Starting Strength

the flat-backed form permits, since adequate hamstring flexibility to maintain lumbar extension is not the limiting factor in this version. Maintain the flexed back position all the way down and back up, using your air to support the curve. Come back up by first lifting your back and then shoving your hips forward, and finally by raising your chest to coincide with the return to the starting position. As with flat-backed GMs, higher-rep sets of 8 to 10 work well. Round-backed goodmornings are an optional, advanced exercise. No one’s feelings will be hurt if you don’t do them at all, but if you use them, do them right, and light.

    Figure 7-33. The round-backed goodmorning.

    The goodmorning allows for more direct stress on the hip extensors. But you must remember that this weight is sitting on your neck . Any work done by the hip extensors must be transmitted along the spine, and the leverage against the smaller cervical and upper thoracic vertebrae will be very high. Be careful about using lots of weight and generating high velocities; the goodmorning is an assistance exercise, not a primary lift, and it must be respected for both its usefulness and its potential for injury. The smartest of the strongest men in the world never use more than 225 pounds for the goodmorning, and since it is an assistance exercise, they use sets of 8 to 10 reps. Done correctly, goodmornings make the back stronger; done incorrectly, they can make the back injured. Use good judgment when deciding how much weight to use. There will never be a reason to use more than 35% of your squat for sets of 8–10, and there is no reason to do them at all until 35% of your squat is 95 pounds.
    Press Variations
     
    Two main variations here: the behind-the-neck press and the push press.
    Behind-the-neck presses
     
    The first thing that usually comes to mind when people think of different ways to press overhead is the behind-the-neck version, along with its close relative, the Bradford Press, which involves changing the bar position from front to back during the press. When the bar is behind the neck, the shoulders are put in a position that is not particularly advantageous under a heavy load. This position is right at the edge of the shoulder’s range of motion and puts a lot of stress on the ligaments that hold the shoulder together.
    The shoulder (or glenohumeral) joint is formed by the articulation of three bones: the clavicle or “collarbone,” the scapula, and the humerus. The head of the humerus is the ball, and the glenoid fossa of the scapula is the socket of this ball-and-socket joint. The glenoid is a rather stingy little cup, not a nice deep socket like the acetabulum of the pelvis, and it depends much more on ligamentous and tendinous support for its integrity than the hip does. The net effect of this arrangement is a joint that is less stable at the edge of its range of motion than might be desired. The behind-the-neck press places the humeral head in just about the worst position it can assume under a load. If this exercise is to be used in a program safely, it has to be done with such light weights that it becomes almost a waste of time if strength is the goal. It has been done with heavy weight by big strong men, but none of them got that way with this exercise.
    Push presses
     
    A better exercise is the push press. It is more than just cheating the press with your legs. The push press uses momentum generated by the hips and knees to start the bar up, and then uses the shoulders and triceps to go to lockout, as in a normal press. The movement begins with a stretch reflex, where the knees and hips unlock, you drop down a little, and then you drive back up – the extensors lengthen a little and then immediately contract forcefully into lockout. This sharp extension provides enough drive to get the bar off the shoulders and started on its way up. It is not really a “push” so much as it is a bounce, since the knees and hips do not unlock and then stop in the unlocked position. It is exactly as though you are trying to bounce the bar up off of your shoulders by using your hips and legs.

    Figure 7-34. The push press.

    This bounce requires that the bar be resting on the meat of the deltoids when this upward force gets there. If the bar is being held in the hands – resting on the palms or fingers instead of seated firmly on the shoulders – then the force of the bounce gets absorbed in the elbows and wrists instead of being