Behind the neck Jerks

[Charis Louca]

Do many top level Olympic lifters do these?
Do they have much carryover to the jerk, or the snatch, general overhead strength, general strength, bar awareness, anything?
I have seen a few videos of some good lifters doing them, are they worth doing on a regular basis?
Any interesting stories on these? :)

[KarstenJensen]

Do many top level Olympic lifters do these?
Do they have much carryover to the jerk, or the snatch, general overhead strength, general strength, bar awareness, anything?
I have seen a few videos of some good lifters doing them, are they worth doing on a regular basis?
Any interesting stories on these? :)

I am not aware if top olympic weightlifters do them, but in my opinion - - - jjjjjj

[KarstenJensen]

Hi Charis,

I am not aware if top olympic weightlifters do behind the neck jerks. If I was coaching such a lifter I would not recommend it. Here is what my friend Ken Kinakin, DC, says in his book "Optimum Muscle Training"

"This (pressing behind the neck) puts maximal stress on the cervical muscles and disks and also increases the risk of cervical disc herniation. PRessing behind the neck also puts stress on the shoulder capsule."

In the rating system given in the book he rates it as "high risk-medium benefit"

Risk/benefit aside, one would have to consider why even do jerks behind the head?

1. All pressing muscles for sure will fire in a slightly different manner compared to pressing/jerking from the front of the body. Therefore it would be a different, but not necessarily better muscular stimulus.
2. Is there a transfer from jerk from behind the head to jerk from the front (I am not sure)?
3. Can the benefits from jerk not be derived in any other way?

I teach beginners and intermediate olympic weightlifting classess at The University of Torontos training facility and we only do jerks behind the head to get the bar to the overhead squat position. (My preferred way of starting the overhead squat is from the bottom position in the power rack, but the racks are not tall enough to accomodate any lifter above 6ft)

Karsten

[Randall Strossen]

Charis -

They are not very common, but you will see some top lifters doing these quite regularly, such as the Russians, sometimes in combination with other lifts. Here's a photo of Dmitry Klokov doing presses behind the neck as part of a combination - jerks can be use the same way or by themselves:

http://www.ironmind.com/ironmind/opencms/Articles/2009/Jun/Schmitz_on_the_Lifts_The_Lowdown_on_Lowering_the_B ar.html


Not sure if was on this thread:

http://www.ironmind-forum.com/showthread.php?t=143&highlight=mark+henry

where I mentioned that jerks behind the neck are easier than jerks in front of the neck, the opposite of pressing, so you can some big numbers in jerks behind the neck.

Jim Schmitz, a tremendous coach, once told me that he has sometimes used jerks behind the neck with his lifters when they are recovering from a wrist injury because jerking from this position puts less strain on the wrist - maybe someone out there can comment on this from experience.

[Charis Louca]

Great info guys, thanks.

[john dehmer]

I'm not sure how much Andre Aramnau makes these a part of his training but I don't think this was the first time he's done this. Pretty impressive ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8UY4sD5NlQ&feature=related

[Julien Pineau]

Actually it is used by russian weightlifters
Check out Mishka Koklyaev on youtube,you'll see him do behind-the-neck jerks with 245kg
Very impressive!!