The ultimate guide for mastering the Behind the Neck Press

You typically perform the Behind the Neck (BTN) Press in a standing position, by pushing a barbell over your head with a trajectory behind your head. This exercise is a great shoulder builder, but with inadequate shoulder flexibility and mobility it can place extra stress on your shoulder joints. Since most people lack proper shoulder mobility, the BTN press is considered a difficult exercise for the average person.

Introduction

The Behind the Neck Press is an alternative to the regular barbell overhead press and is a good exercise if you want to target your shoulder muscles in a slightly different way. However, there is a lot of controversy surrounding this exercise.

Some argue that this exercise can be quite harmful to your shoulders and, therefore, advise against doing it.

In this article, I will answer why this controversy exists and whether it is indeed a bad exercise to perform.

But first we'll see how the Behind the Neck Press differs from a Military Press. I'll also explain how to perform the Behind the Neck Press and discuss variations of the exercise as well as alternative exercises you can do if you find the Behind the Neck Press still too challenging.

This is going to be a long and comprehensive article desgined to serve as a guide for the Behind the Neck Press. Feel free to jump to any section you want by using the navigation menu, or read this guide from beginning to end!

(Also, I'll try to update this guide whenever I'll have time with pictures, videos, and any more info I seem fit for this guide, so make sure to check back here every now and then)

Let's get started!

What is the Behind the Neck (BTN) Press?

The regular Barbell Overhead Press (also known as the Military Press) is a compound, vertical push exercise that mainly works your shoulder muscles.

You do the Barbell Overhead Press by standing and holding a barbell held around shoulder level with your palms facing forward, gripping the barbel slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.

You then push the barbell upward in a vertical path until it's overhead.

The Behind the Neck Press (BTN) then, is an alternative variation of the above describe Barbell Overhead Press, but Instead of starting with the barbell at shoulder level in front of you, this time you hold the barbell behind your neck while grabbing the barbell with a slightly narrower grip.

What muscles are targeted by the BTN Press?

The Behind the Neck Barbell Press works the same muscles as the regular Military Press (also known as the Barbell Overhead Press), yet in a slightly different way.

The muscles worked, are:

• the deltoids (anterior, medial, and posterior)
• the trapezius muscle
• the triceps brachii
• the pectoralis major (the upper region of it)
• the serratus anterior

Not all muscles are worked equally intense, though.

Deltoids and triceps brachii

The majority of the power comes from your deltoids (the shoulder muscles) as well as your triceps brachii.

Your deltoids work the most during the ascending phase, from the start to the end of the ascension. Your triceps start to work more during the end of the ascension, as your arms get more and more extended.

Trapezius muscle

Your trapezius muscle is mainly activated at the top of the lift, when you're holding the barbell overhead while squeezing your shoulders and traps as hard as you can to maintain that position, even if it's for a brief moment.

Pectoralis major (upper part)

The upper part of the pectoralis major is activated (although to a much smaller extend than your deltoids, traps, and triceps are!) at the beginning of the ascension of the lift. Halfway through the end of the upwards movement of the barbell, there is almost no activation of this muscle, though.

Serratus anterior

Finally, the serratus anterior, which is located on the sides of your chest, is also involved during the Behind the Neck Press, but indirectly.

To understand how this muscle works, it helps to think of muscles in pairs. Antagonistic muscle groups are muscles that work in opposite way to each other regarding a movement. Easy examples of antagonistic muscles are your biceps, which help to bend your arm, and your triceps, which help to extend your arm.

Likewise, the serratus anterior's function is to pull your shoulder blades forward, while the antagonist muscle to this movement are the rhomboids which are located in the middle of your upper back and function to pull your shoulder blades to the back.

Now..when doing the Behind the Neck Press, one of the aspects of a proper form involve retracting and holding your shoulder blades to the back during the exercise.

It is this position where the serratus anterior and your rhomboids work together to maintain the position.

Hence, both muscles are indirectly involved and kind of 'worked' when doing the Behind the Neck Press (as well as any overhead press).

How to do the BTN Press

See below for a step-by-step tutorial I've written out on how to do this exercise:

1. Get in starting position

With the (loaded) barbell in the squat rack, get the barbell out of the rack as if you are going to do squats.

This means resting the barbell on your neck, keeping your feet shoulder width apart, and grabbing the barbell firmly and with a width that is just slightly less than shoulder-width. You keep your legs in a split position (i.e, one leg front, the other back) for more stability.

Make sure your back is straight and your shoulder blades retracted to the back.

Also, do not let your elbows point to the back. The weight is going up, and prepare to do so by pointing your elbows down.

Finally, do not look up or too much down. The proper head position is facing straight forward to keep the natural curve in your spine.

This is your starting position.

2. Push the barbell up

Next, inhale, brace your core, and press the barbell upward by extending your arms to push it along a vertical path until your arms are fully extended overhead.

Keep your wrists straight and aligned with your forearms throughout the full range of motion, and exhale as you complete the press!

If you are doing a strict press, then pressing the barbell up from the starting position should contain no dip through your legs or similar movement that helps you to push the weight off in the initial phase.

Nothing than your shoulder muscles and arms should lift the barbell up (variations on the strict press are possible, of course..see further down this article for doing a push press instead).

3. Lowering the barbell

From the top position, lower the barbell back behind your neck and into the starting position in a smooth and controlled fashion. At all times, make sure you are keeping the correct form (see step 1) and avoid arching your back.

The barbell should come down to the base or your neck or slightly below it,

4. Repeat

Repeat the exercise for the required number of reps. After you've completed all reps, take a moment of rest before doing the next set.

Difference between Military Press and the BTN Press

In this section I’ll describe the differences between these two exercises from 2 aspects, namely how they differ in biomechanics when doing each exercise, and how they differ in muscle activation.

Biomechanical differences

The main difference between the Military Press (i.e., the Barbell Overhead Press) and the Behind the Neck is the position of the barbell.

In the Behind the Neck Press, the barbell's position and trajectory path is, as you would have guessed by now, behind your neck. This affects the biomechanics of the exercise and usually places more strain on your shoulder joints and rotator cuff muscles, because your shoulder joints are in a more externally rotated position during each rep.

The result of this change in biomechanics compared to the regular Military Press, is that during the Behind the Neck Press the tendons of your rotator cuff muscles can get impinged.

Besides and due to the way your shoulders are positioned, much greater shoulder mobility and flexibility is required to perform the Behind the Neck Press without issues or risk of injury, as compared to the Military press.

Let’s now see how they differ in muscle activation.

Muscle activation differences

As mentioned previously, the Behind the Neck Press and the Military Press work the same muscles, but there are some differences in muscle activation between these two overhead pressing exercises.

To see precisely how a Military Press and a Behind the Neck Press differ in muscle activation of your shoulders, I did some research and found an interesting article that analyzed the electromyography of the front vs back barbell overhead press.

In that article, the researches let 8 competitive bodybuilders (with training experience of at least 5 years) do a seated Barbell Overhead Press and a seated Behind the Neck Press, and compared the muscle activation between the two exercises.

They analysed muscle activation of the front, medial, and posterior deltoids, as well as the triceps brachii, the trapezius muscle, and the pectoralis major,

Difference in muscle activation of deltoids

Their results indicate, comparing the two exercises, the Behind the Neck Press results in more muscle activation than the Military press, in the following muscles:

• Medial deltoids during ascension.
• Posterior deltoids during ascension.
• Anterior deltoids during descending phase.
• Medial deltoids during descending phase.
• Posterior deltoids during descending phase.

In conclusion:

Difference in muscle activation of Trapezius and Triceps Brachii

They found no significant difference in muscle activation of the trapezius muscle between Military Press and the Behind the Neck Press.

Regarding the triceps, there was only a significant difference found in favor of the Military Press, but only when you lower the barbell from the top position back into the starting position.

To conclude:

Difference in muscle activation of the Pectoralis Major

Finally, the also examined the activation of the Pectoralis Major. As you might have expected, they found that:

Variations on the Behind the Neck Press

So let's see some variations on doing the regular, standing, barbell Behind the Neck Press (a whole mouthful). Note that the below exercises are not so much alternatives to the exercise, but they are more different ways you can do the BTN press).

Seated Dumbbell Press

Important: if you want to closely mimick the BTN press as much as possible, perform this exercises seated on a fitness bench and make sure to set up backrest of the bench as vertically as possible (almost to 90 degrees).

Also, during the exercise, keep your hands as much to the sides as possible. This way the movement your arms make kind of mimick the trajectory of a barbell when doing the regular Behind the Neck press with a barbell.

Behind the Neck Push Press

Performing a Behind the Neck Push Press is similar to doing a regular Behind the Neck (Strict) Press, but instead you'll use your legs to 'push' up the weight.

To be more exact, any type of vertical push press is when you make a dip by slightly bending your knees, and then using leg drive by extending your legs, followed by pushing the weight up overhead with your arms/shoulders.

This way you'll use momentum to lift the weight, allowing you to lift more weight then doing a strict press.

Doing a Behind the Neck Push Press may feel slightly more comfortable than doing the Strict Press of the exercise, because it takes some load off your deltoids and shoulders at the lower part of the concentric phase.

In other words... when your shoulder muscles are maximally stretched (i.e., the barbell is 'in' your neck), the force to lift the barbell up initially comes not from your shoulders/deltoids, but from your leg drive instead.

Behind the Neck Power Jerk

The Behind the Neck Power Jerk is a favorite exercise of mine when training my shoulders.

It's basically doing a Jerk (a typical Olympic Weightlifting exercise) with the barbell behind your neck.

But instead of doing a split jerk, where you'll end up with the barbell over your head and one foot in front, the other in the back...with a power jerk, you'll keep both of your feet at in a squat stance and shoulder width apart.

To do this exercise, while the barbell is in your neck at the starting position, do a dip by bending your knees the same as you would during a Push Press describe previously.

However, immediately after you use leg drive by extending your legs, you usually do a (very small) jump while simultaneously positioning yourself under the bar by dropping your body into a half-squat position.

At the same timeduring this part, you push the barbell up and further overhead using your shoulders and arms.

For me personally, the Behind the Neck Power Jerk allows me to lift slightly more weight than the Behind the Neck Push Press, because it takes some work off my shoulders by using leg drive as well as dropping myself underneath the bar.

Behind the Neck Wide-grip Push Press

Also known as a Snatch Push Press, the Behind the Neck Wide-grip Push Press is nothing other than a Behind the Neck Push Press that I described above. However, the small detail lies in your grip width.

With the Behind the Neck Wide-grip Push Press, you hold the barbell with your hands wide apart, similar to the width you would typically use during the snatch exercise.

How wide does my grip need to be?

Getting the correct width between your hands right while holding the barbell is actually pretty easy.

To grab the barbell correctly, follow the next steps:

1. Grab a barbell with your arms extended down and just in front of you, and stand straight.
2. Adjust your grip width until the barbell is around hip height. If the barbell is above your hips, you are holding the barbell too wide. If the barbell is below your hips, your grip is too narrow.

Advantage of the Behind the Neck Wide-grip Push Press

Because of the wide grip in this exercise, less strain is placed on your shoulders as it does not require the same amount of mobility as when trying to lift your arm straight up in a Behind the Neck Press.

Disadvantage of the Behind the Neck Wide-grip Push Press

However, the downside of of this variant, is that it places more pressure and strain on your wrist, which can get quite painful when doing this exercise with a loaded barbell and/or with incorrect wrist position (i.e., rotating your wrists too much forward or backwards is a common beginner mistake, leading to too much strain on your wrists).

Alternatives to Behind the Neck Press

In my opinion, the Snatch Balance and the Barbell Overhead Press are great alternatives to the BTN Press.

The Snatch Balance has very different biomechanics compared to the BTN Press, but nonetheless is a great exercise to do when you get bored of the BTN press or any other overhead dominant, pressing exercises.

Beware though, the Snatch Balance isn’t recommended for beginners, as it requires great shoulder mobility.

If you prefer an exercise that is biomechanically very similar to the BTN Press, then the best alternative is the regular Barbell Overhead Press. It works the same muscles as the BTN Press but slightly different, and it feels very similar to the Behind the Neck Press.

Let’s discuss both in more detail below.

Snatch Balance

The Snatch Balance is a typical Olympic weightlifting exercise that puts tremendous pressure on your shoulders, and as mentioned above, requires even more mobility than the barbell Behind the Neck press.

It's essentially doing a squat while holding a barbell overhead with a wide grip. Even holding the barbell alone (i.e., not loaded with plates) will feel extremely heavy if you've never done this exercise before.

As a matter of fact, in case you've never tried this exercise, I bet you won't even be able to squat full depth while holding the barbell overhead.

And that's because this exercise really exposes any limitations you might have within your shoulder's range of mobility and flexibility.

As such, if you are able to do a Snatch Balance with a full depth squat, then doing the barbell Behind the Neck press will pose no challenge at all!

Barbell Overhead Press

The overhead barbell press is a fundamental strength-building exercise that primarily targets your deltoids, triceps, and trapezius muscles.

It's much easier to do than the Behind the Neck barbell press, because it requires less shoulder mobility and flexibility. The stress it places on the rotator cuff muscles is also less compared to the BTN Press.

You have numerous options for varying the overhead barbell press. For example, alter your grip width and foot positioning, such as standing with feet shoulder-width apart or keep a split stance to play with balancing techniques.

The Barbell Overhead Press itself has many derivative exercises. Read more about them in my article on vertical push exercises.

Is the Behind the Neck Press good for you?

As mentioned in the introduction, some say that the Behind the Neck Press should be avoided as it's "dangerous" or "not good for your shoulder health".

However, I do not agree with that, and I find the above statements need to be nuanced.

Although I do agree that more strain is placed on your shoulders with the Behind the Neck Press, this will only become a problem if you lack the required mobility and flexibility in your shoulder, which is the case with a lot of people, unfortunately (myself included, until I started doing almost exclusively Olympic weightlifting training).

Most people find the Behind the Neck Press uncomfortable or even painful due to this shoulder mobility insufficiency.

As I wrote earlier under in this article, the exercise demands a a greater mobility and flexibility, because the range of motion required from your shoulder joints is greater, especially in external rotation and abduction, which many people lack.

Doing the exercise without insufficient mobility can therefore lead to improper mechanics, resulting in increased stress on your rotator cuffs, discomfort or pain, and in worse cases even an injury in your shoulder joints (especially if you have any pre-existing issues or injuries within your shoulders).

This is the reason that many fitness professionals and enthusiasts, as well as medical experts advise not to do this exercise.

So to answer the question "Is the Behind the Neck Press good for you?", I'd say that:

Conclusion

As you can see, the Behind the Neck Press is a great exercise which I absolutely love. If you are concerned about your shoulders and don’t have any pre-existing shoulder problems, then all I can advice you is:

Try this exercise, but start with a completely unloaded barbell first. And make sure to really loosen your shoulders first. Warm-up properly, do some shoulder stretching exercises, and then try out the BTN press and see how it feels. It might feel awkward at first, but give it a few weeks before you conclude that this exercise isn’t for you.

If you haven’t tried the exercise before, then obviously it might feel awkward at first. But you never know, maybe your body just needs some time to get used to the biomechanics of the Behind the Neck Press. As long as you go all lightweight first, then I see no reason to neglect this exercise without even trying it.

If, after multiple weeks and despite proper warming up, you still feel awkward and can’t get used to the exercise… well, then you can skip the BTN press alltogether. But at least you have tried it, then :).

Do you already do the Behind the Neck press? Why or why not, and what do you think about this (in my opinion, great) exercise? Let me know!