Behind the neck military press, bad idea?

[hurricane7]

So for shoulders I've been doing front and rear military presses. Is this too much or will they hit different sides of my shoulders?

[Ellimist]

I'm taking a Weight Lifting class now, and the first thing my teacher (Bodybuilder) told us was to never go behind your head on exercises.

There's a space between your shoulder that can be seriously hurt doing this (he used far more techinical terms that I really can't remember).

I went behind my head for about 2 weeks, and spent the next 4 with shoulder problems.

Cliffs:
-Not a good idea.

[jf1]

for me, doing behind the neck (BTN) presses, hit aproximately the same muscles as a military press...i prefer doing BTN as they help keep my posture alligned straight up and down.
not going too far down and not using too much weight will help prevent injury; if you feel pain, dont do them.

not necessary to do both in the same workout.

[hurricane7]

yea, I think I'll try another shoulder exercise. I just switched my routine for my shoulders and put in military press with the barbell instead of dumbell's. Thanks for the advise.

[adam.neubauer]

I use dumb bells for the following reason:

Almost every single exercise should be done with your neck (head) in line with the rest of your spine.

When use dumb bells I imagine that the dumb bells are one solid bar and lower them to where the imaginary bar is through my ears. I just feel most comfortable that way.

[V.H.9.8.4.]

BTN military presses cause injury

-VH

/thread

[spider28]

BTN presses put to much presure on the small muscles in the rotator cuff(hundreds of small little muscles) you tear 1 of these muscles and you will have problems, they are not exceptionaly sore unless you tear the whole rotator cuff but they take a long time to heal

[Meni]

Arnold Press is gold

[mAssholio]

in before diamonddelts

[Epilerik]

What about behind the neck pulldowns/pull ups?

[J.L.C.]

BTN military presses cause injury

-VH

/thread

How do you come to that conclusion??

BTN presses put to much presure on the small muscles in the rotator cuff(hundreds of small little muscles) you tear 1 of these muscles and you will have problems, they are not exceptionaly sore unless you tear the whole rotator cuff but they take a long time to heal

Hundreds of muscles make up the RC??? There's goes your credibility

Arnold Press is gold

This is related how?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

BTN presses are a great lift - if you have the flexibility for them. As long as you can keep your spine aligned and perform the lift in a controlled way, they're great.

BTN jerks are also great, you can more directly transfer the force to the bar - straight up!

[tommytom]

behind the neck is fine. the problem is there are to many heroes out there going way too heavy, and too low.
what else does your teacher warn you against?

[brad71983]

behind the neck is fine. the problem is there are to many heroes out there going way too heavy, and too low.
what else does your teacher warn you against?

squats are bad for your knees

[J.L.C.]

squats are bad for your knees

Not if you do them with kettlebells

[brad71983]

Not if you do them with kettlebells

i just negged myself because you are so right

[I dont work at Ballys]

BTN presses are a great lift - if you have the flexibility for them.

i hate when people do this...but i just have to.

/thread

[mAssholio]

i hate when people do this...but i just have to.

/thread

\thread

yeah what JLC said

/thread

[boxtrot]

Dumbell press hammer grip causes more pain to my shoulder than BTN military. I do BTN because it helps me keep stricter form for hitting my side delt more than anything.

I used to touch the bar on my neck and had no real discomfort, but now i feel there's no point to it and i can get a better shoulder workout by going a few inches up. My strength is going up really well with this excercise too i love it.

[DJAuto]

BTN military presses cause injury

-VH

/thread

Too general of a statement.

If you can do it with a pain free ROM, do it.

[irishrunt]

This is one of those topics that will be debated until the end of time, similar to whether Barbell or Dumbbell Bench Press is better. Many people say BTN Shoulder Press causes shoulder injury while others say that it is fine to do. If you can do the exercise without any pain or injuries, then you might give this exercise a try but (and this is only my opinion) I would try doing Front Military Presses and Dumbbell Shoulder Press before doing BTN Shoulder Press. Just my $.02

[KhoraskGTR]

So for shoulders I've been doing front and rear military presses. Is this too much or will they hit different sides of my shoulders?

When i started training 5-6 years ago i used to love them... now two years after my shoulder reconstruction (after I tore my labrum and posterior deltoid doing them) i can no longer get my left arm in a position where im able to do them :S ... so just from personal experience, id say stay away from them and work with other exercises...
maybe try with dbs instead... I find with dbs when i get in trouble its alot easier to recover, so i dont worry to much when i wana try upping my lifts.

[kronz]

the rotator cuff(hundreds of small little muscles)

No.

Try 4 you idiot.

God I hate when people preach utter bull**** on here.

[genepool]

I am not a fan of them myself, but as long as you limit the ROM to the top of the ears you wont put any undue stress on the rotators. control is a must.

[SOMEPARTS]

For me it depends on the flexibility and balance in the rotator cuff and structure of the shoulder. In the past I've done them but after recent heavy pressing routines my shoulders are less flexible so they can bother me. If I add face pulls and work on rear delts and rotators my tolerance for them improves. Same for lat pulldowns behind the head.

[2 HUGE]

behind the neck military press works amazing for me. never had a problem with it but my form and reps are slow and careful. my behind the neck military press is nearly as much as my front military press (working set weight) lol

[hjayss]

So for shoulders I've been doing front and rear military presses. Is this too much or will they hit different sides of my shoulders?

Good old bradford presses. Love em do em they shouold be a regular part of your shoulder arsenal.

[Stock350i]

I can complete four sets of BTN presses with a well loaded bar and I havent had any problems. I go down to about the bottom of my ears and press back up. Ive gotten great gains from that specific exercise too.

Of course, I didnt start out pressing as much as I do, I started out with just the bar and worked my way up. Isnt that how most exercises are supposed to go?

Call me crazy, but if you got some teacher telling you an exercise is bad for you or causes injury, well no s**t. If you do it unsafe and cant lift that amount of weight, hell yeah you'll get hurt. Build yourself up.

Chuck Norris will tell you. Anyway, enough beating a dead f***ing horse.

Carry on. Carry on.

[Stock350i]

behind the neck military press works amazing for me. never had a problem with it but my form and reps are slow and careful. my behind the neck military press is nearly as much as my front military press (working set weight) lol

Yup. Im right there with you man. Reps

[Mourning Tide]

Just added seated BTN presses to my shoulder workout, works great IMO

[savagery]

I don't do behind-the-neck exercises anymore, but I don't think they are pure evil. Here is some good unbiased info on the risks, along with ways to avoid injury:

http://www.exrx.net/Kinesiology/Infl...#anchor3508557