recently (about 6 motnhs) after workouts that last more than one hour i get a awfully bad headache 2-4h post workout. I was wondering if anyone ever a similar occurrence. Now I am hesitant to go for a long session to avoid this debilitating headache. They don’t happen all the time but when they do it’s enough to keep me in check for a week or so. I make sure I eat and drink and wear sunglasses. …please help
About the only thing that I can think of is that you are dehydrated…if I don’t drink a lot after a long workout, I get headaches as well.
I am with you on this one - it happens to me occasionally and when it happens they come in bunches.
For me I am pretty sure that its dehydration.
I find that when its a high-intensity workout the likelihood increases. Additionally, I have found that if I suck down lots of gatorade (or other sports driink) the headache it only gets worse. The only solution for me is to stay hydrated with H2O. I make sure to pound back a liter or two in the hour after a workout - that seems to take care of them for the most part.
Also - I am a caffeine junky. Yeah yeah. Never should have bought that espresso machine. SOMETIMES the headache is because I’m needing a dose of caffeine (or at least that can help). The problem is that when it doesn’t help it REALLY compounds the headache. Ahhh what a wonderful paradox that caffeine thing is.
For prevention I try to make sure that the couple of days before a hard workout or race I am taking in a decent amount of water. I shoot for 3-4 liters minimum. Just think of all the nice people you’ll meet on the way to the restroom.
Since I adopted these 2 practices I have been able to manage my headaches pretty well this season. Hope that this helps you out.
I used to get headaches until I upped my electolyte levels during exercise. Non-diluted gatorade or thermolytes for me.
Based on your desciption of when these occur, the steps you take to prevent them and your description of the headache itself, I suspect these are exercise-induced migraines. This is a long subject, but, in short, not everyone gets all the classic symptoms with a magraine (aura, photo sensitivity, nausea), though usually they get at least some of those. If the headache does not respond to traditional pain killers (NSAIDs or even harder stuff like Vicodin), then it’s probably a migraine. Does it make you want to go to bed, turn off all the lights and stick your head under a pillow? If so, see a doctor. There are good migraine meds out there. In my experience, they are similar in effectiveness. They are also pricey, but I believe that maxalt is, or soon will be, going off-patent and should be reasonably priced. If you can get a script from the doc, take a pill right after you finish the exercise. Don’t take it during exercise, because these are vasoconstrictors and they’ll mess up your work out. But, don’t take them more than once a week, or else you’ll start getting rebound headaches and get into a vicious cycle (excuse the pun).
Since that’s a rather involved solution, and you say that it’s not food or hydration, the other thing I’d consider is tension. Try making a conscious effort every few minutes to relax your eyes, face, jaw (esp. when running), shoulders, hands, feet, everything that can be relaxed without interfering with the exercise itself. And, of course, check your mental state and try to relax that as well. If you’re carrying a lot of tension in your face and shoulders for hours on end, that can trigger a tension headache.
I used to get them bad. posted about it a while back. got some advice to up my salt intake.
today I did a sprint tri - took 3 endurolytes prior, one more when I got home. I have a very mild headache, where without them I’d have been ins serious pain. they work for me.
Not sure if this applies to you or not but my buddy just had the same thing. It’s possible it could be related to overtraining migraines. That’s what my bro had/has. Google it, there’s tons out there.
thanks all…I’ll follow these suggestions…
I used to get migraines after playing hockey really early in the morning.
I found that a bottle of gatorade after I skated stopped the headaches. So I believe it was an electrolyte problem for me.
Try that, it’s cheap and easy!!!
jaretj
Thanks for starting this thread.
4 times over the last 3 years I’ve had the following experience:
Harder than average workout. (5 mile race in November '02, Master’s swim meet in November '03, hard bike workout in the fall of '04, long cruise intervals just this Sunday)
I feel good after the workout, eat and drink just like normal. Then I take a nap. When I wake up from the nap, I have a headache. I can tell it’s not a normal headache, but it’s different than the migraines I got as a kid. I’m now 36.
When the headache strenghtens, I know it’s only a matter of time before I’ll start throwing up. This Sunday, I had to run to the bathroom 4 times over a 2 hour period. The first 2 times weren’t too bad because I still had food in my stomach. The last 2 were miserable. The headache peaked during this time.
Between the vomiting, I would just sweat buckets. Sweat would just roll off me, saturating my clothes, towels, the bathroom rug.
After the last episode, I would go to bed with a mild headache and want to sleep for about 14 hours. Unfortunately, I had to get up for work.
I wondered if these were migraines. I suffered through migraines from age 10-14, about 2 or 3 per year, but with out the vomiting.
-Scott