Head hurts when doing pull ups

[CommunistWaffle]

I'm currently leaving for the US Marine Corps in 2 weeks and as of 3 days ago I was pulling myself up to do my 5th pullup when I started to feel this pressure build up in the back of my head until it was unbelievably painful and I had to let go. I can usually do about 13 deadhang pullups. It was a pounding sharp pain that hurt everytime my heart beat, and it went away after like 10 minutes. I did pullups after and it hurt again. The day after the same thing happened and the hurt lasted throughout the day but only as a very minor headache type of pain in the back and went away the next morning. Now today AGAIN the same thing happened and this time I feel it worse but it's still minor and like 6 hours after I did the pullups. What's going on? I looked it up online when it first happened and said it could be because of not breathing right which makes somewhat sense. I would inhale/exhale on every 3rd or so pullup. I tried inhaling/exhaling on every pullup today and it still happened. Does anybody think it could be a pulled muscle or something? I'm really worried and am going to try not doing pullups for about a week and see what that does..

[dade652003]

Pull-ups alone wont give you such a headache, possible high blood pressure...did you take any preworkout? also were you going to fast as you went up?

Ask some one to hold your legs and assist in pull-ups, and then try with out help and see if any difference.

[CommunistWaffle]

Pull-ups alone wont give you such a headache, possible high blood pressure...did you take any preworkout? also were you going to fast as you went up?

Ask some one to hold your legs and assist in pull-ups, and then try with out help and see if any difference.

I don't know what preworkout is but the pullups would be like one of the first things i'd do in the day. Dunno about the speed. I'll test both of these things out next time.

[bmontgomery87]

get your bp checked

[CommunistWaffle]

I went to the doctor and they sent some blood and urine samples for analysis. I looked it online and an 'exertion headache' seems to be what matches my symptoms best. My blood pressure today was like 149! I've never had any BP problems ever.. and they gave me some ibuprofen for the pain but it's kind of BS because online it claims they give some specific medicine to treat this which kinds of makes me think i'm not being treated right or something.

Does anyone have any knowledge on 'exertion headaches'?

[dade652003]

I went to the doctor and they sent some blood and urine samples for analysis. I looked it online and an 'exertion headache' seems to be what matches my symptoms best. My blood pressure today was like 149! I've never had any BP problems ever.. and they gave me some ibuprofen for the pain but it's kind of BS because online it claims they give some specific medicine to treat this which kinds of makes me think i'm not being treated right or something.

Does anyone have any knowledge on 'exertion headaches'?

wow 149 systolic, whats your diastolic? 149 is pretty high dude

[CommunistWaffle]

wow 149 systolic, whats your diastolic? 149 is pretty high dude

So i ended up taking a week break from working out and my head problem was gone. I have been able to do pushups and pullups just fine! But today I felt a small headache and thought it was just that but just to make sure I started doing pullups.. when nothing happened I tried pushups and the headpain came back, ****!

I went back to the clinic today and my systolic was 143 and diastolic about 73.. this ****s worrying me. So no one has any experience on this subject?

[dade652003]

id suggest see cardiologist to run a stress test,

[superdude18]

i am having this exact same problem and oddly enought i am enlisted in the marine corps and i ship october and im freaking out. i can do my usual set of pull ups but i get a huge headache that hurts when my heart beats. the machine at walmart says im prehypertension or stage 1 but i figured since i have huge bicpes it didnt read it right but also at MEPS they said i was as healthy as can be so idk????

I'm currently leaving for the US Marine Corps in 2 weeks and as of 3 days ago I was pulling myself up to do my 5th pullup when I started to feel this pressure build up in the back of my head until it was unbelievably painful and I had to let go. I can usually do about 13 deadhang pullups. It was a pounding sharp pain that hurt everytime my heart beat, and it went away after like 10 minutes. I did pullups after and it hurt again. The day after the same thing happened and the hurt lasted throughout the day but only as a very minor headache type of pain in the back and went away the next morning. Now today AGAIN the same thing happened and this time I feel it worse but it's still minor and like 6 hours after I did the pullups. What's going on? I looked it up online when it first happened and said it could be because of not breathing right which makes somewhat sense. I would inhale/exhale on every 3rd or so pullup. I tried inhaling/exhaling on every pullup today and it still happened. Does anybody think it could be a pulled muscle or something? I'm really worried and am going to try not doing pullups for about a week and see what that does..

[cornbread112]

I'm currently leaving for the US Marine Corps in 2 weeks and as of 3 days ago I was pulling myself up to do my 5th pullup when I started to feel this pressure build up in the back of my head until it was unbelievably painful and I had to let go. I can usually do about 13 deadhang pullups. It was a pounding sharp pain that hurt everytime my heart beat, and it went away after like 10 minutes. I did pullups after and it hurt again. The day after the same thing happened and the hurt lasted throughout the day but only as a very minor headache type of pain in the back and went away the next morning. Now today AGAIN the same thing happened and this time I feel it worse but it's still minor and like 6 hours after I did the pullups. What's going on? I looked it up online when it first happened and said it could be because of not breathing right which makes somewhat sense. I would inhale/exhale on every 3rd or so pullup. I tried inhaling/exhaling on every pullup today and it still happened. Does anybody think it could be a pulled muscle or something? I'm really worried and am going to try not doing pullups for about a week and see what that does..

hey man i went throught the EXACT same thing my freshman year in college. i started getting some nasty head pains from pullups (i swear its weird how similar this). it felt like a vein in the top of my head was about to explode. i ignored it and two days later i decided to train arms. second set of curls i stopped mid-set sat down in the middle of the gym, grabbed my head, and honestly thought i was about to die or something. never felt such an intense pain in my life. turns out it was a "weightlifter's migraine" or something. i ended up going to a hospital, getting a CAT scan, and going through a bunch of ****. it was nothing serious and years later i have never had that problem again. basically take a week off, then the next week go easy. work on proper breathing technique and make sure you dont strain too intensley during exercise by holding your breathe. hope this helps

[superdude18]

God bless you dude!! thats exaclty what i wanted to hear... thanks so much seriously! i had that exact experience except with doing chin ups. i dropped off the bar and i was like damn!! i had huge intense pain everytime my heartbeat and it was like inside the back of my head and somehow somewhere on top of my head and it felt like the veins were going to explode. i grabbed my head and did my best to drive home. it sucked reallllly bad i thought i was going to die.i have been exercising alot lately like everyday so i think im just gonna take of a week or two. i just dont want to miss too much since im leaving for boot camp in october. i know i was breathing right but it still hurt. i think im going to take a break and see if it comes back. thank you though im very glad you posted!

hey man i went throught the EXACT same thing my freshman year in college. i started getting some nasty head pains from pullups (i swear its weird how similar this). it felt like a vein in the top of my head was about to explode. i ignored it and two days later i decided to train arms. second set of curls i stopped mid-set sat down in the middle of the gym, grabbed my head, and honestly thought i was about to die or something. never felt such an intense pain in my life. turns out it was a "weightlifter's migraine" or something. i ended up going to a hospital, getting a CAT scan, and going through a bunch of ****. it was nothing serious and years later i have never had that problem again. basically take a week off, then the next week go easy. work on proper breathing technique and make sure you dont strain too intensley during exercise by holding your breathe. hope this helps

[bmxdixon]

So i ended up taking a week break from working out and my head problem was gone. I have been able to do pushups and pullups just fine! But today I felt a small headache and thought it was just that but just to make sure I started doing pullups.. when nothing happened I tried pushups and the headpain came back, ****!

I went back to the clinic today and my systolic was 143 and diastolic about 73.. this ****s worrying me. So no one has any experience on this subject?

I had the same problem today... but I did 40 pull ups non stop and then the pain hit me.

[gtroskie88]

I've had the EXACT same thing, literally thought my head was going to explode. I couldn't do anything without getting a massive migraine. It felt like someone hit me in the back of my head with a 2 X 4. After loads of research I took a week off and started back very light. Thank God this did the trick and I was able to get back to it.

I think for me, the pain stemmed from something pulled in my neck. I try and stretch my neck before every workout to prevent any future recurrences.

This was probably the worst pain I've ever dealt with.

[lilhelplz]

i think most lifters and athletes have experienced. this pressure in your head that leave a dull head ach
in my. exp.. its been from my breathing pattern hold my breath and not breathout on the correct portion of a movent mostly with heavy leg press
...
reason how I found out it was breathing for me .. when leg pressing during he last few reps of my second set when I'm struggling the most my id hold my breath without really knowing it to push out the last few reps and the head pain came.... after saint about 2 -3 mind for it to calm down I continued. to my next set as I got to my last 3 reps when the weight feels the heaviest. I started feeling it but this time I started to breathout as I pushed the weight with you obviously. its when ur pullingup you feel I think if you make a point to remember to breathout on you excertion point of the movement "pullingup" and especialy during you last few reps .....but before all this take a weekoff to rest

[stinkypinky94]

Might as well add my 2 cents worth.
Same thing happened to me today on Pullups. Got to about my 8th rep and then got a splitting pain at the base of my neck/skull which turned into a dull throbbing headache.
But i literally collapsed to my knees when it hit, and my mate came running over to check if i was fine and all - i still managed to finish my workout but a dull ache has been there since.
I think it was probably bought on because i overdosed on pre workout and wasnt using proper breathing techniques. Still scared the **** out of me though.

[ryanmasters14]

Might as well add to the list. Was doing pullups and boom started in the neck went straight in my brain...It tooks like 3 seconds to start this hell.
Wtf...Anyways..after crying for a bit with my hands on my head. I checked my pulse to see if I was still alive. I have had a dull headache all day that randomly turns into a head opener headache. So with my head inside out I have absolutely zero way to get comfortable. This is very painful!!
I suppose whatever demon pulled my soul out of my neck while I was doing pullups is very happy right now.
I can't see any way to predict this. I feel I was doing everything right. Obviously not. Thank god for your posts and the internet or I am sure I would be wasting some poor ER nurses time right now.
Thanks fellas!

[LegitimateBacon]

I too had these "tension headaches" right at the base of my skull where the spine connects. I had them for about a week, then they just went away. I don't strain myself as much during workouts anymore, I go till I can't do a good rep and I don't force it. I hit the assisted machine until my arms and back are dead, but I never over exert myself. Mind now, I take prewormout that has a lot of caffeine in it, that raises blood pressure. I started to,cut my preworkout in half at the same time as well.

[obnoxious88]

I'm currently leaving for the US Marine Corps in 2 weeks and as of 3 days ago I was pulling myself up to do my 5th pullup when I started to feel this pressure build up in the back of my head until it was unbelievably painful and I had to let go. I can usually do about 13 deadhang pullups. It was a pounding sharp pain that hurt everytime my heart beat, and it went away after like 10 minutes. I did pullups after and it hurt again. The day after the same thing happened and the hurt lasted throughout the day but only as a very minor headache type of pain in the back and went away the next morning. Now today AGAIN the same thing happened and this time I feel it worse but it's still minor and like 6 hours after I did the pullups. What's going on? I looked it up online when it first happened and said it could be because of not breathing right which makes somewhat sense. I would inhale/exhale on every 3rd or so pullup. I tried inhaling/exhaling on every pullup today and it still happened. Does anybody think it could be a pulled muscle or something? I'm really worried and am going to try not doing pullups for about a week and see what that does..

May seem silly, but how about "motion sickness"? I get dizzy doing situps, slight headache (I'm in the army, so situps are mandatory). I don't get it while driving, flying, running, just situps, it's weird, but maybe it's because of your exertion combined with pullups causing the headache. Could be nothing, could be something, anyways, just my 2 cents.