The overhead press is the grubby cousin of weightlifting workout routines.
Most individuals understand it exists, however not often give it consideration or pay it a lot respect. For years, it was thought of the purest take a look at of upper-body power, very like the bench press is in the present day, so why has it light into obscurity?
A number of causes.
Across the Fifties, bodybuilders started to prize chest improvement over shoulder measurement, so many weightlifters deserted the overhead press for its supine counterpart.
Then, in 1972, the Worldwide Olympic Committee lower the overhead press from the Olympics, additional reducing its reputation.
Lastly, bench press type is simpler to be taught than correct overhead press type and allows you to transfer heavier weights, making it particularly interesting to new lifters.
For those who’re prepared to go towards the grain, although, and commit time, vitality, and a focus to the overhead press, you’ll be richly rewarded in methods the bench press can’t match.
The very fact is if you wish to construct large, sturdy, well-rounded shoulders and muscular, outlined arms as shortly and successfully as attainable, you wish to get sturdy on the overhead press.
And that’s what you’ll be taught on this article.
What Is the Overhead Press?
The overhead press (also called the “OHP,” “barbell overhead press,” or just “the press”) is an upper-body train that includes urgent a barbell vertically over your head from a standing place.
Whereas the overhead press isn’t thought of one of many “Massive 3” workout routines in powerlifting, it options closely in different power sports activities resembling Olympic weightlifting, CrossFit, and strongman as a result of few workout routines are a greater indicator of upper-body power.
As such, it’s additionally a wonderful train for gaining muscle and power, which is why it’s one of many major workout routines that I advocate in my coaching applications for women and men, Greater Leaner Stronger and Thinner Leaner Stronger.
Navy Press vs. Overhead Press: What’s the Distinction?
There’s no official definition of the navy or overhead press.
Some specialists (together with power coach and creator of Beginning Power, Mark Rippetoe) distinguish the 2 primarily based on how a lot your decrease physique strikes in the course of the train. In response to them, in case your hips and again transfer, it’s an overhead press, and in case your physique stays immobile (aside out of your arms transferring overhead), it’s a navy press.
Not everybody agrees, although, which is why most individuals use the phrases interchangeably. For what it’s value, I favor “overhead press” as a result of it’s extra descriptive than “navy press,” and I’ll follow Mark’s definition on this article.
Overhead Press: Advantages
1. It trains a number of main muscle teams.
Most individuals consider the overhead press as a shoulder train.
Whereas it’s true that the overhead press trains the all three heads of the deltoids to a excessive diploma, it additionally successfully trains a number of different main muscle teams throughout your whole physique, together with your higher and decrease again, abs and core, glutes, pecs, and arms.
2. It’s ideally suited for gaining muscle and power.
If you wish to maintain getting greater, you must maintain getting stronger, and among the best methods to do that is to practice with heavy weights.
Whereas you may get a lot sturdy doing overhead urgent workout routines with dumbbells, the barbell overhead press is best suited to serving to you acquire muscle and power as a result of it’s extra balanced, which makes it simpler to deal with heavy weights; it’s simpler to arrange, so that you don’t must waste vitality or danger harm getting heavy dumbbells into place; and it lets you add weight in smaller increments, which is essential for long-term progress.
3. It might enhance athletic efficiency.
A closed-kinetic-chain train is any train the place your fingers or ft are fastened to a stationary object. The overhead press is a closed-kinetic-chain train as a result of your ft are planted on the ground.
An open-kinetic-chain train is any train the place your fingers or ft are not fastened to one thing stationary. Examples of open-kinetic-chain workout routines embrace the bench press, dumbbell shoulder press, and lat pulldown. In these workout routines, a bench or machine helps your physique, which suggests you could possibly (although seemingly wouldn’t) carry your ft off the ground and nonetheless carry out the train.
Specialists usually agree that closed-kinetic-chain workout routines, together with the overhead press, are higher at boosting sports activities efficiency than open-kinetic-chain workout routines for 3 major causes:
- They enable you develop higher steadiness and stability.
- They extra intently mimic the kind of actions concerned in sports activities. As an example, most sports activities require you to make use of your whole physique to provide drive whereas your ft are rooted to the bottom and also you’re unsupported by gear resembling a bench or machine.
- They practice extra “stabilizer” muscular tissues. For instance, the overhead press additionally requires you to contract your glutes, quads, abs, and decrease again, whereas these muscle teams aren’t skilled as a lot by the bench press.
Overhead Press: Muscle groups Labored
The primary muscular tissues labored by the overhead press are the . . .
What’s extra, the stronger you get on the overhead press, the extra you’ll must contain different muscle teams like your lats, rhomboids, serratus anterior, abs, glutes, and legs to stabilize your physique, making it a full-body train when utilizing heavier weights.
Right here’s what the primary muscular tissues labored within the overhead press appear to be in your physique:
Overhead Press: Kind
One of the best ways to learn to do the overhead press is to separate the train into three elements: arrange, press, and descend.
Step 1: Set Up
Alter the hooks in an influence rack or squat rack so the bar is across the peak of your collarbone like this:
Face the bar and grip it together with your palms going through ahead and thumbs wrapped across the bar, barely wider than shoulder-width. To take a correct overhead press grip, maintain the bar low in your fingers, nearer to your wrists than your fingers. Your wrists needs to be bent simply sufficient to permit the bar to settle into the bottom of your palms, however not folded again at a 90-degree angle.
Right here‘s how your wrists ought to look:
With the bar in your fingers, bend your knees barely and lean ahead, positioning the bar on prime of your shoulders and higher chest. Rise up, lifting the bar off the rack, and take one step again with every foot. Right here’s the way it ought to look:
Step 2: Press
Take a deep breath into your abdomen, arch your higher again sufficient so the bar is immediately over your midfoot and your head is barely behind the bar, squeeze your glutes and the bar as exhausting as you may, and push it straight up.
As quickly because the bar passes your eyes, push your head and chest ahead and beneath the bar. Maintain pushing the bar towards the ceiling till your arms are straight.
Right here’s how that sequence ought to look:
Step 3: Descend
Reverse the motion to return the barbell to its beginning place on prime of your shoulders and higher chest.
Don’t let the barbell fall again to the beginning place or attempt to decrease it slowly—all the descent needs to be managed however take lower than a second.
Right here’s the way it ought to look whenever you put all of it collectively:
The Finest Overhead Press Exercise
Right here’s an efficient shoulder exercise that prioritizes the overhead press and likewise contains different workout routines that practice your entire muscular tissues:
(And in case you’d like much more particular recommendation about what workout routines to incorporate in your coaching program to achieve your well being and health targets, take the Legion Power Coaching Quiz, and in lower than a minute, you’ll know the proper power coaching program for you. Click on right here to test it out.)
The Finest Overhead Press Alternate options
1. Dumbbell Overhead Press
The dumbbell overhead press (or “DB overhead press”) trains your shoulders, triceps, and higher chest equally to the overhead barbell press. The primary advantages of the dumbbell overhead press are that it’s good for locating and fixing muscle imbalances as a result of either side of your physique should carry the identical quantity of weight independently, and it prompts the deltoids extra and has an extended vary of movement than the barbell variation.
The downsides are that you simply in all probability gained’t have the ability to carry as a lot weight on the dumbbell overhead press, limiting the quantity you may overload your muscular tissues and sure negating any muscle-building profit you acquire.
2. Seated Overhead Press
The primary good thing about the seated overhead press over the standing overhead press is performing the train seated lets you press about 10-to-20% extra weight and progress to heavier weights quicker, which is nice for gaining muscle and power.
The draw back is that the seated overhead press is much less demanding on the core, decrease again, and glutes than the standing overhead press since you don’t must rely as closely on these muscular tissues to stabilize your physique and maintain it upright, so it’s much less of a full-body train.
3. Single-Arm Overhead Press
The single-arm overhead press (also called the “one-arm overhead press”) trains your shoulders the identical approach because the common overhead press. The distinction is that the single-arm overhead press forces your core to work a lot tougher to stabilize your torso, making it a greater ab and core train.
Utilizing one arm at a time additionally reduces how a lot weight you may press, so the single-arm variation isn’t as efficient at serving to you acquire muscle and power as different overhead press variations.
4. Machine Overhead Press
Typically talking, machines aren’t as efficient as free weights for gaining muscle and power, however the overhead press machine is a viable possibility in case you’re working round an harm, otherwise you simply wish to change up your coaching.
5. Smith Machine Overhead Press
The Smith machine overhead press is just like the seated overhead press, although it in all probability isn’t as efficient at growing your upper-body muscular tissues. That mentioned, it’s a workable overhead press variation in case you don’t have entry to a barbell, in case you’re new to weightlifting, otherwise you merely don’t wish to do the barbell model.
FAQ #1: What does the overhead press work?
The overhead press works the . . .
- Deltoids
- Trapezius
- Triceps
- Forearms
- Pectoralis main and minor
As you get stronger, you’ll contain different muscle teams like your lats, abs, serratus anterior, glutes, and legs to stabilize your physique, too.
FAQ #2: Are there overhead press requirements to goal for?
“Power requirements” are goal benchmarks for gauging your progress.
You will discover many alternative overhead press power requirements on-line, however my two favorites come from esteemed weightlifting coaches Tim Henriques and Mark Rippetoe.
Henrique’s requirements are easy, don’t require any math, and work moderately properly for most individuals.
Listed below are his overhead press requirements for males:
- First rate: 105
- Good: 165
- Nice: 225
And listed below are his overhead press requirements for ladies:
- First rate: 45
- Good: 65
- Nice: 95
One drawback with Henrique’s requirements, although, is that they don’t have in mind physique weight.
That’s why I exploit Henrique’s requirements together with Rippetoe’s yardsticks, which issue within the individual’s physique weight. Rippetoe’s additionally embrace a couple of extra “ranges,” which offer you extra milestones to shoot for as you get stronger.
Listed below are his overhead press requirements for males:
And listed below are his overhead press requirements for ladies:
FAQ #3: Does the overhead press work your chest?
Sure.
The overhead press trains shoulder flexion (transferring your arms out of your sides to above your head by lifting them in an arc in entrance of you), and one of many major muscle teams accountable for shoulder flexion is the pecs (notably the sternocostal head of the pecs, or “higher chest”).
FAQ #4: Is the behind-the-neck overhead press a superb overhead press various?
The behind-the-neck overhead press is just like the overhead press, besides as a substitute of touching the bar to your chest, you decrease it so far as you comfortably can behind your head.
Many individuals say the behind-the-neck press is a harmful train, assured to trigger shoulder harm, however the actuality is much less dramatic. Though these with poor shoulder mobility can irritate their shoulders and neck muscular tissues with this train, many can do it with out discomfort.
That mentioned, the behind-the-neck press forces you to make use of considerably much less weight and doesn’t supply any benefits over the overhead press, which is why I don’t advocate it.
FAQ #5: Overhead Press vs. Shoulder Press: Which is best?
Neither train is best or worse than the opposite.
Though each workout routines really feel fairly completely different, they practice the identical muscular tissues to an analogous diploma, so you should utilize them interchangeably in your exercises.
After all, there’s no cause to decide on only one. The perfect answer for most individuals is to incorporate each workout routines in your program.
A great way to do that is to incorporate the overhead press in your program for 8-to-10 weeks of coaching, take a deload, then exchange the overhead press with the shoulder press for the next 8-to-10 weeks of coaching.
Then, you may both proceed alternating between the workout routines each few months like this or stick to the one you favor.
That is how I personally like to prepare my coaching, and it’s just like the strategy I advocate in my health books for women and men, Greater Leaner Stronger and Thinner Leaner Stronger.
FAQ #6: Push Press vs. Overhead Press: Which is best?
It relies upon.
The purpose of the push press is to generate simply sufficient momentum to assist get the bar off the shoulders and thru the primary few inches of motion, the place it’s most certainly to get caught. From there, your shoulders and arms do all of the work.
This lets you use heavier weights than with the standing overhead press with out decreasing the vary of movement a lot, which helps you acquire power that you should utilize to enhance your “strict” overhead press numbers.
Thus, the push press isn’t higher or worse than the overhead press, however it’s a helpful “accent” train that you should utilize to spice up your overhead press efficiency.
FAQ #7: What’s the overhead press world file?
The barbell overhead press isn’t formally tracked in the identical approach that workout routines just like the squat, deadlift, and bench press are, which suggests there isn’t an official overhead press world file.
Cheick “Iron Biby” Sanou set the world file within the log press (an analogous train to the overhead press that includes lifting a log from the ground, balancing it in your higher chest and shoulders, then urgent it above your head) with a 229-kilo (504.8-pound) log press on the Giants Stay World Tour Finals on September 18, 2021.
+ Scientific References
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- Kroell, J., & Mike, J. (2017). Exploring the standing barbell overhead press. Power and Conditioning Journal, 39(6), 70–75. https://doi.org/10.1519/SSC.0000000000000324
- Schoenfeld, B. J., Peterson, M. D., Ogborn, D., Contreras, B., & Sonmez, G. T. (2015). Results of Low- vs. Excessive-Load Resistance Coaching on Muscle Power and Hypertrophy in Properly-Skilled Males. Journal of Power and Conditioning Analysis, 29(10), 2954–2963. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0000000000000958
- Soriano, M. A., Suchomel, T. J., & Consolation, P. (2019). Weightlifting Overhead Urgent Derivatives: A Evaluate of the Literature. Sports activities Medication (Auckland, N.Z.), 49(6), 867. https://doi.org/10.1007/S40279-019-01096-8
- Kwon, Y. J., Park, S. J., Jefferson, J., & Kim, Okay. (2013). The Impact of Open and Closed Kinetic Chain Workouts on Dynamic Steadiness Skill of Regular Wholesome Adults. Journal of Bodily Remedy Science, 25(6), 671. https://doi.org/10.1589/JPTS.25.671
- Kim, M. Okay., & Yoo, Okay. T. (2017). The consequences of open and closed kinetic chain workout routines on the static and dynamic steadiness of the ankle joints in younger wholesome girls. Journal of Bodily Remedy Science, 29(5), 845–850. https://doi.org/10.1589/JPTS.29.845
- Waller, M., Piper, T., & Miller, J. (2009). Overhead urgent energy/power actions. Power and Conditioning Journal, 31(5), 39–49. https://doi.org/10.1519/SSC.0B013E3181B95A49
- Schwanbeck, S., Chilibeck, P. D., & Binsted, G. (2009). A comparability of free weight squat to Smith machine squat utilizing electromyography. Journal of Power and Conditioning Analysis, 23(9), 2588–2591. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0B013E3181B1B181
- Baig MA, & Bordoni B. (n.d.). Anatomy, Shoulder and Higher Limb, Pectoral Muscle groups – StatPearls – NCBI Bookshelf. Retrieved July 28, 2022, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK545241/
