Q: I find I get a very bad headache after I lift weights. What could be going on??

There’s no question about it, lifting weights is definitely one type of exercise that you should be including regularly in your overall fitness plan. Lifting weights regularly is going to add more strength to the muscles, help to prevent injury, keep your metabolism on high so you can fight off fat gain, and help you just look better overall.

Risks of Lifting Weights

But along with lifting weights comes a few risks. One of those risks being headaches.
Some people often do find that they experience headaches after they put in a hard session at the gym and the primary reason for this is due to the intensity.

Lifting weights is a very intense activity and is going to place a high stress load on the body, so if you’re lifting as much as you can and shortening up those rest periods to make the sessions even more intense yet, you may experience this post-workout headache from time to time.

If this is the case and it’s really starting to bother you, then the first thing to look at is your breathing. Are you breathing regularly throughout the exercises or are you holding your breath? This is quite common and that can cause even more pressure to build up in the body and can lead to the development of a headache.

Second, you may also want to consider decreasing the overall volume of the workout as well. If you’re doing multiple sets of each exercise and are doing more than five exercises per session, it may just be that your body can’t quite handle that much volume.

Backing off a bit would make it far more tolerable and allow you to complete the workouts without suffering from this head pain post-workout.

So keep these few points in mind. If it is an ongoing issue present each and every time and you’ve tried both of the above, then consulting a doctor may be a good decision to be sure there’s nothing else at play here.