 from sex. Never had this problem before in like a year and a half from deadlifting. I’m pretty sure breathing/hydration are not the problems but who knows. I’ve cut deads from my routine till I get back from a week trip to montreal. And taking it easy till then. Pretty shitty to have to leave the gym from a headache.
Used to get these until I did stomach vacuums on my spare time to build up my TVA.
Apparently my body wants to kill my via hypoxia whenever I don’t consciously focus on breathing.
Note: Given how they started with deadlifts, could it possibly be a neck strain? (I had one at ear level behind the head before) Mine felt like a headache until my trainer pinpointed the cause, which was exertion on deadlifts
He told me it was ‘one of those things’ and to suck it up, I love that guy 
This happened to me once (about 6 months ago) when I was deadlifting as well. I thought I had an aneurysm or something. lol. I just stayed away from deads and squat for a week or so because every time I tried, the pain would come back. I took everything else easy too. I haven’t had a problem since then.
I had taken caffeine that day though, so I kept pushing through the pain and did a 50-rep deadlift set with 225. Probably didn’t help.
happened here roughly 6 months ago with a max effort bench. worst rush of pain to the back of my head immediately upon racking final rep. each time I returned to attempt any push, pull, press or did anything to increase my heart rate (simply walking up a flight of steps) the same rush would come back and did so for nearly 3 weeks
saw a couple different professionals about it and got a couple opinions
My two cents:
Sounds like a tension headache. I had something similar happen to me a couple years back while lifting and taking HOT-ROX. It was a posterior pulsating headache, and it recurred with moderate exertion several other times. Once I stopped taking HOT-ROX, they subsided. It turned out to be my blood pressure. For some reason, I’m pretty sensitive to stimulants, and my blood pressure jumped up to borderline hypertension (139 systolic, I think; my baseline is somewhere around 95). I would recommend checking your blood pressure at some point.
I had the same shit about a year ago. I was DLing and it felt like something snapped in the back of my head. I had such a terrible headache I had to leave the gym and just sleep. It seemed fine until I would get my heartrate up at all, then it was like the back of my head could pound with pain whenever my heart beat, I thought I was dying. I couldn’t run, beat off, lift, anything that excited my HR or else it hurt to the point I thought I was dying. Doc said it wasn kkkkkkddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd
Those headaches are pounding and painful! They make you grasp your head in agony! Once it’s settled down (like after lying down), it can stay with you for weeks and get worse whenever the heart rate is increased in any way. Pain killers are pretty ineffective with bad exertion headaches at the time that they “attack” (e.g. after/during a lift).
I had them for ages (after benching with a slight headache). After that benching day, I was really worried (had to lay down for a while). But don’t worry, it will settle down. I never reduced the load or anything - just took more and more pain killers before workouts lol. It fixes itself…eventually.
I can say without hesitation that it’s high blood pressure (especially in the brain).
Holding breath during exertion is the worst culprit for raising internal pressure and blood pressure (e.g. holding breath while benching, deadlifts etc).
Also, taking stimulants like caffeine (like most weight lifters do) exasperates the problem…especially when combined with Ephedrine/Ephedra.
Apart from the pressure headaches, Ephedrine and caffeine tend to cause “normal” withdrawal headaches when not taking them (long term use). So if you go 2 days without caffeine/ephedrine, you’ll likely get a headache.
You shouldn’t be taking in more than 2-300mg of caffeine (this includes the caffeine in other powders like Nitric Oxide boosters and herbs too) before working out. Also, NO boosters usually increase blood volume too, another potential risk to high blood pressure.
Learn to manage your breathing properly during lifts. Holding breath a little is fine, but not for more than 1/3rd - 1/2 of lift.
Ive cut caffeine(2-400 mg) amd have been taking it easy. Hasn’t come back since even with a few decent workouts. But as a precaution im not deadlifting or going all out till i get back from my trip on the 1st. Thanks for the info. Oh and i just had a doctors appointment and my blood pressure was fine.
[quote]WhiteTiger711 wrote:
Ive cut caffeine(2-400 mg) amd have been taking it easy. Hasn’t come back since even with a few decent workouts. But as a precaution im not deadlifting or going all out till i get back from my trip on the 1st. Thanks for the info. Oh and i just had a doctors appointment and my blood pressure was fine.[/quote]
Glad to hear it’s gone down:)
As regards blood pressure, I didn’t mean chronically high blood pressure…just temporary high blood pressure during the highest exertion periods (i.e. during deadlift).
As an example, I giraffe has a special spongy mechanism in the their brain (where the main blood vessel joins it). Because of the length of their necks, the heart needs to have enough force to pump the blood up to the brain. But when the giraffe bends over (so that the head is lower than the heart), the blood pressure is that high that if it weren’t for the spongy material in the brain (which absorbs the force of the blood entering the brain) - their brain would explode! So this gives you a good idea of what sort of thing happens when humans exert themselves (and mix stimulants in the cocktail too); the beginning of the brain which receives the most blood is under tremendous pressure (especially when the head is in line/parallel with the heart)…this is what causes the debilitating headaches - something “trips” in the brain (maybe the blood vessels are expanded too much causing tenderness and pain even after pressure has gone down)…but luckily, it heals itself.
As regards caffeine intake, I can’t remember which study it is but one was done which demonstrated the best preworkout intake.
It was 3mg per kg of bodyweight
200lb bodybuilder:
200/2.2 = 91kg
91 x 3mg = 273mg preworkout
The interesting part of the study proved that increased intake beyond this point (up to 6mg/kg bodyweight) didn’t improve strength/performance. In fact, intake as high as 9mg / kg of bodyweight actually diminished results (make them jittery and weaker).
Just remember, you need a slight edge when taking stimulants, not a buzzy high lol
Also, make sure you take your caffeine in pill form (not powder), because you can measure the dosage alot more accurately that way.
Yes its in pill form, ive cut back to only using 200mg if i feel drowsy or before a rugby game/practice. And i see what you mean my headache always seemed to get worse if i bent over, i.e get a drink of water at the fountain or deadlift. But did deadlifts for the first time since and no headaches, although i didn’t go all out.
It took about 2 weeks before my headaches went away (like from bending over etc), and about another week or so after that for the dull type of headache that I had constantly to go away.
Mine probably lasted longer since I didn’t really take it all that easy with my lifts (just took really strong pain killers…pretty stupid now that I think about it!).
One things for sure, next time I have a headache before lifting, I’m going to take it easy.
I just starting getting some gnarly pains in the base of my skull. right underneath the bump behind my head. it has happened twice the last two days in the gym. the first time i was doing 10 reps of heavy trapbar DL’s, happened on the 10th rep, i honestly thought i was going to faint, just because the pain was so intense and new to me. It happened again today on my 6th rep of 315 on the DL’s. only lasts for 60 seconds or so, but it is making me nervous.
holy crap i thought i was the only one. i got it on a hacksquat. i thought at the time that it might have been the yohimbine hydrochloride that did it…and yeah… no sex or nothin… it made me have to stop whatever i was doin, drop to my knees try not do die from the explosive throbbing pain. im glad im not the only one…and im glad its not something that popped in my brain.