Headaches whilst swimming

[David Hallsworth]

I also posted this to rec.sport.swimming, but I thought you guys might be a
able to help.

Can anyone help me get rid of the headaches I experience during swimming?

These only ever seem to happen on long swims, on my own, inside. Today, for
instance, I got in and started to swim at an easy / steady pace. At the
20min mark - BANG! I get really bad pain behind my eyes and massive
pressure in my head causing dizziness and slight nausea when I got out - I
couldn't swim on. It also seems to happen on sets over 400m, but never when
I swim with the club (about an hour of shorter sets / drills) or when I swim
outside / race. I've tried new goggles (now wearing Zoggs Aquatech).
I wear them as loose as I can get away with. I sometimes wear a cap and
sometimes don't. There doesn't seem to be a correlation.

Some have suggested that it could be to do with looking up when I swim -
interestingly, it never happens on the times I DO look up (i.e. OW or club
swims) and only when I'm ploughing along on my own, thus looking down the
majority of the time.

Background of my swimming:

Swim exclusively crawl
Bilateral breathing every three strokes
Touch turn
Not that fast - about 24min for 1500m in an openwater tri

Any help would be massively appreciated! I really want to swim longer
steady sets and it's really irritating to have to get out just when I'm
settling into my stroke and getting comfortable.

Cheers,
Dave

[rsquared]

Thoughts...

* Do you hold your breath or release it gradually? If you hold your
breath, you could be backing up some pressure.

* Water temp? Could your pool be too warm?

rsquared

[Tamyka Bell]

Pool temp is a big one. And air temp. I get headaches when my ears get
cold. So in winter, an outdoor pool is no good for me, even if it's
heated, because I'll get a cold-ear headache. Also, check goggle
tightness, check if you're breathing out of your mouth or your nose and
try something different.

Tamyka

[IMKen]

Headaches are usually the result of stress. This could be muscle stress
caused by some grimace or other tightening of the face/head/neck muscles.
Concentrate on relaxing the face and neck. Let your head just float off
your shoulders on some nice easy swims.

Ruth, help David.

ken

"David Hallsworth" <david.ha...@spam.com> wrote in message
news:dc4r05$mgs$1...@news.ox.ac.uk...

[Eric]

STRESS... yup,I find myself tensing up my neck and leg muscles (I use a
pool buoy). My neck gets terribly tight and the legs feel like lead when
I get out of the water... I now focus on trying to relax those areas and
do much better.
Maybe chlorine & sinus problems?
Eric