NEWSLETTER ARTICLE - It's Over Your Head

[Joe Black]

by Mike Scialabba

How much can you bench? Do you know? Well of course you do, it's the bench press for heaven's sake! Now do you know how much you can overhead press? If you do, you're a few steps ahead of the majority of weight lifters.

So much attention towards upper body strength gets pinned on the bench press, leaving the overhead press a mere shadow in the department of overall power.

Why is this a problem?

Two reasons: First, we move heavy objects over our heads possibly as frequently as we move them forward in our daily lives, and secondly the overhead press is an exceptional lift for developing strong, thick and stable shoulder girdles.

How to do it

Unfortunately a lot of lifters that are doing this lift, aren't completely doing it correctly. There are a few methods of overhead pressing, however here we'll just focus on the most basic.

The Standing Barbell Overhead Press

Stand with your feet in a solid base position, either right under your hips, or slightly outside the hips. Tuck your glutes underneath you bracing the core. Hold the barbell with your hands gripped right outside the shoulder. Hold the bar at the collar bone, with the wrists slightly back, and the elbows pushed underneath the load. Press the bar towards the ceiling and slightly 'behind' the head. Straighten the wrists as you move the load upward and fully lock out the elbows. You should be at a peak position with the biceps in mid-line with the ears.

Once you're fully locked out, drop the wrists back while lowering the load back down, allowing the elbows to move forward catching the load right back where you started.

If the movement causes pain, you may wanted to look into other variations of the overhead press, or move onto some rehab exercises to get your shoulders healthy again.

Always shoot for a full range of motion, and don't be afraid to let your legs help out a bit, converting the movement into a 'push/press'.

Now go unto the wilderness of the weight room, and press something over your big head!



Look, even hot chicks overhead press!

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This exclusive article (and others) can be found in the latest Wannabebig Serious About Muscle Newsletter - August 20th, 2010

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[Off Road]

We need more pics like "the hot chick" for our articles.
Hot chick+heavy weight+Panda Express= Win, win, win

Back to the subject...what does everybody press?
What is your prefered form of pressing?

[IronDiggy]

I generally try for a strict military press. I think my max is is the 175-185ish area. Overhead press is wierd for me because weights seem to go from really light to really heavy in like a 10lb change.

[Coqui]

Chicks like that is what makes Crossfit so appealing.

I do dumbell press and normally do a set of 190 as my highest

[tnathletics2b]

My wrist flexibilty blows...it is a struggle to keep the weight in a "racked" position under my chin when I come back down. I pretty much have to keep my wrist straight the whole time.

[mchicia1]

OHP is no joke...very humbling movement. When I first started, when my bench was around 255x5, I could only strict-ohp 100 pounds...ONCE. I made my way up to 155 for 6 but that is down the ****ter now because I was injured the last 4 months. It is a great movement...really rounds your physique off.

[Joe Black]

Do any of you guys push press? (use legs and a bit of momentum to explosively push the weight up)

[Coqui]

Do any of you guys push press? (use legs and a bit of momentum to explosively push the weight up)

I do it on my complex days on occasion.

[Off Road]

Do any of you guys push press? (use legs and a bit of momentum to explosively push the weight up)

I often use a push press on my first rep just to get things started. After that it's strict.

[Cleric]

That "Hot Chick" looks like a guy, scary face, really scary.

[Coqui]

That "Hot Chick" looks like a guy, scary face, really scary.

Most people don't exactly look attractive when they're pushing themselves.

[Off Road]

That "Hot Chick" looks like a guy, scary face, really scary.

Face?

[Coqui]

Face?

Face looks good to me:

http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/C...OmahaLibby.wmv

[TXFatboy]

I just got back to doing OHP. I actually did it today. I'm kind of integrating some of the HCT-12 principles into my custom routine so I got the 6,6,6 +2+2+2 in. Just getting a feel for the HCT-12 method. I love BB OHP.

[Tom Mutaffis]

I do a combination of push press (some leg drive), push jerk (more legs than shoulders), and strict press (all shoulders/triceps).

There are plenty of variations such as dumbbell, log, keg, stone, or fatbar pressing.