I know that many strength coaches are bound to disagree w/ one another but i was reading some old Mesomorphosis article at and Staley said that both behind-the-neck presses and Box Squats are rather dangerous. This is a stark contrast to what Poliquin, chek, and king (i think too) say on presses and a denounciation to the core of the WSB group. I encourage everyone to post any comments or clarifications. As a side note, it is granted that Staley may be looking out for the safety of lifters who use bad form (to try to get a max lift as in the BFS system), but i think labeling something dangerous is a big thing.
I know this isn’t really an answer to your question, just some of my thoughts.
First you have to remember that T-Mag is made up of different people. While an article written by one contributor may say one thing another may not share that idea. Just to throw some more disagreements into the pot: Charlie Francis thinks you should stretch after a working out, while King stresses that you should stretch first; Stanley and Siff have both expressed doubts about presribed tempos used by Poliquin and King; Chek says you should suck your abs in while squatting, which just about everyone disputes; there are a few people who say warming up with lower weights not not warm up the muscle properly for max lifting; Simmons doesn’t like creatine because he says it can cause cramps, Francis says he doesn’t like creatine because the water retained by the muscles prevents them from moving over eachother, while King and Poliquin love the stuff; King says there’s no point in training someone for speed if they’re predisposed for it, while Simmons and Tate say it is a necessity; Siff and Chek have had quite a few “wars” over various topics; Poliquin seems to like proclaiming exercises as “the best” and others as worthless, while King takes the stance that there are no exercises that are worthless; those were just off the top of my head, and please forgive me if I misquoted or mis-interpreted anyone. The point is there is no right or wrong philosophy when it comes to training, and to call anyone an idiot because they go against the common belief is a little foolish. You just have to expirement on yourself and find out what works. Just make sure you pay close attention – if something doesn’t feel right your body is trying to tell you something.
As far as box squats go, I have using them for some time with no problems. The key is not slamming your ass down on the box with a ton of weight on the bar, AND, keeping your back in the arched position when squatting. Referencing behind the neck presses; I always had shoulder probs., so I stopped the behind the neck’s several years ago. I did Ian’s Twelve Weeks to Super Strength a while back and had no probs. with my shoulders. The key I think was light weight and slow tempo. I would never us heavy weight in this exercise even though I can.
yes, they are rather dangerous excercises. They predispose you to injury more readily than something like a concentration curl. You have to use better form and use weights you can handle properly with these excercises.