Stuff that is Good: Push Press Behind the Neck

...or whatever you want to call it - it's dope as fuck. I mean they're good enough for Mariusz and clearly he knows what the fuck is up.

This exercise is a great adjunct to benching, especially if benching is causing:

• Caveman or computer posture i.e. slumped, rounded or forward set shoulders.
• Pain radiating down the arms.
• Pain in the front of the shoulder.
• Really any benching related malady other than sore wrists.

The reason being that while benching tends to tighten the muscles on the front of the thorax and thus reciprocally inhibit the muscles opposite to them. Push press behind the neck (PPBN), when done properly (we'll go over that in a minute), causes intense contractions of the posterior shoulder girdle and thus reciprocally inhibits the tight frontal muscles. So you could think of it as being kind of like a 'bench remedy'.

Further, because we're doing a push we are removing the "danger zone" at the bottom of the lift that seems to irritate some people's shoulders. Obviously a good thing if you have high mileage shoulders or hooked acromion processes. This exercise is also sweet because one does not require a spotter, use bumpers and just bail if things get hairy.

Another advantage to the push is that you'll be able to handle more weight. This is always good, people rail on about how you need to use control, feel the mind/muscle connection blah, blah, blah. Arnold used swing curls (275lbs.) to build his seriously freaky biceps, same with Magnus Samuelson (315lbs.). Guess what: muscles get bigger and stronger in response to heavy loads. My god this is clearly rocket science.

Magnus

Arnold

How to do:

1. Copy Mariusz in the video.
2. Squinch (technical term) your mother loving shoulder blades together and push them down while pressing. This forms what I call the "virtual pelvis" and is the true magic of this exercise.
3. Keep abs tight as fuck, otherwise you'll be weak and shitty and hurt your lower back.

If you bench: do these. If you don't bench: start benching and do these.

You'd be stupid not to