Neck Press
Trains the Clavicular Head.
- Equipment
- A barbell, a rack and either a flat bench or an adjustable bench
- Mechanic
- Compound
- Force
- Push
- Level
- Intermediate
How to do it
- Set a barbell in a rack over a flat bench with the safety pins just below neck height.
- Lie back and take an overhand grip a little wider than your shoulders.
- Set your shoulder blades back and down and plant your feet.
- Unrack the bar and hold it over your upper chest.
- Lower it toward the base of your neck under control.
- Stop above the neck and press back up without letting the bar drift toward your hips.
Common mistakes
- Setting the pins where a normal bench press would have them. The bar travels to a higher point on the body, so the pins go higher too.
- Keeping your bench press weight. The high bar path puts the shoulder in a less strong position, and the load comes down with it.
- Letting the bar drift down the chest as the set gets hard. Drifting toward the sternum is the shoulders finding a stronger position, which is understandable and is no longer this exercise.
- Choosing it over an incline press for the upper chest. It reaches the same fibres from a weaker shoulder position, and an incline press does the job with the joint better supported.
Muscles worked
Primary
- Clavicular HeadPecs