Depth on shoulder press

[B-natural]

Lately I've been trying to take a slightly wider grip and lower the bar down to near my clavicles, it puts a lot of stress on the shoulder joint as well as support from the lats, I also feel great stretch in my upper chest, and this is my weak area I am trying to build.

Any thoughts as to depth? when I got to talk to Jay at my comp. he said he added these, and although he had to start light he felt it built upper mass in his shoulders, upper chest, and lat width.

Was just curious if others had tried this

[jef2007]

B when i do front shoulder presses i sometimes go deep to clavicles but i think, its good just to go to say down to the middle of your face,, if you want to build the upper top of your chest do some incline benches with your bench inclined to just a few notches below of doing shoulder presses with a BB on the smth mch .. also im not even doing behind my neck presses feels unnatural of a movement for me i know doesnt have anything to do with what your asking but i just thought ide throw in my opinion on them.....:)

[RisingAgainst]

I personally do both behind and in front type shoulder presses. I always go to the top of my traps for behind and clavicles for frontal. I have no idea if it's more effective, but it's how I was taught when I was young.

[dinoiii]

Shoulder Presses...the joy and sometimes ego to boot. To lift heavy precludes many from taking the bar down very far (kind of like how Jeff descusses to face level), however...I would just as easily sacrifice weight on this lift for a much cleaner eccentric portion of the lift and one that doesn't sacrifice ROM to a huge degree.


B-nat: if you opt to use a wider grip, you will actually take away the stress placed upon the pectoralis muscles. I will summarize how I have learned these lifts and how I incorporate them for my clients on grip variation below...


Neutral Grip, shoulder width: primarily works - Anterior & Medial Deltoid as well as clavicular part of the pectoralis major...you also have accessory movement from the Triceps (2 of 3 heads - long and medial) as well as serratus anterior and upper traps

Narrow Grip, elbows forward: primarily works - Anterior Deltoid + Upper Pectoralis (clavicular and otherwise)...accessory muscles = similar to above

Wide Grip, elbows flared out: primarily works - Anterior and Medial Delts (yet almost eliminates much of the assistance from pec major)...accessory muscles incorporated less than the two above as well, but still there. This is likely the closest resemblence to making this a true isolation lift. Overall this sounds like the closest to what you are doing and again I would NOT sacrifice ROM for stacking on plates (that's ego alone)...this is an exercise that will reap reward with lighter weight and full ROM for sure and with time, you'll build up your ability anyway.



* I personally do NOT encourage Behind-the-Neck Shoulder Press at all due to proper performance of the lift actually taxing the sh*t out of the rotator cuff - to me, its not worth it and there are plenty of suitable replacements if you want to work the back (however, forward press would do this as well).

The only thing you truly sacrifice here with this lift is the accessory use: rhomboids, infraspinatus, teres minor, and supraspinatus (but hence, the strain on the rotator cuff).



D_

[B-natural]

So don't go down to my clavicles, but somewhere between my chin and clavicles, and this is mainly ROM dependent? If so, I got ya, and thats probley why my triceps dominate my upper body push movements and they have some decent size. Part of why I try going wider, and I guess it felt like it was still creating a good stretch in the clavicular part of my upper chest.