Exercise Performance
Sit on a stable bench with your back straight and against the support pad. Grasp the bar with a grip that's slightly beyond shoulder width and rest it behind your neck and low on your shoulders. Contract your abdominals and flatten your back as you press the bar up until your
arms are fully extended. Pause, then slowly return the bar to the starting position. Pause at your neck before your next rep. Exhale as you raise the bar and inhale as you lower it.
Exercise Warmup
If you don't perform complementing neck exercises, you'll be especially susceptible to neck pulls during this exercise. Do two sets at 50 percent of your 1 RM on neck exercises, upright rows and behind-the-neck presses as a specific warmup.
Exercise Kinesiological Analysis
The behind-the-neck press places more stress on the traps and middle- and posterior-delt heads than does the military press.
Exercise Do's and Don'ts
» Do wear a lifting belt.
» Do use a spotter.
» Do slowly move the bar in a perpendicular motion from the floor
» Do contract your abs and flatten your lower back to prevent lower-back-compression injuries.
» Don't bounce the bar off your neck.
» Don't perform partial movements; work through the full range of motion.
