Workout induced head pain

[SlapItHard]

Today I was doing some dumbell bench lifts as I always do on my chest day. On my third set I was straining pretty hard on the last few reps and when I completed and sat up I had stabbing pains in the lower back part of my head. Today I took a small dosage of ECA for the first time before my workout. I have never had this pain before and that is the only thing I can think that is different. I do my best to maintain proper breathing so I'm hoping thats not the case. Can anyone think of something that could cause this? It was pretty severe pain, not enough to stop me from working out but I could feel it for the rest of the session.

 

[RusPA81]

Lifting weights does increase your blood pressure, and with the addition of the ECA that may have elevated it even higher which could be a cause of the head pain. I have had similar pains before as well, but they have all gone away.

 

[needsize]

I had something like that happen during hack squats a few years back. On one of my reps I felt something in the back of my head "go", kinda felt like something popped back there and I was hit with a pretty blinding pain. After that, any time I exerted myself in any way I would get hit with an instant migraine that was pretty debilitating. I still managed to train with the aid of a ton of aspirin, but it hurt pretty bad for a few weeks then finally went away on it's own.

 

[HansNZ]

Sometimes pain is a sign of overtraining. I find the occasionally it doesn't hurt to stay away from the gym for a month. If I go away for a holiday and come back after a long period of time all these problems have usually gone away and I get much better results from my regimen. Sometimes less is more. Sometimes you just have to stop.

 

[SlapItHard]

Thats probably it. I went on a very extrenuating kayaking trip yesterday for excess of 6 hours. Tommorow is an off day though, thank god.

 

[Jason B]

I doubt it has to do with the ECA. I experience the same phenomenon every time I do 20 rep squats. It just hits like a ton of bricks right after my last rep and the pain gradualy decreases over the course of the day. The day after this happened for the first time I saw a post on here where someone had the same complaint with headache and twenty rep squats. A bunch of other people chimed in and said they got them too. It's weird but at least they aren't permanent. I can do lower rep squats just fine.

 

[SlapItHard]

Thats exactly how it was for me. It went away slowly as the day went by, but damn it felt like hell after my last rep.

 

[SlapItHard]

I believe this is what i am experiencing:


Recent observations by Doug McGuff, MD suggest that EIH may be caused by stretching of the dura mater (outermost of the three membranes covering the brain and spinal cord) as a result of increased BP in the cerebral veins caused by retrograde venous flow towards the brain. The onset of EIH is usually experienced during intense exercises for the legs, hips, and trunk, during which there is a large amount of venous congestion in the pelvis and abdomen. In an article entitled The Mystery of Exercise Induced Headache, in Vol. 5, Issue 3 of The Super Slow Exercise Standard, Dr. McGuff writes,



"This congestion is a result of soft tissue compression, Val Salva and
massive venous return from the legs stimulated by intense muscular
contraction. This massive venous congestion can create a strong
enough force to drive venous flow in a cephalad direction (towards
the head). Perhaps, in some subjects, the force is great enough to
reverse the gradient of cerebral venous drainage so that venous blood
is pushed up through the jugular veins into the confluence of sinuses...


...Theoretically, a threshold level of venodilation and pressure
transmission would have to occur before the dura could be
stimulated. Once this threshold is reached, look out! Dural stimulation
produces severe, sudden onset pain that can persist for days."




I do not usually take any type of caffiene and I think that the combination of working out and the elevated blook pressure from the caffiene could be causing this headache. It is very severe pain and trying to work through it is impossible. I would have fainted if I did.

 

[BodybuildingUniverse]

my head only hurts when I bang it on the bar prior to a big squat...

serisouly, a dude in my gym does this on his heavy sets, blood running down his face in his eyes, dripping off his nose...obviously I dont train at a Bally's...

 

[SlapItHard]

I think one of the biggest things I am doing wrong form wise is stressing my head against the bench. I can get through a bicep day just fine, shoulders, legs, back, all fine. Its just on chest, which is also the only 2 days I took caffiene before my workout and stress my head against the bench.