OHP injuries

[Lloyd90]

Tonight must be the third time I've pulled or strained a muscle whilst doing the overhead press (although I suspect I've done similar when doing chin ups).

Any reasons why this exercise is repetitively producing this injury and how to stop any further problems?

Neck / upper back is stiff and sore, limited range or movement turning head to look either side with some discomfort.

I had some deep heat rub on it tonight, then have put some frozen corn on tonight for about 15 mins after a hot shower. Hoping it'll heal up pretty fast.

[SJB]

Maybe get a form check, and use peas instead of corn, mixed veges are the ultimate.

[chrisd]

Could be elbows going out to the sides. The levator scapuale are attached at the scapulae, obviously and at the neck. If these are getting overloaded, they can feel strain.

[Lasse Høi]

Lloyd, Im in the same position, recently i strained my neck for the 5th or 6th time, worst strain yet! Took me 3 weeks to get back in the game. I was grinding to a halt with the bar in front of my forehead when it happened. I remember a ssc mentioning being careful with grinds especially if you havent got the bar over the head yet. Ill see if i can find it.

[Lloyd90]

Ah that sucks man!

Day is the 2nd day off since it happened, I should be training tonight, yesterday I was in a lot of discomfort, today not too bad but thinking about taking some time off to recover properly before going back into the gym.

[Luke S]

I used to get that because my head position was all over the place during the press and chins. It's been a long time since I've strained my neck, perhaps try tucking the chin as a part of the setup before the repetition starts.

[Lasse Høi]

Yeah, I remember one of my injuries was simply due to turning my head slightly to look at the hook while re-racking. Also, found this quote from Rip "The most obvious reason would be that you're moving your head around during the press. Hold your neck still. " I recently drew a dot on the wall in front of my rack to fix my gaze on.

For me the chance of injury seems to correlate to intensity (grinding), though I've also had an injury with a rather light weight once, which was probably due to not warming up properly.

Avoiding these situations have helped me in the sense that I could now press a higher weight before injuring myself. Now I need to figure out how to get past 135 lbs, the last two times I surpassed this weight I got injured shortly after and now I am closing in again...

[deeprooted]

This happens to me as well (though recently it's happening mostly out of the gym). For me it happened as some have mentioned when grinding it out and having the bar a bit in front or most obviously when forgetting all about head positioning and looking up at the bar.