exertion headache?

[JoshM7]

Friday, during squats the base of my skull began hurting fairly bad on around the 3rd rep of the first set @195lbs. I managed to finish the set, racked it, and pain went away while resting between sets but came back during the next two sets, and continued this pattern through presses and power cleans, leaving me with a slight ache for several hours. I am in the army so I have exerted myself a lot more than squatting 195 so I have no idea why that would trigger it, and I don't want to skip 2-3 weeks which seems to be the recommendation everywhere else I look online. Have you ever had any trainees with similar headaches, and if so what did they do to fix it?

[JoshM7]

Ok so today I tried to do my workout as planned, but headache came back during squat warmups at 135, but was bearable so I did 3 sets at 135. I figured that benching would make it worse, but I was able to do my planned 3x5 at 170 without it being aggravated, and preceded to do my deads at 205 without problems. After not squatting heavy I still had a good bit in the tank so I decided to try a tabata on the rowing machine to see if it was exertion headaches and I did fine going all out.leaving me extremely confused.why would relatively light squats give me an exertion headache but the rest of my workout not?

[veryhrm]

It could just be a cramping or otherwise ticked off muscle in there. Does it hurt more / less when you turn your head side to side or drop it forward? (not under the bar, but after). does massaging your neck help?

[Gunnhild Bruno]

why would relatively light squats give me an exertion headache but the rest of my workout not?

My guess would be that you're cranking your neck up on squats. Or doing Valsalva wrong.

Have you posted a form check?

[JoshM7]

I think I had the bar too high and pinched a nerve or something because this morning I woke up and the headache was gone but my left trap was sore as hell and if I looked to the left it sent a sharp pain up that side of my neck from my trap, and after stretching/ massaging it all day it feels much better. Thanks for the advice, I hope I haven't messed anything up, ill find out Wednesday when I lift again..

[JoshM7]

Just kidding, this morning I tried to do my 50 pushups that I always do on off days for maintenance (its a low enough number for me to not affect anything) and on like 40, I hit my knees feeling like the back of my head was going to explode so its back to being clueless about what the hell is wrong with me, going to try to go to the doctor tomorrow..

[veryhrm]

Just kidding, this morning I tried to do my 50 pushups that I always do on off days for maintenance (its a low enough number for me to not affect anything) and on like 40, I hit my knees feeling like the back of my head was going to explode so its back to being clueless about what the hell is wrong with me, going to try to go to the doctor tomorrow..

Good call. My guess is still that it's something orthopedic, but it's best not to mess around when it comes to your head. Let us know what the finding is.

[JoshM7]

Good call. My guess is still that it's something orthopedic, but it's best not to mess around when it comes to your head. Let us know what the finding is.

Yeah my wife gave me the whole "your going to die because your a dumbass" speech,plus I have a pt test in 3 weeks so resting it out is an unattractive option, especially since I almost died doing 35 pushups today and need a minimum of 42. And ill let you know when I do.

[JoshM7]

Apparently it might be serious, they took an xray of my cspine to rule out anything orthopedic so now I'm scheduled for an mri of my brain Friday

[veryhrm]

Apparently it might be serious, they took an xray of my cspine to rule out anything orthopedic so now I'm scheduled for an mri of my brain Friday

Don't start worrying quite yet.

An x-ray just shows broken bones or bones being significantly out of place. It doesn't tell you practically anything about soft tissue so if it's a pissed off muscle or nerve or ligament it wouldn't show up on an x-ray at all. Actually much of that doesn't show up on an MRI either. Still the MRI is good because it will show (or more than likely rule out) any circulatory system problems, and that is what you most want to rule out.