Do you experience frequent headaches, even migraines, during a workout? If so, you are not alone. According to research from the National Headache Foundation, approximately 45 million people in US suffer from chronic headaches and migraines, and 70% of those feel pain when exercising. Fitness magazine ran an article in their March volume about the link between exercise and headaches, and some of the triggers I read about surprised me. Keep reading to see all the triggers and how you can prevent the pain.
Trigger: Improper Breathing. While doing intense activity, it is not smart to hold your breath. This will rapidly increase blood pressure, being a cause for a sudden headache. You need to remember to keep breathing throughout any exercise, especially those with high intensity such as sprinting.
Trigger: Sudden Sprinting. This can also include not warming up before a workout. Going from sitting to all out running or another form of cardio can be detrimental to the body. Making sure to warm up and fully stretch before working out to help your body adjust to the increased blood flow.
Trigger: Your Food Choices. If I know I am going to be doing an intense workout, I will try to eat a banana before heading off to the gym. But I learned that if you are prone to having migraines, this can actually be worse for you. Amino acids found in soy, citrus fruits, bananas, yogurt, and nuts can bring on the headaches. Fitness suggests drinking a protein shake or munching on whole crackers about 30 minutes before your workout.
Trigger: Dehydration. Too little water in the body can ‘lower pressure inside the arteries that supply blood to the lining around the brain,’ so aim to drink about 8 ounces of water an hour before your workout. Also, if you exercise for 30 minutes, it is wise to take a break and drink another 8 ounces to ward off any pain.
Trigger: Poor Posture. Fitness reports that 75% of tension headaches stem from muscle strain in the neck, because of poor posture during common exercises such as crunches. The suggestion to help get over bad posture? Yoga. Research has shown that after 3 months of yoga, the frequency and intensity of migraines can be greatly reduced. I know yoga is one of my favorite activities, because even after a workout I feel my posture has improved and I have more awareness of my body.
Practice these moves if you often get exercise headaches while working out, and check out Fitness Magazine for more healthy fitness tips!
How interesting. My sister complained of pounding headaches every time she worked out. I’ll have to let her know about this article. Thanks for sharing. (although, truth be told, I think she has just opted to stop working out.)
xoxo,
Cathleen
In my experience as a physical therapist, most headaches and neck pain are due to the shoulder blades sitting too low on the trunk. I know this may sound odd but, to put it simply, there are muscles attaching from the shoulder blade directly to the first four neck vertebrae and skull. When the shoulders sit too low, these muscles then pull on the neck bones and skull causing neck pain and headaches.
Here’s a quick, simple test to see if this is a contributing cause of your headaches. If you’re having right-sided neck pain or headaches, raise your right hand and place it flat on top of your head for 20 seconds. Make sure your head doesn’t side-bend or rotate to achieve this. If your pain diminished after this test, then your scapula may be sitting too low causing your discomfort. This is easily correctable. This is also the culprit in diagnoses such as thoracic outlet syndrome and carpal tunnel syndrome. I’ve just written a book about fixing neck pain and headaches using an approach based on this mechanical connection to the shoulder and neck. It has been very effective over the last few years and I think is worth a try if you haven’t found the answers you are seeking.
I’ve also posted this and another test on YouTube, if you’re interested.