Headaches

Today I will be doing the following workout:

With a continuously running clock do one pull-up the first minute, two pull-ups the second minute, three pull-ups the third minute... continuing as long as you are able.

Use as many sets each minute as needed.

which has me a little wary because pull-ups are what brought on some sort of neck injury that caused severe sudden-onset incapacitating headaches. The problem was never really diagnosed. I saw a couple of doctors, got a CT scan, went to a chiropractor. The whle 9-wards. Nothing unusual came up. Too bad it took 5 minutes of searching on the internet to find this:

Exertional Headache

Benign exertional headache has been recognized as a separate entity for more than 60 years. In 1932, Tinel (7) first described severe but transient headaches following exercise. Since then, these headaches have been associated with exercises such as weightlifting (8) and wrestling (9).

Recent studies (8-10) have delineated a clear-cut exertional headache syndrome: Straining or a Valsalva-type maneuver precipitates the acute onset of severe throbbing pain, usually occipital, for a few seconds to a few minutes. The headache then settles to a dull ache lasting 4 to 6 hours. In subsequent weeks to months, the headache recurs with exertion. The patient has no history of migraine and a normal neurologic exam.

In the largest series to date, Rooke (11) followed 103 patients with benign exertional headaches and found that approximately 10% had an organic cause for the pain, usually a skull-base anomaly. Clearly, the major differential diagnosis—subarachnoid hemorrhage—needs to be excluded by appropriate investigation.

Exertional headaches are thought to be vascular, but this is unproven. According to one theory, exertional headache occurs because exertion increases cerebral arterial pressure, causing the pain-sensitive venous sinuses at the base of the brain to dilate. Studies of weight lifters (12) demonstrate that, with maximal lifts, systolic blood pressure may reach levels above 400 mm Hg and diastolic pressures above 300 mm Hg. The throbbing, migrainous nature of these headaches, together with the finding (13) that intravenous dihydroergotamine mesylate can relieve them, supports the supposition that these headaches have a vascular basis.

Treatment strategies include NSAIDs such as indomethacin at a dose of 25 mg three times per day (15). In practice, the headaches tend to recur over weeks to months when the patient performs the provoking activity and then slowly resolve without treatment, although some cases may be lifelong. In the recovery period, a graduated symptom-limited weightlifting program is appropriate.

So, I'm going to have to figure out how I can avoid this. I took about a month of no exercise to heal up last time. I don't need that to happen again.

wish me luck.