Apr
4
My wife suffers from the occasional migraine. It used to be much worse but after some recent medical treatments, things have gotten better. In fact, the migraines seemed to go away. So she finally felt confident enough to start exercising.
She started slow. A pilates class, a yopa class and some aerobics classes. Nothing too hard or strenuous. Since those seemed to go well, she figured something a bit harder might be fine too. So she signed up with a personal trainer and tried a session of weights and resistance training. For the next three days, she suffered from horrible migraines.
She proceeded to do some research online and found out about exercise induced headaches, something I was completely unaware of. It seems like some people will get anything from mild headaches to serious migraines following any sort of strenuous exercise and that weight lifting is particularly common as a cause.
After seeing her struggle with the pain and feeling helpless to help, I thought I would share what we found with all of you so that we could help prevent this pain in others.
Ways To Avoid Exercise Induced Headaches
- Stay hydrated - No need to overdo this with those huge bottles of water. However, drink a bit of water between each one or two sets of exercises.
- Warm up and cool down - Don’t just start and stop high intensity workouts. You need to start slow and end slow to give your body a chance to adjust.
- Try to stay away from a lot of high impact exercises - That means elliptical is better than jogging and swimming is better than almost anything else.
- Avoid bent over exercises - One of the suspected causes of exercise induced headaches is blood flow to the brain. So be careful with any exercise that has you bend over like dead lifts.
- Talk to your doctor - There are some medications that could work. Since exercise induced headaches seem to be related to blood flow, medications that constrict blood flow might help. Please do NOT take any medications without first consulting with a doctor.
For additional information, check out the following links:
Drew Baye’s high intensity training
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That’s all we’ve found so far. Hopefully, once my wife feels better and returns to the gym, I can give you a bit of an update on how well these tips helped. One thing to note, she was doing fine with her aerobics and pilates classes, some of which do involve light weight lifting. So it’s not all exercise which causes this.
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2 Responses to “Exercise Induced Headaches”
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I’ve had migraines my whole life. I used to think it was digestion related. Recently I noticed that it had to do with dehydration. I have been extra careful do drink lots of water and I haven’t had one in two months. Hope this helps.
I’ve finally discovered that when I lift weights or, more specific, do push-ups or chin-ups, I’ll feel good that day and have catatonic migrains the next. It took more than 3 years for me to discover this. Once more, I’ve excercised since I was 12 (I’m now 42). Doctor’s want me on blood pressure medicine, although my blood pressure is fine (and I hate drugs). I’ve gained alot of weight for the first time in my life and I’m struggling to adjust.
To take it further, I’ve discovered that if I lay on my back, I also get migrains.
Fotunately, I don’t have a tumor, but my excercise day’s are gone. My only solution…KEEP MOVING AND NEVER QUIT!