Exercise is an essential part of a healthy lifestyle. It is proven to be beneficial for physical, emotional and mental health. However, if done improperly, you can open yourself up to some adverse effects, including tinnitus. To be clear, it’s rather uncommon to experience tinnitus after working out, but it is possible. So let’s discuss how and why that happens so you can work out smarter and protect your hearing health while doing so.
What Is Tinnitus?
Tinnitus is a common audiological and neurological condition. People who suffer from tinnitus hear “phantom sounds,” or sounds that don’t have an apparent source. Commonly called “ringing in the ears,” tinnitus can sound like ringing, or it can also sound like buzzing, humming or whooshing. This can be frustrating and even debilitating, but it’s very common: roughly 20% of the American adult population—about 50 million people—has experienced tinnitus. There is currently no known cure.
How Does Working Out Cause Tinnitus?
There are a number of ways in which improper exercise habits can lead to tinnitus:
- Straining and overexertion. Overexertion while lifting weights (or doing any other strenuous activity) builds up pressure within the brain, which pushes out to the inner ear, affecting how it collects and transmits sound information to the brain.
- Holding your breath. The effects of cranial and ear pressure will be even worse if you hold your breath while lifting (which you shouldn’t do). That ear pressure can also tear the membrane between the inner ear and the outer ear. This tear is known as a perilymphatic fistula, or PLF. Fluid can leak out through the tear, causing tinnitus or sound sensitivity.
- High-impact aerobics. Rapid, jarring head movements in high-impact exercise regimens can dislodge calcium crystals in our ear (called otoconia). This can lead to myriad inner ear problems, such as tinnitus.
- Clenching your jaw. Disorders of the hinge-like joint that connects your jaw to your cranium are known to cause tinnitus. Overexerting this joint by clenching your teeth or jaw while doing strenuous exercise can cause damage to the joint, and thus to the inner ear.
- Smashing weights. Loud noises are one of the most common causes of tinnitus. Smashing weights to the ground can be as loud as a shotgun blast, causing instant, permanent damage to the inner ear and leaving you with a phantom ringing sound.
- Loud music. Keep volume levels low, especially if you’re wearing headphones and projecting loud music directly into your ear. (And remember: this advice doesn’t just go for the gym!)
As stated above, developing tinnitus from working out is not particularly common. However, if you already suffer from tinnitus, you may discover that your tinnitus gets louder or changes pitch after a workout, due to the reasons above.
Is Tinnitus Permanent?
If you developed tinnitus while exercising, in all likelihood, it won’t be permanent. How long it will last will vary, but it should go away in a few days or weeks. If your tinnitus persists or gets louder, call Aaron's Hearing Aid & Audiology Center to make an appointment and discuss it.