Let today be the day we both get back on track.
Tomorrow.
What the heck is going on?!
Back/chest
inspirational
You’ve undoubtedly seen bodybuilders and strongmen performing two very common ‘behind the neck’ exercises – the lat pull-down and seated military barbell press. And if you walk into any gym you’ll immediately find people who still use these old school exercises. But in recent years these same movements have come under fire with some saying that they’re bad for your shoulders and can cause serious damage.So is it true? Are these types of exercises dangerous?The short answer is yes they certainly are. But there needs to be some clarification as to what exactly “dangerous to your shoulder” means. Most people don’t realize that the reference to injury isn’t to the shapely shoulder muscles that we see on the outside of the shoulder joint, but to the much more delicate and intricate internal shoulder stabilizers called the rotator cuff.The rotator cuff, as the name implies is a series of 4 small, intricate muscles that in simple terms stabilize and are involved in rotation within the shoulder joint. The problem with behind the neck exercises is that they involve pushing your shoulders’ external rotation to the limit. Essentially you’re placing your shoulder in a terrible position from which to push or pull, with impinged stability, placing serious strain on the cuff. Plain and simple – it’s just a bad spot for your shoulder to be in. In addition, even if you don’t suffer an injury you run the risk of over-stretching parts of the cuff, which can lead to a potential injury elsewhere in your routine.The other issue is that frankly I’m not quite sure why anyone performs these movements to begin with. Performing a lat pull down or shoulder press to the top of the chest feels so much better and mechanically targets the muscles more effectively… and naturally I may add. Have you ever been under a bar and tried to press it behind your head? Or pull it down? It feels awkward and I never liked the movement, even in my earlier training days. Yet still some magazines and trainers will push these movements as must haves and mass builders. I say no way!You know that I’m a firm believer in using your body in ways that help increase your functionality in real life. So can someone please tell me when you’d need to pull an object down behind your neck? Or press it over your head? You’d never do that in real life – you’d simply push the object straight up over your head such as when you place luggage in overhead bins. So in addition to this movement being potentially injurious, it offers no real functional benefit.In summary – when it comes to ‘behind the neck’ movements being dangerous I have to say total FACT! Avoid them everyone!
TL / DR / GFY
