Headaches after Karate class

[Lynne]

I wonder if it's dehydration. I drink 20 oz. of water before class. Class is an hour unless followed by sparring class (another 45 minutes). I've been noticing headaches after class. Once, I coughed and I felt like someone had driven an ice pick through my temple, then the pounding began.

I don't have headaches all of the time, but they occur often enough that I'm correlating class and the headaches.

I drink another 20 oz. of water after class. Maybe I need electrolytes? Perhaps a Gatorade after class would be a good choice?

Anyone experience the headaches or have any ideas?

 

[stoneheart]

Lynne, are you tense during class? Many beginning karate-ka continuously hold tension in their shoulders, arms, and legs when performing kihon (basics) and kata. It's not until they progress a bit that they learn to relax and only tighten up the exact muscle groups that need to be firm during the truncation of a technique and not during the entire movement.

 

[Sukerkin]

Both the muscular-tension and electrolyte-balance theories have credability as both could cause headaches.

Another idea to add to the mix is blood-sugar or salt levels. If your training is physically vigorous, it may be that you need a bit of a snack to pick those up a touch. Related to this, I used to get headaches when I did bicycle time-trialing due to simple over-exertion.

One further thing to consider, how is your blood-pressure? Do you get headaches after any hard excercise or just from your MA classes? It might be worth getting your quack to check you out as the high concentration and stress levels of training may be combining with the purely physical to cause a problem in that area.

These are all just guesses and ideas thown out into the light to see if anything sounds plausible - the usual disclaimers about my utter lack of medical expertise apply .

 

[crushing]

Breathe! Make sure you are breathing. I ran into an extreme of this Wednesday night. It was hot and I'm sure I lost a lot of water, but what really got me was when I was put into a bear hug to do a defense and I didn't make sure I was breathing and I got a piercing headache that actually put me down on the floor for a moment. Once I caught my breath I was feeling better.

When I notice the onset of a headache while training, I start paying attention to my breathing more and can usually recover quickly. Breathing properly is a huge part of training. I think breathing goes hand-in-hand with being tense or relaxed which goes to stoneheart's point above.

I think GM recognized my problem, because later in the class he led us through some breathing excercises while doing some simple hand movements and while performing forms.

 

[Kacey]

In addition to the above - all good suggestions - how's the temperature? When I overheat I get headaches, and sometimes dizzy - due to low blood pressure, rather than high.

Also, as Sukerkin pointed out, electrolyte balance is important - and that's more than just water; too much water can leave your electrolytes out of whack, so you might try a small bottle of Gatorade or something similar in place of some of your water.

 

[Blindside]

I wonder if it's dehydration. I drink 20 oz. of water before class. Class is an hour unless followed by sparring class (another 45 minutes). I've been noticing headaches after class. Once, I coughed and I felt like someone had driven an ice pick through my temple, then the pounding began.

I don't have headaches all of the time, but they occur often enough that I'm correlating class and the headaches.

I drink another 20 oz. of water after class. Maybe I need electrolytes? Perhaps a Gatorade after class would be a good choice?

Anyone experience the headaches or have any ideas?

During class, not after. Replace water/electrolytes on an ongoing basis, once you feel cruddy, you are behind the curve. I like Gatorade, but much prefer Cytomax, less sweet, better mix for electrolyte replacement.

Lamont

 

[Tez3]

During class, not after. Replace water/electrolytes on an ongoing basis, once you feel cruddy, you are behind the curve. I like Gatorade, but much prefer Cytomax, less sweet, better mix for electrolyte replacement.

Lamont

I agree with this, I drink water all through training, we're encouraged to. Drinking small amounts regularly is much better than lots before and after training.

 

[Ceicei]

Don't forget the environment (sounds and smells) can influence the way you feel after class.

- Ceicei

 

[Lynne]

Thanks for the feedback.

Unfortunately, we are not allowed to hydrate during class. I drink the 20 oz. of water but no more because if I drink more I'll have to run to the ladie's room. None of the ladies drink more than 16 oz. - 20 oz. water because of that potential problem. It can be quite hot in the Dojang and I do mean hot; sometimes it's so warm that we are reluctant to stretch before our class starts - we'll have sweat rolling down our face just stretching. This doesn't mean the a/c isn't on. There's a huge kid's class before ours. Lots of people = hot. It does beat being too cold and pulling a muscle though.

I sneak in a few sips of water before sparring class. It means I run two - three minutes late and have to wait to be admitted. But I just finished a hard one-hour workout and there is no way I can do 45 minutes of sparring/sparring drills without a little hydration. The headaches are worse after sparring.

In truth, my daughter and I are both quite hoarse after regular class. Do you think some Gatorade before hand would be helpful? I noticed I space out sometimes in class. At first, I thought I was relaxed but I think it's low-blood sugar. Low-blood sugar is tricky because the body doesn't always send hunger signals. I do eat at 4:30 and class is at 7:00. I may eat a snack about 5:30 or 6:00 and see if that helps.

Tension? I do have a lot of tension in my neck and shoulders. I was in a car accident at 16 and have chronic tight muscles. And I do tense up during class. I'm learning to become a little more relaxed at times, but not always. Part of the problem is it so's dang loud that I can't hear the instructor at times and have to really strain to hear - I know that I'm worried about doing the wrong thing.

Our classes are often the blood, sweat and tears classes, heavy on conditioning. I've never attended an easy class. I have gotten dizzy a few times and on those few rare occasions we happened to do a cool down. I'm not complaining; I like the challenging classes but I've learned to step out if I think I'm going to get sick. I did that once when we were doing shuffle drills constantly around the perimeter of the Dojang. I've seen belts higher than myself go down and remain in the corner the rest of the class because they didn't pace themselves or step out when they should have. I've been lucky so far.

I'll try some of the suggestions and see if they work. I'll let you know. Thanks very much.

 

[searcher]

Have you consulted a physician yet?

And I think its nuts that you cannot re-hydrate during class. I run some pretty hard-core classes and I am a firm believer in taking care of your body. JMHO.

 

[qi-tah]

Have you consulted a physician yet?

And I think its nuts that you cannot re-hydrate during class. I run some pretty hard-core classes and I am a firm believer in taking care of your body. JMHO.

Not just nuts, dangerous as well! Especially as yr dojang is hot... if you are sweating whilst stretching then i guessing you are wringing out yr t-shirt by the end of the night!
20oz is about 600ml, right? There is no way that 600mls is enough water for 1 hr and 45 minutes of hard-core training in a hot gym. You will be dehydrated for sure. I regularly put away 1.5 litres of fluids during my 2 hour class in summer. And i take pit stops to run my head underneath a tap as well. Heat stroke is not fun!

 

[Sukerkin]

Sensible lass, there :tup:.

I would seriously consider having a chat with your instructors, Lynne. Not allowing people to hydrate during class is dangerous. I don't normally like to make declamatory statements about people I don't know but, to be frank, there's 'hard-core' and there's 'stupid'.

You chaps aren't Navy Seals or SAS, so pushing you to the edge of heat exhaustion is a needless risk.

 

[grydth]

Add my voice to the chorus on the dangers of not allowing students to rehydrate. In my old Army unit, you would be relieved for cause if you allowed your soldiers to sustain heat injuries.

I can see reasonable restrictions, as they have in my daughters' dojo. You can't have a steady stream of people transiting on/off the mats and pausing for social hour. At their school, students are strongly urged to come to class already well hydrated. On hot days, the sensei will announce, "20 seconds to get drinks! GO!".... and one had better be back in time.

 

[Lynne]

Most of our classes are one-hour long. If I go to sparring, it's an additional 45-minute class to equal 1 hour, 45 minutes.

But, yes, it's hot. I think I will ask if we can have water bottles in class. It will be interesting to find out why not. My guess is that taking time to drink water disrupts the class. Of course the answer to that is for everyone to grab a drink of water between one of the rotations.

 

[Makalakumu]

All the teacher needs to do in order to control the amount of disruption is make a clean break during transitions in order to hydrate. I like the idea of giving a certain amount of time to get it done and get back on the line. I've done that when its really hot.

Another thing to consider is your overall diet. How well do you eat? Are you getting enough vitamins and minerals? If you are eating food with lots of salts and preservatives, these can be concentrated when you start sweating a lot. Basically, as the levels of "poisons" increase in your blood, you begin to feel sicker and sicker.

 

[Sukerkin]

That's a good point upnorth. When I posted earlier I was thinking of mentioning the build up of fatigue poisons in the body more explicitly but I never even considered what you highlighted there :tup:.

 

[Logan]

Do you suffer from migraines at all? Even if you don't, it's not uncommon for it to develop - I would check with a doctor if you're worried.

Sometimes just overexerting yourself can result in headaches.

 

[Lynne]

Do you suffer from migraines at all? Even if you don't, it's not uncommon for it to develop - I would check with a doctor if you're worried.

Sometimes just overexerting yourself can result in headaches.

Hi Logan,

I have had some migraines over the past few years because of fluctuations in female hormones. I'm now on a hormone that stopped them cold.

We do get pushed very hard in class but I assume that's the same for most martial arts? I have only gotten dizzy a few times though. But it could be the exertion, period. I think I will try more water before class and see how that works.

If the headaches persist, I will see a doctor though...if I can find a good one in my area.

 

[Lynne]

All the teacher needs to do in order to control the amount of disruption is make a clean break during transitions in order to hydrate. I like the idea of giving a certain amount of time to get it done and get back on the line. I've done that when its really hot.

Another thing to consider is your overall diet. How well do you eat? Are you getting enough vitamins and minerals? If you are eating food with lots of salts and preservatives, these can be concentrated when you start sweating a lot. Basically, as the levels of "poisons" increase in your blood, you begin to feel sicker and sicker.

I hadn't thought of that. Awhile back, my doctor said I was low in potassium (well, she's a nurse - rural area) and wasn't worried though. I do know that eating a lot of salt can lower potassium and my diet is high in salt. There are some preservatives because my diet is 100% clean.

So, a cleaner diet might help? I can certainly try it.

I just got my iron levels back to normal about 6 months ago (iron deficiency anemia) - it took 9 months of daily supplementation. Intense martial arts could be depleting one or more minerals/vitamins.

I've just started taking a One-A-Day two times a day.

 

[FieldDiscipline]

Lynne,

Be aware that you do need a certain amount of salt if you are exercising a lot, you will sweat it out. You'll know when you need more because you'll get cramps a lot more.

You must drink during class, simple. I've seen soldiers in hospital for this and its not nice.