Head pain during Leg presses.

[07Maestro]

Hey Guys! Wondering if anyone might of had this pain before. I was doing leg presses today 700Ibs 5th set & after 4th or 5th rep I felt a very sharp pain on the left side of my neck going over the left side of my head and down my left eye, almost like something popped or exploded in my head, six hours later typing this threrad I still feel a dull headache particularly on the left temple of my head. I did'nt have really any fluid today before training (Stupid I know) & I have read somewhere your body maintains a level of water in your vertebrae to act as a protective cushion to nerves that pass up to the brain. If the water level gets too low during your heavy lifting the nerves can get crushed & that the nerves are located inside the vertebrae of your neck, when they're crushed it can feel like the pain is actually up inside your head somewhere. Any advice would be great & before you say it I'm going to the Doctors tomorrow =).

[low blow]

Originally Posted by 07Maestro

Hey Guys! Wondering if anyone might of had this pain before. I was doing leg presses today 700Ibs 5th set & after 4th or 5th rep I felt a very sharp pain on the left side of my neck going over the left side of my head and down my left eye, almost like something popped or exploded in my head, six hours later typing this threrad I still feel a dull headache particularly on the left temple of my head. I did'nt have really any fluid today before training (Stupid I know) & I have read somewhere your body maintains a level of water in your vertebrae to act as a protective cushion to nerves that pass up to the brain. If the water level gets too low during your heavy lifting the nerves can get crushed & that the nerves are located inside the vertebrae of your neck, when they're crushed it can feel like the pain is actually up inside your head somewhere. Any advice would be great & before you say it I'm going to the Doctors tomorrow =).

the fluid in your spine is called Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). If that was low you'd have a lot more problems then just a headache :P so sctrach that

my guess is you must've exerted yourself quite hard and blown a blood vessel in that region. But yea best to see a doctor

[ClevageGobbler]

From what you described, I think you might have been pushing too hard and as a result, possibly you were not breathing in deep enough and popped a vein? That is my guess. It is vital to breathe my dude. You can't live without oxygen, it keeps your brain functioning and without it: BRAIN DAMAGE, usually paralyzing results when it does occur.

[Jill75]

It might also have been that aside from pushing yourself too much that what your body can take, you might have done it suddenly so that a blood vessel was pressed causing the pressure to go up and up your head. Yeah, better see a doctor. Dont lie in bed that your feet is higher than your feet. Always lie with your head higher than your body.

[boo99]

this can also be a result of a sudden rise in blood pressure which, of course, will occur in any activity and especially with legs since its an intense workout and the amount and size of the lower body.

it would be very hard to measure BP during but you could right after -- but I dont know if you would do that at a gym but it could be ya BP

what is it normally?

u can always take it right after the gym at one of the kiosks like at Rite Aid Pharmacy

[sincerelyryan]

I did this Wednesday. Happened to me once in high school about 8 years ago, and hasn't happened again, until now. First time I did it pressing dumbells like a madman... probably wasn't breathing enough and was using the Valsalva maneuver.

This time I did it on the leg press as well, while doing a strip set after a couple sets of heavy squats and leg press. I feel like I was breathing fine, but I was pushing my legs well past their limits, and it seems also past the limits of one of my blood vessels in the back of my head, left side, around the base of the skull.

I tried to do 1 set of calf raises yesterday and it came back. I remember lifting through it in high school, but I won't be able to do that this time. I'm going to take 10 days off and see where I am after that.

Dammit.

[07Maestro]

Yea Ryan that's exactly the symptoms I had, it was a scary pain to be honest, I trained this morning aswell started on lat pulldowns & my head felt like it was gonna pop again. . . . .I better get my ass to the Doc today.

[07Maestro]

Really appreciate this advice guys!!!! If I popped a vein or some vessel in my head is this very serious or common to lifters. I've only been training 2 months Powerlifting.

[sincerelyryan]

It never hurts to have things like these checked out. Chances are that you didn't "pop" anything. You'd probably be dead by now. Veins and arteries are very elastic. Aneurysms occur in weak spots in blood vessels, and what you and I probably did was strain the vessel walls due to the increased blood pressure.

After it happened, it was a throbbing pain. Basically, I was feeling my heart beat in a stressed vessel in the back of my head. I wouldn't call it "common", but it isn't unheard of amongst lifters. Think of it as a pulled muscle... you can't just work through it if it is bad, just like you can't work through bad sprains and torn ligaments... it will only prolong the problem.

[07Maestro]

Hey tnx for that advice bro, I just got back from the hospital, I went into the triage nurse who was about 70 years old & proberbly would not know what the inside of a gym looked like never mind an sport injury, she did'nt even ask me was I feeling nausiated, weak, dis-orientated or anything of the sort, she baically took my blood pressure said that was fine & told me that there would be 10 or so other people ahead of me & that she did'nt think my injury was serious, I said yes but I feel sick, dizzy & my left temple feels like it's bleeding inside my head!! The Irish health system the best in the world lol.

[07Maestro]

Still got this feeling in my left temple, don't know it's like a dull ache, almost feels like a bleeding sensation inside my left temple.