upper body and pain in base of skull

[sysopt]

Recently, after finishing an intense set of chins or dips, I feel this pain in my neck or base of the skull and the remainder of my workout kinda sucks. I also feel lightheaded, but that doesnt last very long. But for hours after doing these two movements, my head just doesnt feel quite right. I asked the trainer on staff and he was saying how the traps tighten up during these movements and something occurs where the muscle attaches at the base of the skull. He also said there's nothing I can do about it and that it was fairly common...so now I turn to WBB. I wonder if this is the first sign of an overuse injury or something along those lines. Take note that I've never felt this before and it's only during and after chins or dips....thanks in advance.

[Shocker]

i get this often from squats for some reason.

[DaCypher]

A few months ago I had a muscle spasm in the same region that you are referring to (neck/base of head) that was caused by strenuous lifts and was giving me some bad headaches. I'd recommend seeing a chiropractor, it helped me a lot.

[sysopt]

Is it anything serious? Am I lifting too intensely?

[DaCypher]

I don't think its anything too serious nor should it lead to any major problems. The only side effects of your condition is the discomfort you're experiencing. However, I am not a doctor, nor do I claim to be one, so take this with a grain of salt as I am only diagnosing your condition based on what you've described and what my chiropractor told me. By the way, I initially went to a regular physician and he wanted me to get an MRI and he had me thinking I had some type of anurism (sp?) or something (which is very serious btw). He told me it had nothing to do with anything a chiropractor could fix. Anyways, I thought I would get a second opinion from a chiropractor and I was back to 100% in about 6 weeks.

Anyways, the moral of the story is to see a chiropractor.

Intensity may be what caused my muscle spasm (not totally sure, might have to do some more research on this). However, after the first time this happened, I would get this massive pain in my head, sometimes so excruciating I would get dizzy and almost pass out, whever I would do simple, less strenuous exercise (outside the gym). I remember one day I was carrying some groceries back to my apartment from my car and I was brought to my knees from the pain. So intensity may have been what caused this initially but may not be what will cause your discomfort to return, so lifting light/less intense in the gym may not cure anything.

Anyways, see a(some) doctor(s). Good luck.

[sysopt]

That's the first thing that came to mind...an anurism...it scared the **** out of me. Thanks for the advice, I'm gonna check out the doc.

[Blood&Iron]

I would bet even money you'er either holding your breath or performing the Val Salva manuever. I used to do this unwittingly when I first started working out. I only did it while leg pressing and got the same sensation(At least, if I'm understanding things correctly). It was a throbbing at the base of the skull along with lightheadedness that caused me to cut more than one workout short. I was sure I wasn't holding my breath, but when I started concentrating on breathing correctly it went away. Have someone watch you to make sure. If they say you're not, then I have no idea what it is.

[sysopt]

You see, this first occured last week when I was doing dips. I wasnt really paying attention to breathing and I know breathing can make blood pressure sky rocket. So when it came time to do chins today, I made certain to breathe properly and it still happened.

[Blood&Iron]

Originally posted by sysopt
You see, this first occured last week when I was doing dips. I wasnt really paying attention to breathing and I know breathing can make blood pressure sky rocket. So when it came time to do chins today, I made certain to breathe properly and it still happened.

You're not Val Salva'ing either, right?(You probably already know, but his is when you exhale against a closed epiglottis, e.g. when grunting.)

[Tank23]

Sysopt- I've had this same kinda problem on two occasions. The first was during a chest workout, in the middle of a set I just felt like i had hit this point where the right-back side of my head started to hurt. It turned into a light headache for the rest of the workout.
After this...I wasn't feeling fit to workout for quite a few days. I suspected this head pain was related to a 'head cold', as winted here in Australia was just about to start, and I had mild cold symptoms.
Anytime I tried doing something strenuous I'd get to the point where I'd over exert myself too far past a point, then the head pain would kick in. I think you guys might be right about the blood pressure thing, when holding your breath.
This also happened to me last week, I also had minor cold symptoms i.e: sneezing, runny nose etc. But this time the pain was in the lower left of the back of my head. I didn't bother with a doc this time...a week off training solved the problem.

Also...during both these times...I had neck pain too...so the doc related these 'headaches' to stress of some sort.

-John

[sysopt]

Thanks for the replies everyone.