Fixing your overhead press

Yes, anyone who has read my shit knows I am a self professed natural at overhead pressing.  This is true.  I can remember repping with the 90's on seated db press when I was 17 and 170 fairly easily.  Since then I've done the 100's for 20+, cleaned and pressed 275 strict for a triple, regularly do press behind the neck with 225x10 easily, and the same for clean and press.  I can manage most of these lifts without doing them very often.

Sometimes I go months at a time without overhead pressing, rather opting to incline press and some close grips once a month.  That's about it.  When I do try and overhead press, it's like humping your ex-girl again.  You know where all the good spots are, and exactly what's going down.

So how the hell could I speak technically about overhead pressing?  Well, that's a good question.  I will give it a shot though, and explain why overhead pressing feels natural to me, and what happens when I do press some shit overhead.

Notice I say overhead pressing.  Not jumping under a god damn bar like some kind of circus monkey.  Jumping under a bar, is not putting weights overhead to me.  This is an area where I am sometimes met with resistance by other strength fuckers and such, but I care not.  Snatches and jerks are snatches and jerks.  To me, putting weights overhead signifies that you pressed that shit overhead.  Again, this is just my opinion.  I admire the shit out of Olympic lifting, mainly because I suck at it, and have a huge man crush on Klokov.  

So you will find no Oly lift hate here.  However, to me, putting weights overhead in PC land is all about pressing it over your head.  Not jumping under it.

To add fuel to this fire, I am not a fan of push presses.  Again, this hurts some peoples vaginas but I don't care.  It's generally the guys that push press a lot but can't strict press a lot that get mad about this.  In other words, they hate for me to crush on their ego lift.

To me the point of overhead pressing is to either develop shoulder and overhead strength, or demonstrate it.  Push presses are like chest bounced bench presses, or maybe board presses.  Neither of these lifts really say how much you can strictly bench press, and push presses don't really say a god damn thing about how strong you are at overhead pressing.  I've known guys with 300+ pound push presses who could not strict press what 250.  Case closed.

So what does that leave us with?

Standing military press, either cleaned or off the rack.  Press behind the neck of various types, dumbbell pressing, machine and various apparatus pressing, like the Viking press.

I really wanna get one of these for my basement......before you tell me how to set this up in the rack, I'm joking

Go thumbless - 


I go thumbless on all of my pressing.  However for overhead work, especially on the military press, it makes EVERYONE press more.  I've never had a single person that pressed the same or less, after they switched to a thumbless grip for overhead work.  It's an immediate improvement.  This is because it move the bar just slightly closer in to your body, and in a much stronger path.  It sits in closer to the center line of your body, and gives you a better "shelf" to press off of.

For every one guy that says it didn't do anything for him, I will show you a liar who didn't try it.

Ok I'm overstating it for humor, however I'm not far off.  If you didn't get more out of military pressing thumbless, you did something wrong or are doing something wrong.

Squeezing your biceps -

One thing that most guys don't think about, or do, when they military press is to squeeze their biceps.  You can practice this as you read this.

Put your hands in front of you like you are doing a military press.  Now, curl your hands into you.  That grip, is where your hands should be on the bar when you press.  Squeezing the biceps, or allowing them to work in a more effective position as the antagonist in the movement.  Many guys just let their triceps sort of "hold" the weight isometrically.  This will make pushing the weight off of the bottom much harder, than if you get the biceps involved from the bottom portion of the press.  This might require a video later, so if this confuses you, I can always add one.

Use the proper grip - 

If you are wide in your military press, bring that grip in.  If you think you are wide, you are.  If you think you are narrow, you are probably just right.  Generally, your thumbs should line up just outside of your anterior delts.

As anyone can see via the Klokov press, the wider you get on a military press the more difficult the press is going to be.  So get the grip in closer if you have a wide grip.  The only exception here might be those t-rex armed guys who do so well pressing naturally, then it doesn't matter as much.

If you are doing press behind the neck however, you need to get your grip out wider.  Not as wide as the Klokov press, however the PBN CAN fuck your shoulders up if you try to do them with a "parallel" grip (forearms straight up from the ground when you are at the bottom of the press).

Your forearms should basically be at a 45 degree angle on the press behind the neck.  Try to think about pushing your hands up in to the corners of the room.

Do singles, doubles, and triples to the front, 8+ to the side and rear - 

For the standing military press, I have found that most guys, myself included, respond really well to singles, doubles, and triples in regards to making that lift move fast.  It doesn't mean I don't knock out a rep set of 10 now and then.  However, if you are talking about really building your top poundage for military pressing, stick with sets in the 1-3 rep range.

When it comes to dumbbell pressing and behind the neck pressing, I have found that moderate and high reps seem to progress faster than lower reps.  Your mileage may vary in this regard, but this is what I have noticed.

Press more often - 

If your overhead work is really in the shitter, press twice a week overhead.  The shoulders seem to have a very fast recovery time, so pound those fuckers into dust twice a week.  1 heavy day pressing to the front, and the second day pressing more moderately from the side and rear.

Learn how to stabilize -

If you are off balance pressing, it means you have a problem stabilizing in your back and glutes.  This is not a STRENGTH issue.  This is a technique issue.  No different than guys not knowing how to setup on bench.  Squeeze the fuck out of your glutes when you press overhead and see what happens.  That's right.  Your ass should be pinned to the floor because your erectors and upperback will kick in like a mule hopped up on crank.  

These are some of the things that could help you out.  I also want to add that ultimately, for most guys, big pressing is something that just comes over time and consistency.  The lower body responds fast to squats and leg work, but pressing can be a long struggle for some guys.

Remember, big picture.  If you press it, it will come.  The weight, I mean.