Overhead Presses

Bench pressing have mostly overtaken overhead pressing as the King of the gym. There is renewed interest in overhead pressing after Crossfit gained much popularity, but walk into any gym, and you will still see crowds around the bench, but not much of a damn given to overhead pressing, if any at all.

A lot of people find overhead pressing dangerous and unnatural. Fitness junkies from yesteryears would probably find the obsession with bench pressing equally dangerous and unnatural. In truth, bench pressing places the shoulder in a compromised position, with the shoulder joint flared out, leading to shoulder injury for some benchers.

Compared to bench pressing, shoulder pressing have a greater transfer of skills to the field of play. Try holding out your hands into a punching stance, or imagine pushing objects along a path. Observe your shoulder position. Next, do the bench press and the shoulder press and feel the position of your shoulder. You will feel and find greater similarities between the shoulder joint in a shoulder press than to the bench press.

I'm not saying ditch the bench press. The bench press is still the prime developer for the pecs, and nothing build big chest like bench press would.

Equipments

Barbell, Olympic bars or dumbbells. In the videos below, the barbell is used.

The Movement

We will be looking at 4 variations of the overhead press, starting with the shoulder press. You can get into the press position by unracking bar from a rack or by cleaning the bar from the floor up. You can also stand up and reverse curl the bar to shoulder height, but that would greatly limit the amount of weight you can press.

The Shoulder Press

Start with bar at shoulder, hands positioned slightly wider than your shoulder. Similarly, your feet should be slightly wider than your shoulder. Press up with your arms with an upright torso and locked knees. Return bar to original position.

The Military Press

The military press differs from the shoulder press only in your stances. Stand with your knees touching in an 'at attention(thus the name)' position. This make the military press slightly harder then the shoulder press with greater core activation and stability requirement. Press up with upright torso and locked knees. Return bar to original position.

The Push Press

Start is similar to the shoulder press, with your feet slightly wider apart if required. Think of it as shoulder pressing with assistance from your legs. At start of movement, dip slightly with your knees before reversing and pressing the bar upwards. At end of press, your leg should be straight with knees locked. Torso should be straight throughout. Return bar to original position.

The Power Jerk

Like the push press, you start in a similar position to the shoulder press. Feet can be slightly wider than shoulder press if required. Unlike the push press and shoulder press, the bulk of bar movement lies with the leg drive and not with arms pressing. The power jerk is utilised in Olympic Weightlifting training, but can be utilised by all even if you are not training for the Olympic lifts.

Dip slightly and explode, throwing the bar on a straight path up, at the same time push your body down and below the bar till lockout. Caught the bar and land with bent legs. Once you are stable, stand up straight and lock your knees. Return bar to original position.

The Benefit

The overhead presses primarily work the front deltoid and tricep muscles. If you are looking for broader shoulders, look no further than overhead presses. As mentioned previously, in sporting activities, the shoulder position is more similar to the shoulder press than the bench, leading to greater transfer of skill from the gym to the field.

With the push press and power jerk, besides working your shoulder and tricep, considerable effort is undertaken by the leg to drive the weight up. The leg drives trained would be helpful for jump power and height.

Your core will also be worked in the overhead presses, helping provide stability and keeping and torso upright.

In relation to the bench press, the shoulder press utilises the same muscles with differing activition. The triceps, deltoids and pectorals are used in both exercises, with more emphasis on the deltoids fpr the shoulder press and the pectorals for the bench press. Training the shoulder press would complement and help with bench pressing. Together with the bench press, the shoulder press will help develop a fuller and stronger upper body.

Regression and Progression

You can start your journey with overhead pressing with PVC pipes or bamboo poles.

Simply add weights as you progress with the overhead presses.

Lin Yimian, CSCS, SGX

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