I’ve found pullups to be a great upper-body and core exercise, and especially good for counteracting the “hunching” effect of working at the computer. By strengthening your upper back, you can also help prevent or even fix chronic tension headaches.
So, for pullups, I’ve had to learn the hard way how not to do them. For a while, I was getting neck pain and headaches for a couple of days after doing the exercise, and couldn’t figure out why. Finally, with the help of my trainer, I realized I was pulling with my upper trapezius muscles, which connect right into the neck muscles – so I was basically lifting my entire body weight with my neck – and that ain’t good.
The way to fix this is to learn to let go with the neck/upper traps, and learn to pull with the lower traps and lats.
First, to let go of the neck/upper traps, I gently touch the sides of my neck and get the muscles to relax. Eventually, I got sensitive to what this felt like, versus what tension/contraction felt like. Now, the trick is to keep that relaxed feeling in the neck when doing pullups.
Second, I had to learn how to engage the proper pullup muscles – the lower traps and lats. There are a few ways to do this:
- while standing, put your hands (palms down) on a countertop and push gently down. You’ll feel these muscles engage in your mid-back. This is the contraction you want when doing pullups.
- learn to contract your “armpit muscles” – go ahead, try to contract your armpit area and you’ll feel a strong connection between your shoulders and torso. This is good.
- actively pull your shoulders down into your upper back
- when doing your pullups, visualize pulling your elbows down to your waist – this really helps
- if you start to get neck pain or a headache while doing pullups – stop – for me this means my main pulling muscles are fatigued and the neck/upper trap muscles are trying to take over.
- Finally, if the pain is severe or does not go away – contact your doctor immediately
If you have a mild sore neck or headache in the days following your pullup sessions I recommend you try the neck stretches in Pavel’s Relax into Stretch, they really help for stress/tension headaches too!
And always check with your healthcare pro before starting a new exercise program.
I’ve found pullups to be a great upper-body and core exercise, and especially good for counteracting the “hunching” effect of working at the computer. By strengthening your upper back, you can also help prevent or even fix chronic tension headaches.
So, for pullups, I’ve had to learn the hard way how not to do them. For a while, I was getting neck pain and headaches for a couple of days after doing the exercise, and couldn’t figure out why. Finally, with the help of my trainer, I realized I was pulling with my upper trapezius muscles, which connect right into the neck muscles – so I was basically lifting my entire body weight with my neck – and that ain’t good.
The way to fix this is to learn to let go with the neck/upper traps, and learn to pull with the lower traps and lats.
First, to let go of the neck/upper traps, I gently touch the sides of my neck and get the muscles to relax. Eventually, I got sensitive to what this felt like, versus what tension/contraction felt like. Now, the trick is to keep that relaxed feeling in the neck when doing pullups.
Second, I had to learn how to engage the proper pullup muscles – the lower traps and lats. There are a few ways to do this:
If you have a mild sore neck or headache in the days following your pullup sessions I recommend you try the neck stretches in Pavel’s Relax into Stretch, they really help for stress/tension headaches too!
And always check with your healthcare pro before starting a new exercise program.