Neck tweaks and dizziness can sometimes occur with barbell training and powerlifting. So if you've ever wondered why you get dizzy when you lift heavy, why you tweaked your neck from the overhead press, where you should look when you squat, etc., you should understand that your eye gaze and neck position is very important when you lift heavy.
The neck is a region of the body that does not actively contribute to the bar moving up in the squat, bench press, overhead press or deadlift. Therefore, we consider the neck joints accessory joints rather than mover joints. While it's impossible for the neck to stay completely still when you lift it should be your goal to keep it as still as possible and reduce the amount of position change that occurs as the rest of your body moves in space.
Our eyes also play a significant role in our overall lifting experience and execution so we should be very specific with what we are doing with our eyes as well.
The role of eye gaze in barbell training is to:
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Provide visual feedback about the environment/where our body is in space
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Maintain as much neutrality in our neck as possible to support the function or structures in our neck and inner ear that promote balance and equilibrium
At Progressive Rehab & Strength, we have a few general rules for eye gaze and neck position that applies to all exercises, including non-barbell/non-powerlifts:
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The cervical spine or neck and head are extensions of the spine and should remain in line with the rest of the spine throughout the lift
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If the cervical spine cannot remain in neutral throughout the lift, it should be positioned at the start and end of the lift such that it is positioned in neutral during the most stressful parts of the lift
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The eyes should be positioned perpendicular to the line of the spine when it is at its most neutral position during the lift
In this episode of the PRS Podcast we dive deeply into our eye gaze and neck position recommendations for each barbell lift. For some lifts this is obvious,for others it is not. Check out the full episode to learn how to improve the execution of your lifts while reducing injury to your neck.
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