I tend to get a headache after I exercise. Almost always when I run outside, sometimes when I do elliptical or other cardio machines at the gym, and only occasionally when I bike (outside).

It never happens while I'm exercising - the headache develops about 4 or 5 hours after I have finished exercising.

I always make sure to drink plenty (but not too much) water during and after exercise. I bought new shoes, thinking maybe that would help, but it hasn't.

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Do you eat enough?

are you taking protein supplements?

Hi Rebecca - Perhaps it's something to do with blood sugar levels? Along the same lines as Tigerlily's suggestion above, are you making sure you eat pretty soon after your workout? Also, do you find that the type of workout has an effect? Anaerobic exercise, hard running, intervals and heavy lifting sometimes give me a headache....usually eating pretty soon after does seem to help a lot.

Hi Rebecca,

Without telling you my entire life's story, let share something that might be relevant.

Growing up I used to get headaches playing in the Arizona sun. They never went away as I got older. In college I worked in home construction, home painting and some other outdoor jobs that I wasn't very good at because I had to stop too often. The migraine-level headaches were too much and I could no longer do labor jobs. I tried much of what has been recommended here, plus I tried taking an aspirin before work or exercise, drinking something with caffeine, making sure I was hydrated, etc. etc. etc. etc.

When I was 32 I found my birthmother (I was adopted at birth and never knew her until then). I also discovered that such headaches run in the family (thanks, Mom!)

Not long afterwards I mentioned the headaches to my doctor during a routine visit. Yeah, in 32 years I hadn't thought to do that before. He said, "You have insurance, right?" "Yes." "Then go get a CAT scan. Why not? There's nothing wrong with you, but just in case, why not?"

I never got the scan done. Why? Because I knew they were hereditary. I also discovered that many of my progenitors lived well into their 90's and even 100's. My great grandmother lived to be 109, and I had the privilege of meeting her.

So, here's the moral of the story: Consult your doctor. But if you're like me your head won't fall off from exercise or hard work. It just hurts a lot.

Thanks for the suggestions. I don't always eat before, though I do always eat soon after I exercise. I make an effort to eat a lot of protein. (I used to be a vegetarian, but a few months ago I began eating meat again, so I've probably been getting more protein than I used to.)

Alasdair, it does depend on the type of workout. Weight bearing exercises (like running) give me much worse headaches than biking, for example.

Hi Rebecca - that's interesting. Perhaps this happens when you're closer to your Anaerobic Threshold during your workouts? (some stuff on this half way down this page: URL)

If you do think it's serious, as Paul suggested, probably best to see a doc just in case.

Hi
I've had this before and I think it's just due to blood pressure and getting used to the exercise. You must drink plenty of fluids and do not overdue exercises above shoulder level. Try this, it may help

I'm with Mandy on this one -- I know I get headaches a lot, both when I'm working out and just in general, and I'm pretty sure that the culprit is dehydration. On days you're going to work out, I suggest doubling your normal water intake and seeing if the headaches start to fade. Good luck!

I get blinding headaches after eating soy or eggs. I have a number of food allergies, and different allergens cause different physical symptoms.

Diagnosing my food allergies was neither easy nor cheap, but eliminating problem foods has changed my life in good ways.

You more than likely need to drink more water. Your body will dehydrate while you are working out and it will give you a headache as well as make you feel more exhausted than you would had you drank water before working out. I would suggest drinking about 32 oz preworkout and the same after. You'll feel better then.

I used to get these all the time after playing basketball. I found if you take a short break/change of shift during your workout and eat a mandarin or something else fairly sweet you generally feel better.

I hope it helps!

I get headaches from working out. The reason it happens to me is because I have a heart problem. They havnt 100% found out what is wrong but if my heart rate goes over 200 when I am working out I will get a headache. I would go to your doctor and explain whats going on and see what he/she says.

Mandy and Sarah's right. From my experience and knowledge headaches are the first signs of dehydration. Followed by tunnel vision and cramping. Make sure you're drinking enough throughout the day. An average person can drink their weight in ounces of water and other fluids in a day. Try that and see how it works for you.

I'm new here, so I'm a bit nervous about commenting, but no-one's mentioned the type of headaches I get, so I thought I'd pitch in.

I carry all my stress and tension in my neck, so it tends to be really tight. If I'm not very careful with my neck and shoulders when I work out, I get screaming headaches, especially if I've taken a 'break' from working out and am just starting up again after a few weeks away. I used to call them 'sit-up headaches.'

What works to prevent it, in my case: Making sure my head is fully supported during any sit-ups/crunches/etc.--and not doing the Pilates stuff where my head is held out horizontally with no support. Also, making sure I don't jerk my upper body around too much during cardio, and taking a second to consciously relax my neck and shoulders before doing heavy weight lifting. If I get a headache anyway, hot baths and heating pads on my neck and shoulders and massaging the back of my jaw help a lot.

Everyone else is right, though--it definitely wouldn't hurt to ask a doctor.

@ Rebecca:

Hi! Many variables may factor into your headache situation. As listed in many previous posts, I will not re-list the benefits and amounts of being fully hydrated and having enough energy consumption throughout the day to support moderate to heavy exercise conditions.

One thing not mentioned (I read the posts, but I make mistakes! Sorry if I didn't catch this in a previous post!) is that you may have a lack of oxygen in your blood. Usually a headache will develop fairly recently after a workout from low oxygenation, but the body is a complex machine that has different results from the same input.

An easy way to test if your body is getting enough oxygen is the "fingernail test": squeeze a thumbnail with the thumb and forefinger of the opposing hand until the pink, flesh toned color skin behind the fingernail turns white. Hold for two or three seconds, then release. Count, in seconds, how long it takes for the area behind the fingernail to return to its natural color. If this duration is under three seconds, then low oxygen blood content more than likely is NOT the problem.

On a side note (which explains why I mention your oxygen content), I have been diagnosed with asthma. When I do not follow my medicine schedule, I get headaches.

Talking to a physician that you trust is always good.


@ Chris:
When you strain, the muscles in your neck constrict. This impedes airflow, and could be what is causing your headaches. The hot bath (if you feel like it truly helps) also fits well into this: when objects heat up, they expand. Thus, the throughput for oxygen in your neck is able to expand and relax.

Rebecca J

Do you happen to have Rosacea? I have similar symptoms and have wondered if it could be correlated with the Rosacea I have. Rosacea does not usually affect people until middle age -- so if you are younger, you don't likely have it.

Hi, this is common (used to happen to me too) and you should probably see a doctor if the headaches do not go away. I know that for me, I was very headache prone until I got off of chemical birth control.

Make sure you are breathing properly while working out. It is very inportant to breath in through your nose and out through your mouth. This will also help you have a more effective fat burning workout. If you don't breath properly you wont take in enough oxygen. This WILL cause headaches.

I should have done a search before posting this topic.

I've started getting headaches when doing high-rep squats, and it turns out that effort-exertional headaches are not that uncommon. They affect about 1% of the population and are mostly benign, though painful.

@Rebecca: If you rule out hydration and food intake (and it sounds like you have) then you probably suffer from this. It's usually worse when lifting weights, as you've pointed out.

See a doctor as soon as you can, if only to rule out more serious causes. If you have any history of high blood pressure or heart problems, all the more reason.

For some reason, the detailed article I linked to doesn't let you in. Try clicking this link from Google and it will work. Odd.

In any case, your doctor will examine your family history and listen to your head and neck with the bell part of a stethoscope for bruits, or the odd noise that partially blocked arteries can make. In some cases, they may request and MRI or MRA to rule out more serious stuff.

If they find nothing wrong, the good news is that "benign" exertional headaches respond very well to indomethacin before a workout. In some cases, they may even respond to over the counter aspirin.

I just switched physicians and am scheduled to see a doc in April, but I'm trying to get an earlier date. I already have an existing high BP problem that's manifests during exercise (perhaps similar to Rachel's) and I'm predisposed by genetics to having heart problems and strokes (father and grandfather died fairly young, in 60's, from stroke or heart attack).

Good luck, and see that doctor.

Here's my side of the story.

While you're exercising, it can be a common problem to be tensing your head and neck that it develops into a tension headache later in the day. Sometimes in a more severe case it can be acutely onset around the 7th or 8th rep during weight training.

I think that your problem is due to tension/exertion headache's. The reason why you only get them occasionally when you're on your bike is that more of the stress is put on your lower half, the bike is quite isolating like that. Try an experiment and do your cardio on a recumbent (preferably) or upright bike at a gym and see how you go. On this pieces of equipment, your posture is different and you are more than likely to relax your neck. Give it a go.

Cervicogenic headaches are due to poor posture and muscle imbalances. When you strain at your neck a few things can happen. Constricting your airflow is due more to posture than tight neck muscles. If you have tight pectoralis muscles and weak lower trapezius muscles you will tend to roll your shoulders forward and overutilize your upper trapezius and levator scapula muscles. If you push on the top of your shoulders where the traps meet the neck and there is a really hard muscles up there that hurts this can be the cause of cervicogenic headaches. When you exercise if you are stressing these muscles you can have trigger points in them that refer pain into your head. If you headaches start in the base of your skull in the back then the pain radiates around the side of your head and then your eyeballs fell like they are either having pressure or they feel like they are going to fall out you may have trigger points and associated cervicogenic headaches.

The one thing that has been said here is to really check if you are dehydrated.

1. If you are thirsty at any point in your day you are dehydrated.
2. If your urine is yellow or has an odor you are probably dehydrated.

If you are dehydrated it takes a full 24 hours of fluid loading to become rehydrated no matter what color your urine is in that 24 hour period.

Keep in mind that there are different climates, humidity levels and human factors that you need to consider. If you are exercising more than you have you may need more fluid intake.

I will reiterate that you should see a physician.
Possible causes:
1. dehydration
2. anemia
3. cervicogenic headaches
4. all of the above answers
Worse case senario:
5. Blood pressure
6. Tumor
7. there is a ligament in the base of your skull that may be loose (alar ligament) that allows your head to "bobble" too much.

Hope this is not too overwhelming of a post.

Matt

Whenever I would do cardio before I had my morning coffee, I would get a really bad headache. I make sure to have a cup in the morning before I get to the gym. I should probably just give it up altogether but for now I'll just do without the headache.

I too have been experiencing/investigating this issue for about 6-8 months. My headaches are caused only by cardio and don't arise until several hours after a workout.

I've been working out for 25+ years, running for the past 8. Beginning last summer I started getting pretty severe headaches a few to several hours after cardio. My typical cardio was running, either on the treadmill or outside, for 5 miles, 3 days a week, at a 7:30min/mile pace. I've run faster and slower and never had any issues.

In any case, at some point over the summer I started getting a severe headache that would be centered around my traps/neck/back of my head. After a few experiences, I started checking my situation, water intake (I can't be found without a 24oz bottle of Poland Springs in my hand), I eat enough for 3 people and always have, couldn't figure out anything that made sense. I tried more food prior, more food after, etc.

I've always done pretty heavy workouts lifting as well, and would always have a headache a day after doing shoulders. Not a debilitating one, just a mild discomfort type, ibu would clear it. I've cut shoulder workouts out completely since getting these headaches, hasn't helped.

I thought it might be the pounding, so I shifted to stairmaster and got the same headache. I started skipping workouts. When I went back, I took it down a notch, started running slower, no dice.

This has unfolded over months. I went to my doctor and got an MRI/MRA, stress test, blood work, and today visited a neurologist. So far they have identified no issues. During the exam the neurologist asked me if I had a history of anxiety or depression, which I do not. I had mentioned that I'm not sleeping as well as I used to, but I think it's because I'm not working out. In any case she presribed some anti-depresants to help me sleep. I have no intention of having the prescription filled and I'm back to the drawing board for a cause/solution.

At this point I can reproduce the symptoms at will, 4 miles on the treadmill even at a 10min/mile pace and presto, within a few hours I get the symptoms. In fact, I intentionally worked out prior to my MRI and had the symptoms when I went, still nothing showed up.

I don't smoke or drink (never have), no drugs, generally I don't even take ibuprofen unless I'm in extreme discomfort. Whatever causes these headaches is unaffected by Ibu/Tylenol/even Excedrin Migraine, they have no effect. The only thing that seems to cure it is sleeping..so I shifted to working out at night. I'm going to keep trying to figure it out, start working out again now that I've ruled out dropping dead on the treadmill . One thing I often feel is that a neck/shoulder massage might help, so I think I may schedule one to see if it helps after a run to prevent the onset of the headache later.

I'll be sure to follow-up if anything turns up, and I'll be checking back to see if anyone else finds a good answer.

oh, forgot to mention...no caffiene (no coffee/soda/etc)

hi , i'm new here .my problems with headache after exercising ( which now includes even walking for more than 30 mins!) , are almost identical to Steves.....curious to know if you've made any progress?
regards,
simon

Wait, so you went to the doctor and disregarded his advice, then the moral of your story is to go the doctor anyway?

That's not exactly the best parable I've ever heard....

I am 24 and have always been very active, played basketball and volleyball, rode 3 horses a day all through high school, then in college started running and would log around 30-40 miles a week, sometimes more. I'm not sure exactly when they started, but maybe my Sr. year of undergrad I started to get really really bad headaches after my long runs (10+ miles). I started running with more water and eating alot more protein and carbs before and after the runs, but the headaches always showed up 2-3 hrs after the run, sometimes later that day. Now I am in law school and it is to the point where if I run for more than about 15 minutes at more than a jog I get the headaches. I eat well, alot of protein, drink a ton of water, but they still come. It hits me the worst if I run in the afternoon/evening. I find if I get up and run in the mornings for no more than 5 miles before breakfast (and not very fast or hard) then I am ok, but I miss my 10 mile + afternoon runs, and whenever I try to run outside of my morning timeframe, or run to hard in the morning, the headaches come back.
I thought dehydration, but I purposely overload myself with water (2+ liters before the long runs, plus water on the way) and nothing. Tried the sports drinks with electrolytes, but nothing. Part of me thinks its my body complaining after four years of undergrad and two years of law school with alot of stress and not enough sleep, but running is my stress relief, and when I get the headaches they are so bad I can't study or read or do much of anything. And the more time that passes, the less "effort" or exertion it takes to bring the headaches. Its not a migraine, I used to get those as a kid but have only had one or two in the past 6 years, but its a severe sharp paint through my whole head that kind of spreads through my body. I know now about 1% of the population suffers from "effort headaches" which makes me feel better that I am not alone, but I still wish there was something I could do. I used to pop a few ibuprofen before every run, but I've since realized that is very bad for my overall health and I don't think its a good long term habit to develop. In the end, I love running, its my personal release every day, and its an addiction I want to keep until I am old and my hips give out. But the headaches are almost dehabilitating. Help!

I would get headaches as well after working out. I then started upping my water intake and no longer have that problem.

I do to. But the reason I get them is because when it starts to burn or get harder in the exercise, i tend to clench my jaw really hard and don't even realize it.