Bench Presses to the Neck?

worked for flex wheeler

I used to do 'em at the end of my workout (or they can be done before inclines as a nice pre-exhaust). NEver went above 185 either (usually 135). Yes, they will make you feel your upper chest like you never knew. Anyone who goes on about how all they need are inclines but never tried this is doing themselves a disservice. Sure the potential for shoulder problems is there, but I’ve had my share just from doing flat, so you have to be as cautious as you would with any other exercise. Try some high reps with the bar, and see how it feels.

S

they are an effective change up stimulating the muscle fibers in an unfamiliar way. you get a great stretch. i think the main reason they aren’t more popular is that you obviously can’t use as much weight as normal. so check your ego at the front desk and give em a shot. they are an excellent finishing exercise or with flye/press pre-exhaust.

[quote] JJ wrote:
I dont see how people are scared of dropping it on the neck… thats like saying skull crushers are dangerous.
[/quote]

Most people don’t do skullcrushers with 300lbs+ loaded onto the bar.

But I agree, it definitely can have it’s place (as with most exercises) to hit the chest another way as long as the weight is reasonable (read:for the person benching) and a smith or a spotter is present.

Ya… i do them with my incline smiths and i like them alot…

I set the pins so that i can go to total failure and it wont kill me!

I hate to be the turd in the punchbowl, but I’ve gotten nothing from these other than sore shoulders.

IF you have the “barrel chest” type upper body structure, and IF you’re careful, these could be productive.

IMO, for most people, I’d rather see them do low-incline, strict dumbell press beginning with a very wide stretch and completing with the bells approx less than a foot apart.
If you guys really wanna live life on the edge, perform them like Larry Scott used to:

very wide grip, bar brought to the throat/clavicles and hands internally rotated such that the bar is resting diagonally across your palms.

My upper/inner chest sucks, and the best thing for ME has been hanging chain pushups and various flyes. YMMV.

I actually would see one huge dude years ago, he’d do benches to his neck on a smith, BUT, he’d do them as 1 1/2 reps (TC wrote about this a long while back). This way he really stressed the pec part of the ROM moreso than the shoulder/tricep lockout portion.

S

Yes, I do them.
I use them @ the begining of my training year.
Primarily during my GPP.
Periodizing them over 2-3 months, from high reps, to less reps.
Be careful with these. Hard on shoulders and if bar is loaded to high = DANGEROUS!!!

Be smart, use less weight initially and slowly progress from there.

But after a couple months or when progress seizes bring the bar down to mid chest for more power.

Make sure you have healthy ROM in your shoulders and chest prior to even tackling these.

You’ll like them. Especially is you use a ultra wide grip!

Out of curiosity i did these at the end of my workout for the first time today. On the positive side, even with nearly just half the weight i normally bench with i felt a tremondous stretch in my chest and looked pretty pumped up afterwards. On the negative side, not in a million gazillion years would i ever go even remotely heavy or anywhear near failure on this exercise. As someone with a previous shoulder injury, i could easily see how my shoulders could end up getting fucked up with this. With that being said, im going to continue to use it cautiously and with light weight (in the 12-15 rep range)as my upper chest has been a weak point.

They scare me. I train alone so I would never consider them.

Actually, thinking about it “normal” bench presses scare me, so you can forget about them to the neck.

[quote]CantStop wrote:
They scare me. I train alone so I would never consider them.

Actually, thinking about it “normal” bench presses scare me, so you can forget about them to the neck.[/quote]

Thinking about it even more, I think there would be a great thread called “Training that scares me”