Question about Dips and neck-aches/headaches/nausea

Torobestia

Torobestia

Well-known member
Awards
2
  • RockStar
  • Established
I've been having some issues doing dips lately that I wanted to throw out there to see if anyone had any ideas. I appreciated your input with my squat question (an issue which hasn't reappeared, strangely enough), so here's this. I do weighted dips with about a 4 second negative, normal concentric, to failure; then I rest 15 seconds, and I repeat this two more times. The last few times I have done dips this way my abs feel supremely sore, and I start getting very nauseous. But the last 2 times I did this, I've also begun getting a pretty intense neck pain that leads to a headache. Am I doing something wrong here?
 
Resolve

Resolve

The BPS Rep
Awards
2
  • RockStar
  • Established
Are you using chains or a dipping belt? Chains around your neck would explain the neck pain... If not, make sure your scapulae are pulled back and your traps shrugged up.

Nausea could be due to the short rest periods and high intensity it sounds like you're employing. Ab soreness with weighted dips is reasonable - you have to stabilize your entire body through the lift, so it's natural that your abs would be working hard.

Can't get much specific than that without you elaborating.
 
Torobestia

Torobestia

Well-known member
Awards
2
  • RockStar
  • Established
Are you using chains or a dipping belt? Chains around your neck would explain the neck pain... If not, make sure your scapulae are pulled back and your traps shrugged up.

Nausea could be due to the short rest periods and high intensity it sounds like you're employing. Ab soreness with weighted dips is reasonable - you have to stabilize your entire body through the lift, so it's natural that your abs would be working hard.

Can't get much specific than that without you elaborating.
Thanks for the reply. I use a belt. Traps, I'm pretty sure they're shrugged, and scapulae I'd also imagine are retracted since I don't feel much in my shoulders from the dips (and shoulders are not my strongest point, might I add). So I'm positive my traps are shrugged, and I imagine (but am not 100%) that my scapulae are retracted.

Yeah, the nausea and ab soreness make sense to me as well, but I just thought I'd mention it in case it related to the neck- and head-aches. I think as I struggle with the weight, I try to push my neck back a bit as opposed to forward, as if I was struggling with a squat. I do this since I used to have a forward-leaning neck/hunched neck, which caused a host of bad problems that have since disappeared more or less since I corrected that posture issue.

Don't know what else I can say.
 
ZiR RED

ZiR RED

Well-known member
Awards
2
  • RockStar
  • Established
Are you breathing normally during the exercise?

Also, tuck your chin such that your cervical spine stays in alignment. A lot of people make the mistake (and in many lifts) of not tucking the chin (i.e.: pulling the cervical spine into alignment vs. hyperextending the CS such as seen when people poke their chins up and/or out). This should help the issue of neck aches.

Br
 
Torobestia

Torobestia

Well-known member
Awards
2
  • RockStar
  • Established
Are you breathing normally during the exercise?

Also, tuck your chin such that your cervical spine stays in alignment. A lot of people make the mistake (and in many lifts) of not tucking the chin (i.e.: pulling the cervical spine into alignment vs. hyperextending the CS such as seen when people poke their chins up and/or out). This should help the issue of neck aches.

Br
That sounds like that might be what's going on, not tucking my chin. The next time I do it I'll remember to do that.
 

Similar threads


Top