Milatary press

I only do seated shoulder presses with DB's and an angle of about 85 degrees. I find that when standing people will cheat and use their legs to throw the weight up. When seated you end up using all shoulders and I also like the back support especially when going heavy. It keeps the movement very strict.

I used to do behind the neck presses but found that it was ruining my shoulder joints and have not done them in years. I don't really think they are necessary anyway and you can build great shoulders with other movements.

Mike
 
It is probably a better idea to do them with a back support, especially when weight gets heavy. Raising weights over the head without any back support can wreak havoc on the low back, plus I at least, can lift more weight with proper form when I am seated with support.
 
I used to do them standing, but in my new house, the basement ceiling is too low for me to do them that way, so now I do them seated. The seated military press seems more comfortable. I keep it as close to 90 degrees as I can.
 
I've done them both ways and done both behind the neck and in front both ways. I like doing them seated now because I used to have back pain from doing them standing. I also prefer behind the neck presses because they seem to hit my lateral head more than to the front. When I used to do them to the front it seemed as if my front deltoid grew out of proportion. The key to doing behind the neck presses safely is just not lowering the bar very far. I stop a couple inches above my ears. I also now use a smith machine for this exercise since I don't have a spotter, but if I had a workout partner or a power rack to do them in a might just do free weights.
 
I do 'em seated and behind the neck....hit's the middle delts better imo. Can't do a lot of weight tho. I usually do 'em after bench and don't have much front delt strength to help the middle delt move the weight.
 
I do them seated at a smith machine, or seated with dumbbells and back support. When using the smith, I always do them behind the head. I have rotater cuff issues, so I never bring the bar all the way down--down to about the middle of the back of my head is as far as I'll go. Some people don't go farther down than the top of the head.

J.
 
I do them standing, though I keep very strict. One reason is I train alone and when it comes to negatives I have to power jerk the BB to lockout so I can lower it.
 
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