Full Exertion & Pain in the back of the head

[duds888]

Hi Guys,

This is my first post though I have been a reader of this excellent forum for a while since starting the program properly in January.

Firstly NROL is a great program, I have always been an 'eternal beginner' with high hopes and impatience. This time around my aim is just to keep going at it without trying to add stuff or run before I can walk. So far so good I'm mid-way through FL2 and still loving it.

About 6wks ago I read a thread that made reference to 'Starting Strength' a book primarily for coaches, but which gives very detailed instruction on how to perform the key exercises of the NROL program (namely squat, deadlift and bench). I can't recommend this book enough. Turns out that I (like every other person I've ever seen doing them) have got the squat all wrong. The true 'full' squat is a very different animal and I'm a big fan already.

The book de-bunks a lot of myths, one of them being about breathing. The author, Mark Rippetoe, says that the traditional wisdom goes that you should breath out with exersion (on the way up with a squat) as this prevents a cerebrovascular injury (namely a stroke). However he argues against this saying that to hold a breath on heavy exersion braces your trunk, offering much needed support to you spine which wards against a back injury (a much more common event in the weight room than the former he says).

I kind of go with this, he uses the example that if you car breaks down on a train crossing and you go to push the car off quickly you would not be breathing out as you did so - the natural reaction is to take a big breath and push like hell.Same for heavy weights (or heavy relative to the person/experience - me being a beginner).

Doing a full squat you have to knock a bit of weight off what you'd usually do just s they are that much harder. I was doing 50Kg on an olympic bar prior so knocked it down to 40Kg. A couple of workouts later, feeling very motivated I decided that I'd try 50Kg again, but doing the full squat.

The first two sets I was successful and happy with my efforts. Towards the end the third the back of my head began to hurt (lower back of the head). I felt dizzy and took ten minutes out. It hurt a bit throughout the rest of the session.

The next day on my deadlift workout I managed to up my weight to 65Kg on the bar (my strength on deadlifts has progressed really well in the last few weeks) it felt uncomfortable towards the end but not so much.

Today back to squats I took it right back down to 40Kg and managed 3x10 however again it started to hurt. Des anyone have experience of this. Claerly I don't want to risk serious injury. This is damn annoying though as today it was uncomfort than stopped me, not the weight.

Thoughts would be appreciated. Particularly from any professionals that may know more of this.

D

[Lisa~]

I think you're dealing with an exertion headache. This thread has links to several articles on the subject: Extreme headache while lifting

I hope something from those sources can help.

[duds888]

Hey Lisa,

Thanks so much for that. I will have a good read through.
I am down with a cold so will take a few days off anyway, I definitely think it is to do with the breath holding - it does take much longer sustainment of effort to get up from the bottom of those full squats. It is really annoying as I know I can manage the weight and want to progress - patience is verture I suppose.

D

[samirbk]

hey duds, i had this same problem before, not so much with squats, but with deadlifts, must be something about those compound, metabollically expensive exercises.
are you using creatine? because my headaches were because of hydration, so maybe you should start by drinking a bit more water, not just during your workouts, but all the time. creatine takes water into your muscles and out of your system, so that could dehydrate you aswell i think (not too sure on that one)

but basically my headaches were at the back of my head aswell, and more water solved it

[duds888]

You know what the first time it happened I was a bit dehydrated, but no I do not currently use creatine.

I think the main reason is the full squat, when you go low so that your hip is below parralel to the back side of your knee, getting up is a mission and using the Valsalva maneuver (holding you breath) for a large part of the movement does not help I think.

I dropped the weight a bit and it seemed better, just going to take weight-adding progress very conservatively on the squat from now on.