10 Tips for a Headache-Free Workout, BY Jo Ann LeQuang, Health

By Jo Ann LeQuang

Exercise can make you sick. Overall, exercise has many benefits, but for some of us, exercise causes headaches. Exercise headache is defined as a headache that comes on either during or immediately after strenuous exercise. No one knows exactly what causes exercise headache, but the prevailing theory is that exercise causes a surge of blood to flow to the head, dilating the blood vessels outside the skull. These engorged blood vessels can bring on moderate to severe pain, in what experts call a “vascular headache.” There are more than 100 different types of headache and many familiar headaches are vascular: migraine and cluster, for example. It is thought that exercise headache is a kind of vascular headache induced by sudden and strenuous physical exertion.

If you have a history of headaches, particularly the vascular kind, you may be at risk for getting an exercise headache. And even if you aren’t a migraine sufferer, you may still have had an exercise headache. Even if you are prone to exercise headaches, this does not mean that you can never exercise. In fact, clinical studies have shown that regular exercise actually reduces headache in chronic headache sufferers. But those prone to exercise headaches have to be smart about how exercise. Forget the boot camps, extreme workouts, ultra-marathons, and crash diets. People who get exercise headaches have to take a different approach.

Take it Easy

Don’t push yourself too hard too fast. Exercise is a body/mind thing. When you first start out, your body is at its weakest but our motivation is strongest. Resist the urge to work out harder, longer, or at higher levels than you are physically equipped to manage. As your body strengthens with exercise, you can handle a harder exercise program. (At this point, you will find that your mind gets weaker and more distracted.) Once your body is physically prepared, you can and should push yourself in vigorous exercise. The trick is getting mind and body to agree on how much you should be doing! Exercise headaches are physical events (a body thing)—do not push your body harder than it can reasonably perform, no matter how much your mind wants you to be a superstar.

Listen

Listen to your body. If you are an exercise veteran, you probably can sense when an exercise headache is coming on. You may start to feel hot, look flushed, or sense twinges in your head. If this happens, ramp it down (don’t stop abruptly). If these symptoms subside, keep going but at a slower pace. If the symptoms do not completely go away or persist, then cool down and call it a day. If you sense an exercise headache coming on, resist the urge to “power through it.” You can’t. By the way, if you have to terminate a workout early because you sense a headache coming on, drink plenty of water—about one glass every 30 minutes, for the next few hours. This “home remedy” sometimes works to abort vascular headaches. Do not drink anything other than plain water and drink as much as you reasonably can without forcing it down.

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