Migraine Headaches Support Group

Migraine is a neurological disease, of which the most common symptom is an intense and disabling episodic headache. Migraine headaches are usually characterized by severe pain on one or both sides of the head and are often accompanied by photophobia (hypersensitivity to light), phonophobia (hypersensitivity to sound) and nausea.

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Brain & Nervous System
/ Migraine Headaches Support Group

Exercise during a migraine

Bobby5000
Bobby5000
Conventional wisdom is that you rest when you feel bad. From my perspective, that usually does not help, It feels like lying down on a knife.

The last thing you feel like doing is exercise, but I find it helps. Lifting weights feels like disbursing the pain, and basketball or aerobic exercise also helps. Again, to get yourself motivated when you feel like garbage is not easy, but I find it helps. Likewise, making a real commitment to good food, regular sleep, getting yourself in shape helps.
deleted_user
deleted_user
Excellent advice. On migraine days, I have often gone off on a bike ride. I do think that this helps. At least, it is not giving in. On all days, I do at least 35 minutes of bike riding. No migraines for 2 weeks now. Relief. I also eat the CLEAN diet, but I am drinking white wine. I don't think that is a trigger for me, and I am deeply hopeing that it is not. Exercise increases the good chemicals in the brain, so must be helpful.
Enigma609
Enigma609
I used to be very aerobic in my younger days and would not miss a date, regardless of how I felt. I would go, migraine or not. I found the only difference was that with a migraine, I couldn't run in the sun without a hat, and I could not beat any records on those days. If I was doing aerobics, I wouldn't do anything whereby my head was upsidedown. In short, it was a lighter excersise, but still able to do so.

I don't excersize like that anymore, but today, I don't let a migraine stop me from digging in the garden or hauling out trees if that is what I want to do that day.

Sometimes there is payback later in the day, but I don't look at it that way. I see it as.......I'm in pain on the couch, I might as be in pain outside in the garden doing what I love.

Angela