Thread: Seated behind-the-neck barbell press--good or bad

Bad news IMO. I stear clear of behind the neck presses due to RC strain.

you'll hear yes's and no's, if your inflexible in your subscapularis you risk tearing/pulling it, also there is the damage you might do to the cervical spine from the impact but thats a weak argument IMO as you can just make sure not to hit your neck hard or anything.

bottom line IMO is that its like any other movement, some people do it their whole lives without problems and keep it as a staple and others don't do it period because in one way or another it doesn't work for them.

i wouldn't suggest doing seated anything actually, maybe once in a while to do something different or work around an injury or something but doing those types of exercises seated is worse on your back (specifically spine) and not as functional.

I think it can be a danergerous exercise.

Unless you are going to be performing an olympic routine with snatches in it I don't see the point to pressing behind the neck.

Skip behind the neck. If you're not careful you could cause injury. Do them in front instead.

Originally Posted by parvenu45

Seated behind-the-neck barbell press. Good or bad? Dangerous movement for the rotator cuff or only if you use too much weight and lower the bar too far?

Gotta use common sense. I do them every so often but, mostly standing. I never let the bar go below my ears when doing behind the neck press.

Peace

I think they are bad, I had some pain from doing them. Never more.

I gave them a shot three weeks ago. Never again! Three hours after I couldn't lift my arm beyond parallel with my shoulder. It's just now feeling better.

When I do them I never go lower than the base of my skull. Actually I have done them the last three Shoulder work outs and had no trouble. My problem is stabalizing the weight, my lower back seems to struggle with it.

thats weird, it must be a thing with peoples flexibility and such, i do them every other week or so and do all my exercises slow and controlled, bring it down to touch something, then all the way back up. enough weight for a 10 rep max, and ive never had pains or problems with it.

if you continue doing them you will most likely end up with shoulder/rotator cuff issues.

i actually did 3 sets of these today...i find that they work quite well. but if your form is bad you will hurt yourself...i dont go down past the bottom of my ears, and never had any problems