Neck Work for Pressing

by Atomic Athletic on Friday, August 26, 2011 at 5:14pm

“How much do you press?”

That used to be the big question, indicating the measure of your strength to the common man.  Today, that question has been muddied up with the bench press taking center stage.  But this fact remains, improving your standing press, will also improve your bench press.  That's a pretty cool fact.

I spoke at the most recent Ohio State University NSCA Clinic.  It was some great exposure, but there was an added benefit.  I was able to see the other speakers for free!  Many people forget that while I do this strength stuff professionally, I would be going to many of the same events anyway, just for fun.

One of the most enlightening speakers has actually been a customer of mine since the very first year we opened, that is Mike Gittleson, the former Strength Coach at the University of Michigan.  Mike spoke about neck training.  His primary focus, as you might guess, was on neck training for football players.  However, he really spurred some added interest for me because of some lifting event benefits he has found from neck training.

Gittleson has found some amazing benefits to a lifter's standing press, when one starts taking neck training seriously.  Obviously, neck work is going to help in cleaning a barbell to the shoulders.  Yet, one might think that the neck has little or nothing to do with a strict standing press out of a rack.  In fact, the trapezius, sternocleidomastoid and splenius all play a roll in pressing, particularly in the lock out phase.  Today, most people don't complete a press like the old Olympic weightlifters did, but if you look from behind at how a modern Olympic weightlifter locks out a jerk, it will become clear.  The shoulders and scapula are actually brought together to complete the lockout.

In addition to the direct use of neck muscles in pressing, there are many indirect benefits.  Today, it is common to talk about small supporting muscles that benefit from free weight exercises.  I would like to reverse that and talk about training the small supporting muscles in order to shore up the big big ones.  There are a huge number of actual muscles, ligaments and tendons in the neck.  With so many smaller muscles, you can actually do some neck specific training every workout without overtraining any specific muscle.

I have found, with the exception of wrestlers, most athletes pass on specific neck training.  Gittleson reported that the vast majority of high school and college football programs don't do any of it. There are several legitimate reasons that specific neck training may be frowned upon institutionally. The first and most prominent being the risk of injury. Another may be simply the lack of proper neck training techniques and knowledge out there. No matter the reason, the neck is something that I feel should be trained, and can be trained safely. This cluster of muscles, ligaments and tendons when strengthened will help not only with specific lifts such as the press, but also with overall power, stability and strength. Besides which, having a strong neck is having a neck that is less likely to be injured. 

Live Strong, 

Roger Lapointe