Neck pain at base of skull

[nmocc]

Two weeks ago I was doing my chest routine and on my bench press I was pressing up and was struggling a bit on the force-up on the last rep (I had upped my weights by 5) and my neck began shooting pains from right where it attaches to the base of the skull. Now, I am one to watch my form and will never sacrifice more weight to demolish my form, and as far as I could tell I was keeping my form. But the last rep, I got it up on the rack and I got this pain. Now I took a week off, went back and had no problem bench-pressing this week. Come shoulder time (thursday) I was doing military presses and had upped my weights by 5 again, doing just fine until on about the 6th rep I get that same shooting neck pain, this time the pain was unbearable..I almost felt like passing out. I re-rack the weight, stand up, stretch, and call it quits for the day. Needless to say I'm pretty disappointed right now as I feel it was a bad workout, but has anybody else had this happen? Is it just a strained neck muscle? I always make sure to do a light jog, do my warm-up reps, and stretch (especially my neck) before a heavy lifting session. Just curious if anybody else has had this happen. I have a chiropractor's appt. scheduled for next week.

[Matth3wJL]

I had the exact same thing... There called Exertion Headaches also called Exercise Headaches.. But they can be worse possibly an anurysm..

I get them really bad when I lose my breathing or hold my breath or don't focus on breathing right...

I took two weeks off and got back right to lifting heavy with no problems.

It can also be due to improper sleep patterns...

Check out this article explains everything very well: http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=51909

[nmocc]

Thanks for the article...but I'm not sure if that is exactly what I was talking about. It feels as though the muscle in the back of my neck is just throbbing..not so much like a migraine, but more like a strenuous kind of pain. It doesn't happen during many exercises except for my benchpress, and now obviously the military press. I breathe when I'm doing everything (learned the hard way by gaining a hernia) and it's so throbbing that it feels like my muscle is just disconnecting from my head if that makes any sense.

[ImTheRealArab]

Wow, same exact thing with me and I'm clueless.

[ImTheRealArab]

Two weeks ago I was doing my chest routine and on my bench press I was pressing up and was struggling a bit on the force-up on the last rep (I had upped my weights by 5) and my neck began shooting pains from right where it attaches to the base of the skull. Now, I am one to watch my form and will never sacrifice more weight to demolish my form, and as far as I could tell I was keeping my form. But the last rep, I got it up on the rack and I got this pain. Now I took a week off, went back and had no problem bench-pressing this week. Come shoulder time (thursday) I was doing military presses and had upped my weights by 5 again, doing just fine until on about the 6th rep I get that same shooting neck pain, this time the pain was unbearable..I almost felt like passing out. I re-rack the weight, stand up, stretch, and call it quits for the day. Needless to say I'm pretty disappointed right now as I feel it was a bad workout, but has anybody else had this happen? Is it just a strained neck muscle? I always make sure to do a light jog, do my warm-up reps, and stretch (especially my neck) before a heavy lifting session. Just curious if anybody else has had this happen. I have a chiropractor's appt. scheduled for next week.

Do you take any NO supplements?

[nmocc]

Well I'm not one for supps but I recently bought a tub of N.O. explode to dip my feet in and have been using it for the past month or so, wasn't aware they could do that...explain?

[ImTheRealArab]

I have started taking superpump250 for about 2 weeks now. I think our problems may be related to these NO products. If you read the article matt provided you would have noticed this

"If you're prone to headaches while exercising, your doctor may prescribe an anti-inflammatory medication such as indomethacin (sold under many brand names), which is used primarily to combat arthritis. Indomethacin, which can be taken either before or during exercise, works on the blood vessels in the body, says Newman, and is thought to also act on nitric oxide -- one of the chemicals that can cause headaches."

This may be a possible explanation

[nmocc]

Hmm that's interesting. I'll have to do some homework and dig into that a little more. I've been noticing a few other people posting things about "exertion headaches", so I'll do some research.

[ImTheRealArab]

Please let me know what you find, I've been taking tylenol like crazy...... think I may have popped a blood vessel.

[nmocc]

I'm the same way, today was absolutely unbearable...I hit the ground like a rock after I struggled to re-rack the weights (should have had a spotter).

[ImTheRealArab]

The only thing I can think of doing now is avoiding anything that could put pressure on my head to avoid the headaches, guess I may need to stop with the NO products too.... Ill research more tomorrow, I'm retiring for the night. Later