IDENTIFYING WEAK POINTS (PART 4)—OVERHEAD PRESS

IDENTIFYING WEAK POINTS (PART 4) —OVERHEAD PRESS

By Shane Robert

The last installment in our series on identifying weak points concerns the overhead press. I was hesitant to include this lift in the series. It isn’t that people don’t develop weak points in the lift; of course they do. The problem in most cases is a lack of training. Most people, frankly, just don’t put the effort into overhead lifts that they need to in order to make progress. Especially when compared to more popular lifts like every bro’s favorite, the bench press.

This wasn’t always the case, of course, as we have covered in other articles. There was a time, prior to 1972, when the press wasthelift that people cared about. Fortunately for us that means there was a lot of material written on how to increase the press and how to overcome weak points in the lift. As with the 3 other lifts in this series, the general formula remains the same:

Train the Movement  +  Strengthen the weak point(s) of the main movement =  Stronger

I want to stress the importance of the first part of that formula when it comes to overhead work. All lifts require practice, but I have not seen another lift that seems to respond best to simply doing more work of that lift. The old adage of, “if you want to press a lot, you need to press a lot,” really is true in the vast majority of cases I have seen.

Overhead pressing shares a lot of similarities with deadlifts. They both start with the concentric, (there is no lowering of the bar before lifting like in the squat and bench) and tend to have the same weak points:

1. Bottom/start
2. Mid range
3. Top/lockout
   

Deadlifting has a 4th weakness, rounding, that isn’t applicable to pressing. You might argue that excessive back bend could fall into that category but the answer is too simple to devote as a whole weakness—get stronger abs.

1. BOTTOM/START

Failing an overhead press at the bottom usually results from weaknesses in the deltoids (especially anterior) and upper chest and/or a poor starting position. The delts are the primary movers in the initial phase of the press and the upper chest assists in this phase. Weakness in either leads to difficulty generating force at the start and makes it harder to push the bar off of the shoulders. If the bar starts too far forward, the lift becomes inefficient, making it harder to initiate the press. If the elbows are too low, you lose leverage to drive the bar up.

2. MIDPOINT

Missing at the midpoint is largely a deficiency of the triceps and upper back. At this point, the triceps take over and weakness leads to stalling before full lockout. The upper traps, rear delts, and scapular stabilizers (like the serratus anterior) control shoulder stability in the overhead position and weakness causes instability and energy loss. There is also an issue with a lack of bar speed, if the bar moves too slowly through the midpoint, there’s insufficient momentum to carry it through to lockout.

3. LOCKOUT

A miss at this point almost always indicates technical issues, particularly the bar being too far forward rather than being pushed back with the arms ending behind the head. If you are one of the rare few who actually miss due to muscle weakness, it is largely due to triceps weakness and poor core stability. As always, upper back can contribute to lockout weakness, though less so than the midrange.

Now that we are at the end of this discussion, I want to reiterate the importance of simply pressing to increase pressing strength. The more you practice this lift, the better your bar path will be, the better your tension and bracing will be, and the better your ability to grind out a lift to completion. In the dusty volumes of muscle magazines from the middle of the 20th century, you’ll see programs like 10x3 or 8x2 with heavy weights done 3-4 days per week, or working up to a heavy single each training day followed by doubles and triples and just slightly lower weights. This was heavy, high volume, and intense training. Having all 3 dials turned up to 11 like that is usually a recipe for disaster; pressing seems to only benefit from it.

If you have put the time and effort into your press and find your progress stalling, it may be time to look at where you are lacking and fix that weak point. As with the other lifts, pick 1 or, at most, 2 movements from each category to do per training session and, when in doubt, don’t forget our formula for success:

Train the Movement  +  Strengthen the weak point(s) of the main movement =  Stronger