PRESSING ISSUES

PRESSING ISSUES
By Shane Robert

No other lift has fallen from grace more than the overhead press. In the days of our grandparents, the press was the lift that determined if a person was strong. If someone walked into a gym and was asked, “How much do you press?” they didn’t mean bench; they meant overhead. This lift was so popular, in fact, that it was often said, “The shoulders make the man,”  referring to the width and roundness of one’s shoulder. 

As one of the three contested Olympic lifts, the press was considered the most important. The record holder was the king of strength, literally considered the strongest man alive. Sadly, due to questionable lift execution and judging problems, the press was removed from the Olympics after the 1972 games and was usurped by a burgeoning powerlift called the bench press, discarding it to the obscurity pile with the single-arm O-lifts and Steinborn Squats, to become the new king of exercises (to all our collective detriment). 

Those involved in fitness today should consider themselves lucky as the press is starting to make a comeback. And for good reason. No other exercise, when done with a full range of motion, builds large, shapely shoulders as well as the press. Few exercises get your shoulders stronger while training thoracic mobility at the same time; the challenge that holding and stabilizing a great weight overhead presents to your core is unparalleled. Additionally, I believe the press builds a better-looking physique than other training movements. Broad, round shoulders with a well-developed upper chest (did I mention that the chest still contributes A LOT to the press?) looks a lot better, to me than big front delts and saggy, overdeveloped mid-pecs that tend to happen with a lot of bench pressing. Plus, let’s be honest, if you can press a weight overhead, you lay down on a bench and press it. 

Except for, perhaps, 10% of people I have ever worked with, the press doesn’t make easy progress. For those lucky 10% who are natural pressers, it starts heavy and gets heavier with minimal effort. Some years ago I started working with a client who had some gym experience but had never done any overhead pressing. He was around 195 or so pounds and his first test day pressing overhead was with 250 pounds while seated with no back support! The jerk. Needless to say, his press made rapid progress off of training6 sets a month. That is not me and, likely, is not you. My press is an example of the old saying, “If you want to press a lot, you need to press a lot!”

With that in mind, below are some of the best training programs I have used myself and with clients to make progress on the press. 

5/3/1 STRONGMAN

I used this program to prep for a strongman contest I did in 2019. It included a second log pressing day, but that was mostly technique stuff and this was the main day. If you want to include something like the second day, I would suggest push presses for 6-8x2-3. 

This uses 5/3/1 style numbers and waves in an undulating manner ala Soviet methods. This is great for people who, for some reason, can only press once per week. It is a lot of work in one day and you will:

Exercise 2 – Steep incline bench (60-75 degrees) with your press grip using 60% of press max
Week 1: 2 sets x10
Week 2: 4 sets x10
Week 3: 3 sets x10
Week 4: 5 sets x10 
Repeat 2-5% heavier

PRESS A LOT 

The following program is what led me to my best-ever press of 215 at around 185-190 pounds bodyweight. It is essentially Easy Strength done multiple times per day. The rules were simple – 

Pick a weight you can do easily without the need to warm up. Never do more than 10 total reps. Never miss a rep. Add weight when it becomes easy. 

I would set up my Agile Rack each morning and put a bar loaded with weight on it. Whenever I walked past the rack, which was basically any time I got up from the dining room table that is my desk since I have a small apartment, I would do some variation of 2x5, 3x3, 5x2, or 5,3,2. This would take maybe 2 minutes and I was able to rack up many, many technically perfect reps. Once a weight felt laughably easy for 2x5 each time, I would add weight. 

Using this system, I started with 135 pounds for 3x3 and worked my way up to 180 for 2x5. I think this was probably about 6 weeks. At no time did I feel sore or tired. At no time did I struggle or feel like I couldn’t press the weight I was using. Some days I probably did 100 total reps. Other days it was 10. It all depended on my motivation. 

PREHISTORIC PRESSING

This program is straight from the dark ages of lifting when lifters were primarily concerned with getting a huge press. It was super common to see schedules like this recommended in the 1940’s-1950’s and it clearly worked. Those lifters were putting some serious weights overhead in that era. 

DAY 1
10x3 with 15-20 pounds less than your best.

DAY 2 
6x5 with 20-25 pounds less than your best.

DAY 3
8x2 with 10-15 pounds less than your best.

Try to add weight whenever you can. Each set should be hard but doable. Keep progressing as long as you can. Once progress comes to a halt and staleness sets in, take a deload with half the sets and 10% less weight, then test a new max.

RUSSIANSQUAT PRESS ROUTINE

This is a routine that I created that takes a lot of inspiration from the famous Russian Squat Routine. This differs mainly in the number of weeks that the program runs. The original was 6 weeks. This extends it out to 12 for a little more recovery and adaptation time.

With these options, you have a lot of training cycles to try or inspiration to come up with some of your own. Of course, doing some triceps work helps your press, especially at lockout, so don’t neglect it. In the end, it still holds true that, if you want to press a lot, you have to press a lot.