5

Every now and then at climbing competitions I'll need to do pull-ups while my head is looking to the left or right. I've hurt my neck a couple times doing this. I get a muscle strain or pinched nerve in the back of my neck which hangs around for several days.

I've always heard that you should look forward or up while doing pull-ups to prevent injury. If I start practicing pull-up sets with my head turned to the side, am I going to build up a tolerance to strains or just create further injuries?

Improve this question
2

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
4

My susceptibility to neck strains decreased significantly after I started focusing on overhead mobility.

For me that meant overhead presses, overhead squats, one-arm overhead pressing while in a squat, plus—and this is important—all the mobility work necessary to support those exercises. I suspect that other methods of increasing stability overhead would help too, such as Turkish get-ups, snatches, and windmills.

Improve this answer
2
  • Makes sense, since I'm almost 100% working my overhead pull muscles, but rarely do any overhead push. Maybe this will alleviate the imbalance. Thanks, I'll give it a try.
    – FoppyOmega
    Commented Apr 16, 2015 at 13:08
  • I'm not sure it's a muscular imbalance thing, but rather an issue of full mobility in those positions across the shoulder girdle and neck, and stability within those positions.
    – Dave Liepmann
    Commented Apr 16, 2015 at 13:27

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.