Skinny Bloke Tries to Bulk Up - Suffers Headaches.
Discussion
I've always been a bit of a weed. Started work at 16, 5'11", 7 and half stone.
Eventually grew into my frame (kind of) and was about 9 and half stone for ten years until I married at the age of 27.
Faffed around in gyms a lot, mostly a complete waste of time in retrospect.
By the time I hit my mid-thirties life was in full swing and I went years without any exercise at all.
Aged 40 I was 12 and a half stone, about 25% body fat. Then my wife decides we will change our diet and we dropped starch and sugar and started to load up on protein and higher fat foods eating only low GI carbs and not mixing them with fat in the same meal.
We both dropped more than 20lbs very quickly without ever counting a calorie or limiting intake at all.
Back down to 11 stone I followed my younger brother's example and took up Parkrun, running 5k every Saturday and training runs of up to 10k during the week.
Then I started to think about weight training. It has always been something I have wanted to do, to put on a little muscle, just to prove to myself that I could do it. Eventually I found the perfect gym and and trainer in Greenwich and took the plunge a couple of weeks ago.
But there's a problem. My work outs are all being limited by headaches. Take today for instance. I'm doing an upper body pull routine, starting with bent over rows. First three or four reps are good, fifth I can feel pressure in my temples, sixth and seventh it gets worse, eighths is agony and I stop before it seems my head will explode.
Young guy in the gym says he had the same when he started. Gym owners says see a doctor. Another member suggests a sports massage as it may be tension in the neck. Last week I did a leg session and made myself properly ill and had to go to bed at 8pm and sleep for 12 hours.
Has anyone else experienced this? If it is relatively normal I will try and work around it by leaving longer recovery times between sets and hoping things improve.
Eventually grew into my frame (kind of) and was about 9 and half stone for ten years until I married at the age of 27.
Faffed around in gyms a lot, mostly a complete waste of time in retrospect.
By the time I hit my mid-thirties life was in full swing and I went years without any exercise at all.
Aged 40 I was 12 and a half stone, about 25% body fat. Then my wife decides we will change our diet and we dropped starch and sugar and started to load up on protein and higher fat foods eating only low GI carbs and not mixing them with fat in the same meal.
We both dropped more than 20lbs very quickly without ever counting a calorie or limiting intake at all.
Back down to 11 stone I followed my younger brother's example and took up Parkrun, running 5k every Saturday and training runs of up to 10k during the week.
Then I started to think about weight training. It has always been something I have wanted to do, to put on a little muscle, just to prove to myself that I could do it. Eventually I found the perfect gym and and trainer in Greenwich and took the plunge a couple of weeks ago.
But there's a problem. My work outs are all being limited by headaches. Take today for instance. I'm doing an upper body pull routine, starting with bent over rows. First three or four reps are good, fifth I can feel pressure in my temples, sixth and seventh it gets worse, eighths is agony and I stop before it seems my head will explode.
Young guy in the gym says he had the same when he started. Gym owners says see a doctor. Another member suggests a sports massage as it may be tension in the neck. Last week I did a leg session and made myself properly ill and had to go to bed at 8pm and sleep for 12 hours.
Has anyone else experienced this? If it is relatively normal I will try and work around it by leaving longer recovery times between sets and hoping things improve.
Haven't spoken with my GP, he's only interested in money and always fobs me off. According to the London Evening Standard he is the highest paid in the country and makes £350k per annum.
The programme I'm doing has been designed specifically for me by a personal trainer so I'm hoping it is well suited to my condition.
The programme I'm doing has been designed specifically for me by a personal trainer so I'm hoping it is well suited to my condition.
Maybe I'm being a bit harsh on my GP. I have had a couple of ECGs in the past purely as a precaution for vague chest discomfort which was probably just a muscle strain. Both came back normal. Also had chest x-rays and bloods and lots of blood pressure tests, all absolutely fine. I used to have private medical provided by my employer and so I had a thorough check up once a year, all fine and dandy.
I've thought perhaps it was dehydration so I've been drinking more but it doesn't seem to make much difference. I've been eating lots so I don't think it is that. My neck has always been pretty shot and that has lead to tension headaches in the past so sports massage might help.
Yesterday I trained and the headaches were an issue but by leaving 3 minutes to recover between sets and doing lower reps with higher weights I managed a half decent session. Had a dull headache for the rest of the day though.
Is there no one out there who has experienced similar?
I've thought perhaps it was dehydration so I've been drinking more but it doesn't seem to make much difference. I've been eating lots so I don't think it is that. My neck has always been pretty shot and that has lead to tension headaches in the past so sports massage might help.
Yesterday I trained and the headaches were an issue but by leaving 3 minutes to recover between sets and doing lower reps with higher weights I managed a half decent session. Had a dull headache for the rest of the day though.
Is there no one out there who has experienced similar?
I've now read quite a lot about this subject and everyone says 'get checked out by the Dr' followed up by something along the lines of 'had scan, it was normal'.
There seems to be some pretty sound advice around breathing and posture. I may have been inadvertently performing the valsalva maneuver by forgetting to breathe or compressing veins in my neck by twisting to check out my posture side-on in the mirror.
I'm going to attempt an upper-body push routine today, this is one that went well last week so perhaps the exercises it contains are easier on whichever part of my body it is that is struggling.
There seems to be some pretty sound advice around breathing and posture. I may have been inadvertently performing the valsalva maneuver by forgetting to breathe or compressing veins in my neck by twisting to check out my posture side-on in the mirror.
I'm going to attempt an upper-body push routine today, this is one that went well last week so perhaps the exercises it contains are easier on whichever part of my body it is that is struggling.
Did a chest/shoulder/tricep session on Monday and I was hampered by the headaches. My breathing was fine and my posture was good so I ruled those two out. I had started to drink a lot more tea and water instead of coffee but it didn't seems to make any difference. I played around with different numbers of reps and weights. It seems that attempting 8-10 or a certain weight causes too much pain in the head by rep 7 or 8 but doing a higher weight for 5 or 6 reps is do-able.
Anyway, left the gym having completed the exercises in my routine, knowing I had had a workout but frustrated that I couldn't go to failure on most due to the pain.
When I got home I had a dull headache which continued into the next day, about 24 hours in total.
Took Tuesday off and then went for a leg session lunchtime today. I was expecting this to be worse because squats are very hard work. First set was at a lowish weight and I had to stop at eight. Interestingly this time the pain was not in my temple but in my neck, another place where I sometimes feel headaches.
I had a drink and lay on one of those large inflatable balls with my head hanging over backwards to try and get the blood flowing and it seemed to work.
By taking longer beaks between sets, aiming for 6-8 reps per set and using the ball I had my best session yet and feel pretty good now.
One other thing, I've been drinking masses of water and less coffee. Just this morning my pee has gone crystal clear and I'm going every hour at least. Perhaps I have reached an hitherto unknown level of hydration.
I'm probably try again on Friday.
Anyway, left the gym having completed the exercises in my routine, knowing I had had a workout but frustrated that I couldn't go to failure on most due to the pain.
When I got home I had a dull headache which continued into the next day, about 24 hours in total.
Took Tuesday off and then went for a leg session lunchtime today. I was expecting this to be worse because squats are very hard work. First set was at a lowish weight and I had to stop at eight. Interestingly this time the pain was not in my temple but in my neck, another place where I sometimes feel headaches.
I had a drink and lay on one of those large inflatable balls with my head hanging over backwards to try and get the blood flowing and it seemed to work.
By taking longer beaks between sets, aiming for 6-8 reps per set and using the ball I had my best session yet and feel pretty good now.
One other thing, I've been drinking masses of water and less coffee. Just this morning my pee has gone crystal clear and I'm going every hour at least. Perhaps I have reached an hitherto unknown level of hydration.
I'm probably try again on Friday.
Took six days off and went back to the gym yesterday, had a good work out without too much bother.
Went back today. Murdered my legs and didn't feel a thing in my head. I was vaguely conscious of a mild hint of a headache but nothing that stopped me giving it my all.
Fingers crossed I might have worked through it and won.
Went back today. Murdered my legs and didn't feel a thing in my head. I was vaguely conscious of a mild hint of a headache but nothing that stopped me giving it my all.
Fingers crossed I might have worked through it and won.
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