Behind neck pulldown

[red996]

I have been told and read this is a bad exercise and can lead to shoulder and neck problems. The program I am starting has this exercise as one of the workouts. Is there any other exercises that has the benefits of this one without the injury that this one has??

 

[gopro]

Done with proper form, not too much weight, and after sufficient warmup, I do not believe this to be the "shoulder killer" it is made out to be. People do it wrong and try to lift the whole weight stack. This is not a "heavy" movement.

That said, you can get almost the same effect by doing pulldowns to the front, while sitting very upright during the contraction, and pulling the bar right to the clavicles.

 

[Arnold]

I see no advantage in going behind the neck.

 

[Scotty the Body]

I use to do behind the neck and never got hurt but because of everyone telling me that it was wrong, I learned to do it to the front, couldn't do as much weight at first but it soon became normal to me.

I'd just learn to do it to the front from the start.

 

[red996]

I do do it from the front. I get a lot better stretch and feel from pulling it to the rear. The workout calls for weight at which you fail at 10 8 12. Just don't think I want to go that heavy. Am I really doing anygood if I can easily do 12 reps of a weight without even getting close to failure? That was why I was wondering if there was an exercise that was as good as behind the neck.

 

[gopro]

Why don't you go to failure on the behind the neck pulldown? Personally, I think BTNPs work an area of the back that no other exercise quite gets too. I get an intense squeeze in the upper middle back thats hard to beat.