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Barbell OHP Issues When I Go Heavy

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william bad butt

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I saw the overhead pressing thread and figured I wouldn't hijack it...

I have a question for the forum. Over the last decade or 2, I don't do much barbell overhead pressing (lots of KB pressing though). When I do, it is usually strict military press type form (meaning I have little backwards lean). I've never really done any serious barbell programs or serious training with the overhead press. Whenever I lift heavy (about 225lb is probably my limit), I usually end up suffering from severe kinks in my neck, tension headaches, and sometimes even minor pain that radiates to shoulders (rare but it has happened once or twice). If I train light (135 or 185 lb), this is not a problem. With heavy weight, I tend to strain a lot and my shoulders, neck, and trap muscles get so tight. Also, if I do stick shoulder dislocation excersises it seems to help quite a bit. Also, if I'm training barbell overhead presses, I need to be careful at night to sleep without a pillow (head flat).

So as a result, over the years, I have been staying away from barbell overhead work and instead do horizontal pushing (bench press), primarily. My main thing is powerlifting so this works for me. The kinks in my neck make me pretty miserable. I use KB's for my overhead work. Lifting double overhead KBs does not cause me problems (even if they are the heaviest ones). I have fairly decent shoulder mobility (not great, but likely better than the average person).

I don't have any strong desire to be great at military pressing. And I'm fine staying with KBs. But it is an odd thing and if anybody had any suggestions I'd be interested. It is only an issue when I strain (when lifting closer to max Intensity limit).

Regards,

Eric
AKA William Bad Neck
 
I have a similar problem when I do a lot of heavy OHP of any type over a long period of time. I've had four of these "episodes" over the last ~five years. The last one occured in July after 12 weeks of double KB press centric work. It was the worst one yet. Each was progressively worse in terms of pain and recovery time.

Dr. said I do have minor disk compression (c6 maybe?), but it turned out to be a pinched nerve in my neck. The pain was severe. I lost almost all mobility in my neck for six weeks and almost no feeling down my left trap, thumb, and index finger. Strength didn't completely come back for 12 weeks.

It was bad enough to make me swear off high intensity, heavy pressing with a lot of volume. I'll go a lighter now and keep the weekly volume to under 50 reps. My form was good. I'm not sure what, if anything, I was doing wrong, but like you described, the tension in my neck and traps would build to the point of the nerve becoming inflamed. I'm doing more horizontal pressing and bodyweight movements now and adding more aerobic work into the mix by running again. My regimen feels more balanced now. Sucks, but it's not worth the pain and sleepless nights. It made me reconsider the health aspect of "health and fitness".

Might not be comparable to your situation, but if it is, my only advice is to diversify a bit and use it as an opportunity to branch out.
 
watchnerd said:
Sounds like you have a work-around:

Train a bit lighter.

185 lbs is a respectable OHP these days.

If that's not causing a problem, why not just do that and progress by adding volume as opposed to weight?
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Yeah. I should mention the neck kinks always come later. Later in the day or the next day. So I don't know when I over did it in the moment. But yeah, training light would do it. I hate the idea of settling and not pushing.
 
Couple questions, if you don't mind:

What do you regularly train outside of the powerlifts?

If you are serious about powerlifting, I assume you arch your back to some degree and retract your shoulders. Do you do any "reaching" exercises to protract the shoulders and open up the upper back? From what I have learned neck tension can come from both a compressed anterior ribcage (being stuck in kyphosis) and/or a compressed upper back (t-spine stuck straight, scapuae stuck/held back).

Notice I say "stuck." Neither position is "bad," but only spending time in one position, or not being able to express the other, and never moving between the two throughout the day can lead to issues.
 
Singlecoilquack said:
I have a similar problem when I do a lot of heavy OHP of any type over a long period of time. I've had four of these "episodes" over the last ~five years. The last one occured in July after 12 weeks of double KB press centric work. It was the worst one yet. Each was progressively worse in terms of pain and recovery time.

Dr. said I do have minor disk compression (c6 maybe?), but it turned out to be a pinched nerve in my neck. The pain was severe. I lost almost all mobility in my neck for six weeks and almost no feeling down my left trap, thumb, and index finger. Strength didn't completely come back for 12 weeks.

It was bad enough to make me swear off high intensity, heavy pressing with a lot of volume. I'll go a lighter now and keep the weekly volume to under 50 reps. My form was good. I'm not sure what, if anything, I was doing wrong, but like you described, the tension in my neck and traps would build to the point of the nerve becoming inflamed. I'm doing more horizontal pressing and bodyweight movements now and adding more aerobic work into the mix by running again. My regimen feels more balanced now. Sucks, but it's not worth the pain and sleepless nights. It made me reconsider the health aspect of "health and fitness".

Might not be comparable to your situation, but if it is, my only advice is to diversify a bit and use it as an opportunity to branch out.
Click to expand...

I recall the sleepness nights being the absolute worst part. The pain is tolerable. But not falling asleep for a week is brutal. My bench press and KB press seems to have maintained or even built my barbell military strength, to at least some degree, without having done much of it, specifically. I'm lucky I can handle KB and DB pressing with no problem.

Stick or even better, band, shoulder dislocates were a miracle excersise for me. My prehab regiment is way better now, so I'm always tempted to give the press another go. But if I feel those neck kinks again Ill likely give up on barbell pressing, forever.
 
bluejeff said:
What do you regularly train outside of the powerlifts
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At the moment (example):
- warm ups uncle McGill big 3, Locke big 3, shoulder dislocates, and loaded carries. Lots of daily walking
- Fri: Barbell squat and deadlift training, pause deadlifts, and KB swings
- Sat: Bench press, 2 board bench pressing, barbell rows, DB hammer curls, tricep pressdowns
- Sun: Light aerobic stuff at a commercial gym: Treadmill, lots of machines like me press, lat pulldown, etc. Bodybuilder type stuff but very light. Ill do lots of overhead pressing with double DBs up to 75 lb.
Mon: Light barbell squat and bench press with bands
Tues: Walking lunges with 50 lb DBs, Barbell shrugs, chinups, 1 leg deadlifts, single arm rows, band face pulls.

bluejeff said:
If you are serious about powerlifting, I assume you arch your back to some degree and retract your shoulders. Do you do any "reaching" exercises to protract the shoulders and open up the upper back? From what I have learned neck tension can come from both a compressed anterior ribcage (being stuck in kyphosis) and/or a compressed upper back (t-spine stuck straight, scapuae stuck/held back).
Click to expand...

I do arch and retract the shoulders while benching. I'm probably guilty of these things, to some degree. Being stuck I mean. The Locke big 3 mobility helps with some of this stuff...
 
william bad butt said:
Yeah. I should mention the neck kinks always come later. Later in the day or the next day. So I don't know when I over did it in the moment. But yeah, training light would do it. I hate the idea of settling and not pushing.
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Take your ego out of the equation.

You can push it just fine with volume at a moderate weight.

And, in fact, if you've been mostly lifting low reps / heavy, the change will probably do you some good in terms of being a novel stimulus.

Give it a whirl for 8 weeks.
 
BrianCF said:
Please stop lifting heavy. There are no awards for a 225 OHP. Do higher reps with lighter weight. Or stop completely. It's not worth it.
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I haven't done them in years.

I should add I'm not a light weight, well over 200 lb, like 240lb. 225lb is not so heavy vs body weighf. It is approximately the weight where I need to start "trying" and focusing on maximum tension and straining (if that makes sense). The straining is what causes me problems.

Also, its not like I'm just maxing every day. In general, I'm pretty conservative with how much weight I lift relative to 1RM. 70% average for example. I have and would follow some type of linear progression to build up the Intensity over weeks or months. I'm certainly not an ego lifter. Concerning the powerlifts, for example, I typically max out about 1 time per year. Actually it has been 3 years (2019 was my last meet).

Thanks for your response.

Regards,

Eric
 
I'll add that my PT prescribed a lot of neck nods for rehab and prehab. Said some of my problems may be mitigated by working on my neck mobility. They do help with tension buildup. Tifwiw.
 
Singlecoilquack said:
I'll add that my PT prescribed a lot of neck nods for rehab and prehab. Said some of my problems may be mitigated by working on my neck mobility. They do help with tension buildup. Tifwiw.
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I like the Dr Locke Big 3 . Focuses on neck, shoulders, and thoracic mobility. And as I mentioned the shoulder dislocates.

What do you do?
 
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