Friday, 01 April, 2011

Just a reminder for Men's Night this coming Monday. We'll be going somewhere to eat and watch the National Championship Game. Meet at Crossfit Huntsville at 6:30 and we'll carpool from there. If you have a suggestion for a location, put it out there and I'll make the final call. We just need a place with good food and plenty of TV's to watch the game.

Kind of disappointing, but I'm having to take an unscheduled rest day today due to ambulatory degradation. Hopefully I'll bounce back and give 11.2 a good run tomorrow.

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On the topic of tomorrow, I was planning to attend the post-event festivities, but forgot to sign up last time I was in. I currently have no female supervision, so am at a loss for what to bring. If someone were to tell me what I should bring, I will gladly comply. Otherwise I will likely adopt the default guy position (just bring more beer).

10:58 rx'd
Spent most of my time on the pullups

Need a little advice/help. I have been experiencing really bad headaches during and after the WODs. It first started with Fran a couple months ago. Now its pretty much a given every time I do a WOD. I had to take a break a couple of times this morning because the pain was a a little to intense. That was around 7. It's 1030 and I still have a throbbing headache. I looked this up online and most of the suggested causes are bad diet and dehydration. Im on a strict, 95% paleo diet and I drink water like its going out of style, and no I'm not hyper-hydrating. Strangely enough, running does not cause the headaches. Ive noticed that when I do the Crossfit Warmup, a headache will start around the 5th ring dip on the first set. I really don't want this to effect my training, but this morning it started to. I am open to any and all serious suggestions. Thanks for the help!

I had the same thing happen to me on my first (and only) Fran. Fortunately that was an isolated occurrence in my case. You said you are doing 95% Paleo, but are you proportioning per the Zone? Don't know if that will help, but that is step 1 in controlling inflammation, getting those hormones balanced. Beyond that you might look into high quality fish oil, which is sort of the next step in attacking inflammation. I now take enough fish oil to get at least 4.8 grams of EPA/DHA, and my anectdotal evidence is that I have not had a headache of any kind since I got up to that dose, in workouts or otherwise. I never had issues with chronic migranes or anything, just garden variety headaches on occasions, so that might not be terribly applicable to you. DHA is especially important to the chemistry of the brain I believe, so it might be worth looking into.

@ Dave, Thanks for the help, I take about 7.5 grams of EPA/DHA a day and am very strict about my zone proportioning. So I'm not sure that is the issue.

Yep, I'd have to agree, and unfortunately I'm all out of suggestions. Hope you find a resolution soon. I remember that Fran headache and it was miserable. The thought of fighting one of those every day in the gym makes me shudder.

You got anything on this Patrick?

BW3 is not a bad place. Not sure how much seating they have, though.

11.2

9+9

I have had a three bouts of headaches, twice in my time during crossfit and once about 5 years ago when I went to a regular gym. I believe mine were due to something being strained at the base of my skull. I could always feel the headaches coming on, and could slow down or stop to keep them at bay. I don't remember them lasting very long either. Your symptoms seem a little different than mine, but if you search for "exertional headache" or "weightlifter's headache" you should find some information. I went to the doctor last time it happened and ended up getting an MRI. After 2-3 weeks, mine completely went away.

Some headaches can come from serious exhertion. The type Justin had and I have also had are terrible. I felt like someone was stabbing me in the base of my skull every time I would exert effort, an found out it was actually muscles in my middle back, traps, and shoulder blades. One horrific deep tissue massage later I was good to go. Take care of your body!

@ Russell and Justin, I looked up the exertional headache thing and it seems to match the discription pretty well. I will schedule a deep tissue with Madison School of Massage and also go to a Chiropractor. Any rec. on a Chiropractor in Huntsville?

I meant to say TRAPS not lats. Basically the meaty part right on top of the shoulder by the neck. It was so tight it was creating pains in my head and neck. I had one massage focused in on the head and neck and it did nothing. Then I got the one where she dug into those muscles down-stream and the pain told me everything. Completely better since.

11:18 scaled

15:58 rx'd
ring dips held me up today for sure, everything else wasn't that bad. I spent more time looking at rings than i did on them

PERFECT side dish!

Sorry Guys...
I've been either working or sleeping for the last couple weeks. That's the way it goes... I took some time off for Spring Break, so I'm cramming all my March shifts into 3 weeks instead of 4. Don't know if I'll even get to do the 11.2 WOD unless I do the video thing.

Anyway...

Michael K description is an excellent clinical presentation of "exertional headache" the classic, old school treatment is Indocin 75mg taken 2 hrs before exercise, but now that Naproxen is available OTC I'd imagine most folks use that instead. The dose is 500mg, again taken a couple hours before exertion. Failing that... the older migraine "ergot" drugs are the mainstay of prophylaxis treatment or you can try beta-blockers but most athletes won't tolerate the crappy performance of not being able to raise their heart rate. No one really knows the cause but the hypothesis is anything from changes in intracranial pressure to dilation of blood vessels in the skull or brain. Same things we used to think caused migraines before advances in neurochemistry found a better explanation. This isn't a terribly uncommon headache syndrome and in most folks easily treated by having them avoid the precipitation cause. In other words... stop that silly CrossFit crap.
But... seeing how you probably don't want to do that... I'd try the Naprosyn.