I need a question about military press.please read

**rangerdudeleads** · 12-06-2002, 08:56 PM

Hey I always do military press behind the neck and I come down to bottom of neck and come back up but one of my bros said thats a incorrect way and he said im suppose to come down till my arms is parallel and come back up. I tried that but it dont feel like it is effective so I thought i would ask you guys and gals to see what you guys thought.

**Warrior** · 12-06-2002, 09:09 PM

Yeah... if you go to deep you recruit the Triceps more and put excess strain on the rotator cuff. You should not do them behind your neck either... do them to the front. Or you may end up with some real shoulder pain down the line.

**rangerdudeleads** · 12-06-2002, 10:41 PM

Hmmm I guess I go deep cause i had a baseball coach show me that a while back but oh well.

**Jack87** · 12-06-2002, 11:27 PM

Originally posted by rangerdudeleads
Hmmm I guess I go deep cause i had a baseball coach show me that a while back but oh well.

That coach has probably wrecked many a rotator cuff by giving that advice... Behind the neck presses were my main delt exercise for about 2 years until the rotator cuffs had enough and sidelined me for a few months...

I loved the exercise better then front presses, but they can very easily injury you...

**rangerdudeleads** · 12-07-2002, 09:48 AM

Ok its ok to do behind the neck but dont go past the parallel point right? I tried the one where you go parallel and come up and it didnt seem like it worked the delt as the set i did where i went all the way down but I trust ya and will do it the safe way.

**Warrior** · 12-07-2002, 02:38 PM

Originally posted by rangerdudeleads
Ok its ok to do behind the neck but dont go past the parallel point right? I tried the one where you go parallel and come up and it didnt seem like it worked the delt as the set i did where i went all the way down but I trust ya and will do it the safe way.

No it's not. But I am with Buff87 on it being so damn tempting... but like he said it is a one way ticket to injury. And shoulder pain is not just in the gym - it follows you everytime you reach for something - it simply sucks... most new athletes will not notice it in the first few years of training... but once the load increases to a point and you keep doing them - WATCH OUT!

Any exercise where you push the load above your head can put a strain on your rotator cuff and cause tearing it it's tendons. And really are not as effective as some other movements for shoulders... they are a very compound movement that will work a lot of muscles to get the bar up. If you want to do Military Presses, do them in front and don't drop too far below paralell.

Doing rolling shrugs will f' up the rotator's too.

Your best alternatives are Dumbell Presses (front Delts) and Side Laterals. Also reverse flyes (or Bent Laterals) for the rear Delts.

**rangerdudeleads** · 12-08-2002, 09:39 PM

Ok you guys helped me out so I will do them in the front then. Hey will dumbell presses make the delts grow as fast as the militarys? Im putting on a lot of mass doing the militarys , I was also doing dumbell presses over head to give the delts a more defined look.

**Warrior** · 12-08-2002, 10:08 PM

Seated Front Dumbell Presses are safer than Barbell and more effective at targeting the Anterior Deltoids. So... in a word: yes.

**Jack87** · 12-08-2002, 10:14 PM

To add to what WARRIOR has all ready told you... Dumbbell Presses always leave me more sore the day after training delts and to me this means I involved more muscle fibers... I can lift heavier with barbell presses to the front, but the dumbbells better isolate the delts and thus gives better results...

I alternate between the two, just for egos sake I have to go with the barbell every other workout or so, but dumbbell presses are a great exercise to add mass...

**Aguro** · 12-10-2002, 09:46 PM

I started that and like it alot, what do you think?

Barbell shoulder front press (down to the chin) 4x6-8 1x8-10 70% charge
Dumbell shoulder press 4x6-8 1x8-10 70% charge
Seated side lateral 4x8-10
Laying face down inclined front raise 4x8-10

**SwoleDiesel662** · 02-13-2003, 10:24 PM

IMO, shoulder presses (front) are irreplaceable.

**durbin22** · 02-14-2003, 09:11 AM

I have been doing barbell behind the neck presses for a while. I have been going parallel a did see good results in the past. Lately I have not seen much so I am switching to dumbells.

**symatech** · 02-14-2003, 09:19 AM

I am more comfortable doing them behind my neck but stopped months ago because of the potential shoulder injury. Now i use dumbells.

for me it was always harder to do shoulder press in the front. For some reason it always put strain on my back. bad form? too heavy? i dunno, i could lift the weight and i felt it in my delts but my back just started hurting to I changed to dumbells.

***BIG TEXAN*** · 02-14-2003, 10:32 AM

Originally posted by buff87
To add to what WARRIOR has all ready told you... Dumbbell Presses always leave me more sore the day after training delts and to me this means I involved more muscle fibers... I can lift heavier with barbell presses to the front, but the dumbbells better isolate the delts and thus gives better results...

I alternate between the two, just for egos sake I have to go with the barbell every other workout or so, but dumbbell presses are a great exercise to add mass...

You took the words right outta my mouth bro!!!That's exactly what I do.LOL

**DeFiNeDMasS** · 02-14-2003, 11:13 AM

ive always heard for behind the back go no further than your ear and for front no further than your chin.

**yellows2k** · 02-14-2003, 11:18 AM

I don't see the reason to go behind your neck....I can do more weight behind the neck but I don't do it, all it does is increase the chance of injuring your rotator cuffs....

Why go behind your neck when going in front works just as effective?

***BIG TEXAN*** · 02-14-2003, 11:26 AM

Originally posted by DeFiNeDMasS
ive always heard for behind the back go no further than your ear and for front no further than your chin.

That's the basic rule of thumb. But like everyone here has already stated, behind the neck just greatly raises risk of injury.

**BAOC** · 02-14-2003, 08:29 PM

I started that and like it alot, what do you think?

Barbell shoulder front press (down to the chin) 4x6-8 1x8-10 70% charge
Dumbell shoulder press 4x6-8 1x8-10 70% charge
Seated side lateral 4x8-10
Laying face down inclined front raise 4x8-10

That is WAY too much work for the front delts. You want to balance everything out so injury does not occur in the future. Trust me, I just started training 4 weeks ago after almost a year of NO training. And just like WARRIOR stated, I felt it ALL the time, it was a constant reminder of how I was never going to mess this up again. I was pissed 24/7, and what could I do? I couldn't work out or I would mess it up worse than it was already. I had trouble sleeping, sitting, you name it. If you are obsessed with lifting like I am, it is hell on earth. I don't wish that on anyone that lifts weights. Be extremely careful with your shoulders fellas.

**BAOC** · 02-14-2003, 08:35 PM

I apologize, that quote was originally posted by Aguro. I'm a moron on the computer, you wouldn't believe how long it took me just to figure out how to quote. Its amazing that I found this site at all.