What are the pros & cons of behind the neck wide pullups

On many sites I see people warning strongly against behind the neck pullups. Perhaps these are bodybuilders who might not have flexibility in their shoulders(?). What are the advantages of them over normal wide pullups, or normal width pullups? What are the disadvantages compared to them? Also if they are dangerous for some people is there any way to determine this, e.g. feel for pains etc. I have seen it split pretty much 50/50 saying they are dangerous or not, but few give advantages to doing them. I expect they simply work muscles differently in the shoulder which might otherwise not be hit and so could be a weak point.

I did some properly for the first time and did feel they hit my shoulders & traps differently.

Putting the shoulder into far external rotation can be dangerous for things like behind the neck press, BTN pullups, and things like upright rows risk impingement and other soft tissue damage.

Generally, the rule I would say is if it doesn't bother you then it's fine to do it. And secondly, if you have any shoulder issues, I would avoid them even if you feel fine doing them.

Thanks, I have had slight issues with my shoulder in the past, I thought this might have been to lack of variety in my training and that hitting from different angles like this might be of benefit. I stopped about 2-3reps before failure, but will just avoid them in the future. I am still curious what benefits they might have over regular ones.

I still do overhead dumbbell presses, one arm at a time but do stretching with bands beforehand and have had no more problems or "twinges".

Make sure you are doing your shoulder prehab and mobility work... Ido has good vids on that. Wall slides/angels, band dislocates, etc.

braindx said:

Make sure you are doing your shoulder prehab and mobility work... Ido has good vids on that. Wall slides/angels, band dislocates, etc.

Brainy, do you know which pullups-variation (Wide, narrow, pronated hand position, neutral, supinated, BTN etc.) put the least (and which the most) load on the long head of triceps?

Dr. Durden said:

braindx said:

Make sure you are doing your shoulder prehab and mobility work... Ido has good vids on that. Wall slides/angels, band dislocates, etc.

Brainy, do you know which pullups-variation (Wide, narrow, pronated hand position, neutral, supinated, BTN etc.) put the least (and which the most) load on the long head of triceps?

If you go high intensity like with OAC/OAP you'll get some stress on long head.

That's the only time I've felt actual stress and soreness develop for long head of the triceps in any pulling motion. I've never felt much if at all with any of the other variations you describe above even with weighted them.

The answer is simple the more abducted (raised away from the body) and flexed the shoulder becomes the more impingement you get. Depending on your shoulder health, mobility, your acromiam type these may or may not cause chronic pain and make impingement worse.