The overhead press

There was a time when the press was the primary upper body strength and mass builder. Before we got lazy and started training on our backs. To me, it’s still the be upper body pressing exercise. Up until 1972 it was also a part of olympic weightlifting, but was removed due to judging problems.

The strict press not only builds tremendous shoulder and arm strength, but also puts big demands on torso and lower body stability. From my experience shoulder pressing can also improve shoulder health. There’s also not much you can do in terms of cheating, as long as you keep your legs locked. I’d advise against using the olympic press as depicted above.

Here are my tips on improving the press:

1. Setup: create tightness from the ground up to create a stable platform to press from. Keep legs and glutes flexed hard and push abs out. Wear a belt.
2. You don’t press from the same position as you frontsquat or jerk. Keep elbows below the bar.
3. Upper back tightness – flex the lats hard to create a “shelf” to rest the bar on. Keep elbows in.
4. I prefer using a false grip, though it has some drawbacks. Keep your grip narrow (just outside shoulder width).
5. Initiate the press by flexing even harder in the hip region. Let the tightness and tension increase up through your body and explode the bar off your shoulders.
6. Keep elbows in through the initial part of the movement.
7. Don’t push your head violently through, but gently control it to a position straight over the heels. You DON’T want to press it way back and push your head through.
8. Short inhalations at the top, don’t rest the bar at the bottom unless you’re specifically working on starting strength. Using the SSC makes it quite a bit easier.

Assistance exercises: Highrep BTN press is pretty much the only other exercise I do to improve the press, though the pushpress, the dip and the high incline bench press have their merits too. I’ve never really like DBs myself, but I guess they could be applied as well – either with one hand at a time or with both.To build up the upper back use pendlay rows, pullups and bent over shrugs.

Luckily the press doesn’t require a whole lot of recovery and I’ve found it responds well to getting worked hard. Three times a week at varying intensities would be good, don’t work up to a max lift too often though – I don’t think there’s any reason to max out in training. Two medium days and a heavy day would be good (and remember that heavy doesn’t necessarily mean all out). 5×5@70-75%, 5×3@75-85% and even singles up to 5-8@90% are all great rep schemes.

Numbers to shoot for: Everybody should be able to hit 85-90% of bodyweight in a press – that’s not particularly ambitious though and I think a press of at least bodyweight should  be part of a strong mans repertoire. Don’t get too caught up in chasing weights and let form slip – knees must remain locked, heels in the ground and the torso upright.

The wrap up: I like the press because it’s hard honest work. Work hard and stick with it over time and it’ll develop. I’ve often had people at the gym ask me which program I used for my press, and every time the answer is the same. Commitment over time. There’s no magical program.

Have a great day people. ❤

Oh almost forgot – this post was a request from this guy (thanks for the inspiration):