[quote]forlife wrote:
Thanks for the feedback. I believe the neck degeneration is disc related; my chiropractor said he’s seen it with other bodybuilders, where the neck/spinal column compresses as a protective mechanism from the force being exerted on it. I don’t believe I have any problems with thoracic mobility. There’s no pain unless I try to turn my neck too far to the right or left, just a lot of stiffness.
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I’m always a bit suspicious when people use putatives like ‘believe’ in assessing and improving certain conditions. 
Get a correct diagnosis.
[quote]forlife wrote:
I try to maintain a neutral neck alignment, but what I find is that any real weight still exerts pressure on my neck, no matter how hard I try to only use my delts for the movement.
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You can’t the a complete OH press delts-only. The traps will always come into play, somehow. As will your levatores scapulae. And some of those muscles attach to the neck.
Have you tried 2. from my previous post?
[quote]forlife wrote:
Out of curiosity, why did you decide not to do overhead presses? What exercises are you doing instead? [/quote]
Damaged sterno-clavicular joint. Dito ac-joint.
I’ve built my delts and traps mainly using the BTN press. I got a decent shoulder girdle from that.
After a few forced lay-offs and not being able to do any serious OH pressing for quite some time and doing a few radical diets, it’s no wonder I had lost deltoid size.
Got that in check by doing ISOs, whereas lateral raise variations (machine, standing, seated, standing and leaning away etc.) play a big role. Also a combination of lateral and front raises. And lots of upper back work. My shoulders are just growing off this.
By the by: the stuff I’ve outlined uses high volume and medium to heavy weights, but not super-heavy resistance. Super sets, 8x8 and stuff like that. I’m using that for my delts.
Intensity is the key, here.
Actually, I’ve never had a muscle group react so kindly to this approach. The amount of blood resulting from this pump might even have helped the healing process, there (I’m getting prolotherapy).
[quote]overstand wrote:
Try dumbbells instead? I don’t see how you can hurt your neck with seated db shoulder press. [/quote]
DBs are usually better for shoulder health, but the aforementioned contraindications (trap involvement) still apply, here.