Forgotten exercises that don’t deserve to be forgotten: the standing overhead press
23 October 2006If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
It used to be all serious resistance trainers performed overhead presses. Back then the resistance universe was small and the exercise equipment primitive: barbells and dumbbells stood alone. So those that trained were limited in what they could do: exercise variety was limited. It turned out that that was a blessing in disguise and nowadays we Purposeful Primitives preach that limiting the scope of exercises used and the tools used is actually desirable insofar as results are concerned. In the 70’s exercise equipment that mimicked free-weight exercises became widely available and a lot of exercises were replaced or jettisoned altogether to make room in the available training time for the sexy new machines. Today regular people belonging to commercial facilities spend way too much time using machines (‘they’re comfortable and safe’) and I have a devil of a time convincing folks that because machines lack what I have termed the “third dimension of tension” – controlling side to side motion – a machine is 33% less effective than the same free-weight exercise. Back to overhead pressing: people generally dislike the overhead pressing and what they dislike even more is the clean, the preliminary to the press itself. The clean is how we get the loaded barbell lying on the floor to the shoulders. Pull the bar upward in a straight line and when it reaches pec height, snap the wrists over catching the barbell or dumbbells on the collarbone. From there the bar or bells are rammed overhead. Another mistake is not providing a rigid push platform. Legs, glutes and torso muscles are tensed throughout the press. Tensed muscles create the ideal push platform. A slight bit of torso layback is allowed during the press; just be sure and stand erect to accentuate the lockout.
After the initial clean the lifter then pushes the requisite number of reps: one clean precedes whatever number of press reps is called for. As with the squat or bench press, overhead presses are lowered slowly and with great precision and control before being explosively launched to lockout. The three major technical blunders I see consistently are…sloppy cleans prior to pressing that are either energy draining or dangerous; incomplete press lockout – too often the presser heaves the weight upward, allows it to fall back down using 50% to 75% of the potential range-of-motion. Presses should be locked out fully and completely and at lockout held for a full second or two before being lowered. The third mistake is twisting the torso to complete the last reps of a heavy set: either make the weight or don’t make the weight but never ever twist, jerk or use excessive layback to complete a rep – that’s asking for injury. Standing overhead barbell and dumbbell presses are the number 1 shoulder developer and I have never seen a superior overhead presser that did not have great, melon-like shoulder deltoids. We like to have people new to pressing work up to two sets of 8-reps using static poundage. If for example, you were capable of pressing a pair of 35-pound bells overhead for 10 reps, take a warm-up with a pair of 20’s for 10 reps than perform 2 sets of 8 using the 35’s. If you make 8 on both sets, kick the poundage up and use a pair of 40’s in the next training session. In that subsequent session perhaps you hit 7 on set I and 6 on set II using the 40’s: stick with them until you are able to hit the requisite 2×8. Seated overhead presses are fine but quite different than standing presses. The slight bit of torso sway that naturally occurs when standing is eliminated when seated, making the exercise much stricter. This limits poundage handling ability.
I suggest mastering the standing press with both BB and DB then delving into the seated possibilities. Here is a typical shoulder day training regimen… (Poundage is hypothetical and can be adjusted to size and strength levels – this takes about 45-minutes)
1. Overhead clean and press with barbell 135×10, 185×5 then 205×8…205×8
2. Overhead dumbbell press (no warm-ups needed) 75×8, 75×8
3. Seated press behind the neck (smith machine) 155×8, 155×8 (done slowly)
Finish the shoulder session with 3-5 sets of continuous tension side lateral raises.
Tags:Popularity: 3% [?]
Related Posts:
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
