Headache after exercise

Headaches While or After Exercising

Many people experience this pain connected to working out and exposing yourself to physical activity. Although this is mainly connected with tennis, rowing, weight lifting and swimming, headaches of this type may take place during or after performing many other activities of this type. Even though the problem may not be serious, it can be. Therefore, as soon as you experience repeating headaches upon exposure to physical activity, make sure you seek medical attention.

Two Types of Exercise Headaches

There are two types of headaches possibly appearing during or after your workout sessions. The first type involves a more benign one, related to simple body over-straining, lasting shortly, and expressing itself solely through a headache, without any additional symptoms or side-effects. People are usually able to treat these by using medications such aspainkillers.

On the other hand, the second type of headaches of this type involves a more serious scenario. Namely, along with headaches, there are possible cases of nausea, vomiting and loss of consciousness. Moreover, these headaches may even last for more than several days, repeating and amplifying their negative effect upon every exercise session. These are probably connected with some underlying conditions such as brain tumors, internal bleeding, or some vascular diseases.

Causes of Headaches While or AfterExercising

Regardless of the things mentioned above, in most cases, the reason behind the exercise headaches is not a serious one. Rather, it is triggered by over-straining, forcing yourself too much or simply, getting exhausted. You need to pay attention to your proper hydration and drink enough water while you are working out. Lack of water may lead to dehydration, having headache as one of its main side-effects. Additionally, you should not force yourself to excessive exercising when you have not eaten anything beforehand. In order to perform physical tasks, our body needs energy. We get this energy from food. Thus, make sure you eat both before and after working out, but be careful not to overeat since that too will cause you more harm than good.

Also, make sure you warm up before working out, and stretch both before and after this procedure. Start your session gradually and end it in the same way. Abrupt patterns can only lead to headaches and injuries.

Finally, make sure you do not exercise in high altitudes or get exposed to too much heat. This will make your body more sensitive due to the lack of air, making you far less capable of enduring your regular exercise patterns. In all other cases, if all the pieces of advice fail to help you, and the headaches remain persistent, make sure you seek medical attention as soon as possible.