Today, like last Thursday, we’ll be finding a 1-rep-max strict overhead press. This is a surprisingly tricky movement. It’s not incredibly complex like a snatch, or brutally heavy like a back squat, but it is just technical enough and just heavy enough that it requires a good bit of concentration in order to perform the lift properly. So before we grab our barbells and push heavy stuff overhead, here are a few tips to keep in mind:
1. Your press is only as strong as its foundation
If you build your house on sand, it’ll sink into the earth. If you build your press on a soft core and wobbly legs, the bar won’t want to go overhead. Before the bar ever moves off of your shoulders, think about rooting your feet into the ground while bracing your quads, thighs, and abs as hard as you can. Keep your focus on maintaining this solid foundation throughout the lift, and the bar will move much more easily than it would if you were to ignore your foundation and just think about your shoulders.
2. Have a head-bangin’ good time
One of the most common mistakes I see in the press is letting the bar drift in front of your midline (the imaginary line extending straight up from the middle of your feet) as it passes your head. This places a lot of stress on your lower back and significantly weakens that foundation we just talked about. As soon as the bar passes your forehead, quickly move your head and chest forward under the bar, almost like a rocker at a death metal show. This will help you keep your foundation strong, and also allow you to use the muscles of your upper back and shoulder to help to finish off the lift.
3. Squeeze the bar
In the beginning of the lift, you want to have the bar seated firmly in the palms of your hands, and you want to squeeze the life out of that poor little piece of metal. Gripping the bar as firmly as you can helps you create tension in the starting position, and helps you create fast, powerful bar movement at the initiation of the lift. As a bonus, it also helps to fix any issues with elbow position. If you first move your elbows forward and then squeeze the bar as tightly as possible, this tends to bring the elbows down and in front of the bar with a roughly vertical forearm, which is the ideal starting position for the press.
It’s not super-fast, and it’s not super-heavy, but the press demands a lot of work from a lot of small muscles, so concentration and proper form is essential. Focusing on a good foundation, timing, and tension can help you set a new PR in this pure test of upper-body strength.
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Foundation
Part 1
Press
15 min to find 1rm
Part 2
15 min to complete:
2 x 10 tricep pressdown w/band
2 x 10 bent row
Attempt to slightly increase tricep pressdown resistance and bent row weight over last week.
WOD
Alternating Tabata:
Toes-to-bar
Pistols
The first 20-second interval is toes-to-bar, the second is pistols, the third is toes-to-bar, etc. Continue in this fashion until you’ve completed 8 intervals of each exercise (16 total). Your score is the total number of reps completed in the WOD.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
